Enchanted Island

This odd adventure film, set in the tropics and probably shot in Hawaii, stars the horrendously miscast Dana Andrews as a lawless sailor who falls in love with an island maiden, essayed here by whiter than white Jane Powell in an equally turgid performance. I can't comment on the faithfulness of the adaptation, as I haven't read Melville's novel Typee, but Enchanted Island looks cheap (regardless of the colourful locales), is poorly acted, and is thoroughly dull. Even Jorge Stahl's colour cinematography looks like it was shot on leftover stock or 'ends'. A less than satisfactory late career move by director Allan Dwan, Enchanted Island is only for extremely loyal Andrews completists.

This movie was Alan Dwan's 406th as director. It was also his next to last. It stars a sozzled Dana Andrews as a sailor who has jumped ship on a tropical Island and Jane Powell as the Polynesian princess he falls in love with. She is, of course, the member of a tribe of cannibals.

The script takes Herman Melville's turgid novel about religion masquerading as evil and vice versa, and converts it into a brightly-lit Technicolor adventure story. Like others of Dwan's movies of the period, it combines a lesson about duality -- I'm not sure what the lesson was, but it's clearly there. Blond, slight Don Dubbins offers that contrast.

Mostly it's interesting for the way cinematographer Jorge Stahl manages to light bright greens and blues in a sepia world.

Jane Powell is a native chick who meets up with fathead Dana Andrews.

For 90 minutes everybody runs around through the jungle thicket trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The indigenous peoples are on the loose, a ship captain wants to get underway, Jane is mauled by Dana, and the audience is slapping themselves to stay awake.

Remake of an entirely different film called 'Typee' (an Indian tribe). Not much to recommend. The island warriors are terrible shots and the movie was made too early to have Jane flash her coconuts, not that she would.....

..... maybe she would now, but she's 87 years old. What guy would want to see that? Well, I would, but then I'm a horny mother-- well, never mind.

You can sometimes judge an actor or actress by how well they carry themselves in a poor film. That is the case here with Jane Powell. Aside from being so stunning, she is full of charm with some great acting qualities. She should have been a huge star in the 1950's but Hollywood made so many bad movies during this period of transition into the television age. Not only were there so few good movies made but the number of good roles for women were even harder to find. I was circumspect as to how Powell might perform in one of these natives meet the white man type of movies but she singlehandedly pulled it off and made it worth watching. Most of the film is unbearable aside from a few nice shots. The screenplay is ludicrous. That is hard to do because this about one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

This is an interesting and fun movie. Evidently filmed in the Pacific - the extras appear to be Polynesian. Typical of '50's movies, however, the stars are all white. The use of the native Polynesian language adds an element of realism. The ending is more romantic than Melville's book, but the movie appears to have kept the general feeling of "Typee" from which the story is taken. In all it is movie to enjoy.