East of Sumatra

Jeff Chandler always impressed me as having two expressions: one, as one overdue for a visit to the toilet and the other, relief at just having been. This film, which is thin on story, is another tough guy going to tame the wild elements, story. Chandler is at his hammy best, Marilyn Maxwell is always a delight to look at and Tony Quinn plays a Malay chief. This is not the most entertaining film you'll encounter on the late show but it has some pleasant moments about a time when tough guys could wrest fortunes out of the jungle without a worry in the world about pollution, colonial exploitation or globalization, and just making sure, they get the girl.

So-so adventure drama set in remote Sumatra , recreated in studios , and hampared by a poor script. At the beginning a striking opening sequence in which Chandler as a ruthlessly efficient tough man who shoots a member of his crew for turning up drunk and risking lives on the site by playing silly games with dynamite . Later on , the crew is packed off to prospect on a far Pacific Island , as Duke (Jeff Chandler) arrives in a island as a manager of a Malayan tin mine . Initially, the natives there are friendly, especially dancer Minyora who proves to be affianced to local ruler King Kiang (Anthony Quinn) . A series of unfortunate incidents changes Kiang's attitude to hostility, and Duke is stranded with his crew, as well as Minyora (Susan Ball , a wonderful woman , who died early at 21 by cancer) , and his old flame Lory (Marilyn Maxwell) who's also engaged to his boss (John Sutton) . Then , things go wrong , and jungle drums naturally start to throb and poisoned darts to fly . At the end takes place a tense climax in a fight with flaming torches and Machetes . For her savage kisses ... he plundered the last forgotten corner of the earth !Are romantic triangles more deadly than poisoned darts?

Drama , oriental adventure , noisy action , intrigue , a triangular romance story , in which a mining engineer goes to a little-known island to open a new mine in the jungle. Budget limitations starts to show in the awful backdrop of jungle , rocks , and matte-paintings , as their plane lands . Pleasantly filmed romantic/adventure drama , all very stiff-upper-lip , here outstanding a pretty good main and support cast. As Jeff Chandler is good as Duke Mullane who tries to open a new mine in the jungle, but the natives turn hostile , except for one gorgeous native girl . Chandler gives stature to the role , providing sincerity and bravura . Chandler was famous , until his early death , for playing Indian chief Cochise , a dignified portrait well shown in : ¨Broken arrow¨ , ¨Battle of Apache Pass¨ and ¨Taza , son of Cochise¨ . Although Chandler also played all kinds of genres , such as : ¨Return to Peyton Place¨(drama) , ¨Flame of Araby¨ (adventure) , ¨Merrill's marauders¨ (wartime , in his last film) , until his early death at 42-year-old .While Anthony Quinn plays as the island's king , a man of honour and some civilisation who has ceded the mineral rights against a promise of medical supplies for his people . Important and prestigious secondary cast such as : John Sutton as the penny-pinching head office , Jay C. Flippen , Scatman Crothers , Eugene Iglesias , Peter Graves and Earl Holliman. Along with the beautiful actress Susan Ball as a lissome dancer who is in the curvaceous shape as a jungle princess disporting herself in a rock pool ; she had a brief career , giving a below-average acting, but it doesn's mind because being gorgeous . The tragic Ball sustained a leg injury that eventually to end her life aged 21 , these ¨East of Sumatra¨, ¨War arrow¨ ,¨Chief Crazy Horse¨ both of them directed by George Sherman , resulted to be his last films .

The motion picture was regularly directed by Budd Boetticher who has since become a cult figure and he was a Western expert . His first Western was in 1949 called The Wolf Hunters, following Cimarron Kid , Bronco buster , Horizons West , Seminole, and Wings of the hawk . In 1956 with 7 Men From Now starts his collaboration with Randolph Scott, along with producer Harry Joe Brown and writer Burt Kennedy , including prestigious titles as Tall T, Decision at sundown, Buchanan rides alone , Ride lonesome, Comanche station , among others. His last Western was in 1969 titled A time for dying with Audie Murphy. Rating 5/10 . The movie will appeal to adventure aficionados and Jeff Chandler fans .

Duke Mullane (Jeff Chandler), manager of a Malayan tin mine, goes to a little-known island to open a new mine in the jungle. Initially, the natives are friendly, especially dancer Minyora (Suzan Ball), who is soon to be married to local ruler King Kiang (Anthony Quinn). The problem is she's too friendly and comes on strong at poor Duke ( what can a man do!!). He resists as he knows Kiang gets green eyed quick and can get mad ...

A series of unfortunate incidents changes Kiang's attitude to hostility, such as the fire started with Duke's match found nearby. Naturally, Kiang thinks it's Duke's doing, thus Duke is stranded with his crew, Minyora, and his old flame Lory (Marilyn Maxwell), who is engaged to his boss, as Kiang intends to let them starve. He destroys their plane ... things are going to get worse quick ...

Romantic triangles, poisoned darts, an idiotically pompous boss who hates the hero, a jeolous King and a flirty native lady who likes to get the temperatures up! It's all here in this solid adventure yarn that builds its characters and the situation steadily, though it can get talky and nothing really thrilling happens in the first half - in the second half, things pick up in terms of excitement. The blowdart hitting Chandler's men came across painful as the recipient of the sharp little things expressed absolute pain! A little grittiness there. The fight between Chandler and Quinn in the finale is really well-staged and exciting.

Western specialists wrote and directed this NON western movie; I speak of Budd Boetticher behind the camera and Louis L'Amour for the story. It is not a western but it could be in the pace and characters depiction, symphony. It is tough, efficient, fast paced, and offering a Jeff Candler in great shape, facing Anthony Quinn, for the first and only time in his career. Yes, good adventure film that proves Boetticher was not only good in westerns. Not big surprises though. So, don't get too much excited, just sit, have a good drink and enjoy. Excellent production design. Very rare gem, strangely, even unavailable on DVD. I took it from a French channel in the eighties.

Although directed by Budd Boetticher, East of Sumatra is obviously not a western. It is a film of adventure, romance and violent conflict set on a small, imaginary island to the east of the known and already exploited Indonesian archipelagos. This time it was not rubber, oil, gold, or emeralds that the businessmen who traveled the world in search of riches or raw materials for the insatiable jaws of Western industries, and us, the consumers, coveted.

In this case, the mecca of the expedition led by the rough operator of the company, Duke Mullane (Fred Chandler), was the obtaining of tin, to make bronze and material for soldering electronic circuits. The island is inhabited by aborigines with whom one must negotiate to obtain labor and prevent them from starting a war against these intruders from the West. The king of the tribe is Kiang, played by Anthony Quinn, about to begin his most brilliant stage as a character actor and movie star.

Duke Mullane is saddled with a badly ended love affair with Lory Hale (Marylin Maxwell) who is at that juncture the fiancée of Mullane's chief, Daniel Catlin played by the ever menacing John Sutton. And of course, Mullane gets entangled with the future queen and fiancée of Kiang, the half-breed Myniora (Suzan Ball) who, dancing in honour of the guests, set fire to the studio that simulated the residence of the tribe of suspicious aborigines.

There are other familiar faces in the cast, the efficient veteran Jay C Flippen and the then young Earl Holliman credited as Henry Earl Holliman. And there is also Peter Graves, in a supporting role without relief but who acted efficiently, as Mullane's loyal and balanced assistant, Cowboy.

I am a fan of the Hollywood classics of the 1930 - 1960 period and it is very difficult to be objective when watching these films. There are always familiar faces, like images from a huge family photo album, and the mind finds delight in re-evoking those old films. Even if they are not perfect.