Enchanted Island

It's Nukuheva 1842 in the South Seas. The crew of a passing ship is collecting supplies. Their demanding captain refuses to give the men shore leave with the beautiful island girls. Abner (Dana Andrews) and Tom (Don Dubbins) decide to jump ship and head for their imagined paradise.

This is a B-movie and it's a rather boring one. It's more important as one of the last few production by RKO before its bankruptcy. It's a fitting movie to show the decline of the once great studio. It's got great palm trees in the Acapulco adjacent locations. That's the best part of the movie.

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.

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.

Jane Powell and Dana Andrews star in this exotic, south seas story by Herman Melville. Sailor Aber Bedford falls for island beauty "Fayaway". Mean whaler captain Vangs tells the men they have only ONE hour ashore. There's a cheesy fight scene on the beach, when two of the sailors decide to stay on the island, but that's the beginning of the trouble. One of them has an infection from a knife wound, and they have stumbled into the cannibal part of the island. Don Dubbins is "Tom", the wing man. I think part of the charm of this film is that not many people were traveling in the 1940s and 1950s, so seeing a film about "south sea adventures" was extra fun. The story itself is okay. But why would sailors WANT to stay in the village where they could be killed by the natives? They had numerous chances to leave. Run-of-the-mill love story. Boy meets native girl. Boy falls for native. Can this work out, or will their traditions get in the way? Directed by Allan Dwan... he only directed one more film after this one. Pretty good film, mostly for the island adventure theme.

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.