On the Isle of Samoa

This B picture has low, low, really low production values. The plot would have us believe there was an island in the South Pacific that was totally untouched by Western civilization, let alone by the Pacific Theater in World War II, where the Japanese and Americans were looking for each other in every nook and cranny.

Much of the film footage is lifted from other films. In the scenes of the islanders' celebrations, one portion looked like it was from a silent film; another showed characters who were obviously supposed to be African, then segued back to Polynesian-looking people.

The main character steals an airplane, which crashes on an island in the Samoan chain during a hurricane. An unintentionally funny part of the film is caused by the borrowing of all the film footage. The aircraft keeps changing. On the ground before take-off, it's a DC-3. Then when airborne, it becomes an odd type of 1930s aircraft I can't identify with a double-decker tail. Then, it becomes a Lockheed Electra when flying in the sunshine above the clouds, then changes back to the odd aircraft when flying in a dark storm. When the plane begins to dive, it's back to the Lockheed again, but then back to the odd aircraft when crashing down into the jungle.

I thought that odd aircraft looked familiar, then I remembered having seen it in RKO's 1939 film, "Five Came Back". I viewed that film to confirm that the footage was taken directly from that film.

What would a South Sea island movie be without an erupting volcano? At least the plot didn't have a virgin to be thrown into it. The volcano footage looks suspiciously like that in United Artists' "One Million B.C." (1940) with a little film trickery added.

Fortunately, this film is only about one hour long. Don't blame the actors for the quality of this film. Blame the producer and the scriptwriters. If you absolutely have nothing better to do, you might be able to stand watching this film.