Hell's Island

After 99 River Street and Kansas City Confidential, world-weary bruiser John Payne teams up with director Phil Karlson for Hell's Island, this time in VistaVision (Payne apparently had the foresight to see that television would become a profitable market for color films). After being jilted, Payne drank himself out of a job in the L.A. district attorney's office and now serves as bouncer in a Vegas casino. A wheelchair-bound stranger (Francis L. Sullivan) engages him to locate a ruby that disappeared in a Caribbean plane crash; the bait is that it may be in the possession of the woman (Mary Murphy) who jilted him. Payne flies off to Santo Rosario and into a web of duplicity at whose center Murphy waits (she does the "femme" better than she does the "fatale," however). There's a splendid moment when she shuts up her doors and draws the curtains on the memory of her rich busband, now in a penal colony across the subtropical waters for supposedly causing the deadly crash. The movie's texture is spun from Payne's carrying a torch that fails to illuminate the amplitude of clues and warning signals all around him. Professionally done if not especially memorable, Hell's Island remains an enjoyable color noir -- the Payne/Karlson combo rarely disappoints.

John Payne was engaged to Mary Murphy. She left him for a rich man, so Payne replaced her with a dive into the bottle. Eventually he came out of it as a bouncer in a Vegas gambling casino in a tux. Francis L. Sullivan offers him $5000 to go to a small Caribbean island, where Miss Murphy's husband has a very expensive gem belonging to Sullivan, and is in prison for murdering a man.

It's a color film noir of the beat-them-up variety, complete with Payne waking up in a cell with sharks around... providing a link from melodramas to James Bond. Payne had spent the 1930s and 1940s as a contract player, but as he aged, he moved into more violent roles, with some nice work that kept him in the leading man category, but not quite a major star. He was the first Hollywood figure to be sufficiently interested in James Bond to option one of the novels. His movie career ended in the 1960s and he spent the rest of his career doing high-profile guest shots on TV. He died at age 77 in 1989.

A guy gets hired to find someone's ruby and some stuff happens. Sorry to be so vague, but it's a nondescript kind of movie. Very familiar scenario with the usual shadowy characters, convoluted backstory, femme fatale, double-crosses, witnesses suddenly getting killed, and so forth. It's executed well enough but has little spark. Earlier Phil Karlson directed John Payne in 99 RIVER STREET and KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL, both much more exciting and memorable films. Not that Payne is bad here, nor is the direction, it's just a meh movie. It is a joy to see Francis L. Sullivan... although he doesn't much screen time, he does have a hell of an exit scene. As for the visual style, it's a VistaVision Technicolor production... unfortunately my copy was fullscreen, faded and damaged, so I can't really comment. Worthwhile if you really need a noir fix, but pretty bland.

Looks like Paramount decided to make a version of The Maltese Falcon (1941), in Vista Vision, no less. Frankly, I would have preferred good old b&w for the noir material, but then who's going to leave their new-fangled 1955 TV for more b&w. The plot may be familiar— a ruthless spider woman tricks a fall guy for insurance money– but it's still slickly done. Then too, Payne grimaces appropriately as schemes unfold around him, while Murphy looks the part of a deadly bon-bon. Still, she lacks that inner spider dimension that Mary Astor revealed so tellingly in the original. And what about ex-wrestler Sandor Szabo as what else but a gruesome thug.

I had trouble following all the twists and turns of who did what to whom, but I guess it all got explained in the wrap. Too bad production didn't work in more raw evil since director Karlson can really make you feel it. No this is no Phenix City Story (1955) or Kansas City Confidential (1952), the culmination of Karlson's career, at least in my little book. But the results are still engaging, thanks to Payne, a sensually recumbent Murphy, and a fat guy not named Sydney Greenstreet.

Perhaps it aided in my final enjoyment of Hell's Island in that I had very low expectations going into it. Payne, Murphy, and Sullivan are all very good in their respective roles and delivered from start to finish. Not all, but several of the minor/supporting performances/characters also provided ongoing interest as well. While many reviewers described the story as familiar, for me it didn't come across that way. Perhaps it was a combination of the setting and direction, along with a few moments of solid dialogue, but I found Hell's Island quite enjoyable from beginning to end. Great, no, but enjoyable yes. Check it out and see for yourself.