Enchanted Island

"Mutiny On The Bounty" with an enema. Wonder if being in ghastly crap like this drove Dana Andrews to drink or if the bottle steered him to the movie steerage, so to speak? Probably the later, but oh my god what a long, depressing end to a great acting career! Almost Kay Francis-like, huh? And as long as we're on the general subject of artistic declension how about this film's director, Alan Dwan, one of Hollywood's better dream meisters, whose attitude toward the female Polynesians in this, his penultimate, film resembles that of a drunken Shriner at a Luau? Give it a C minus.

PS...Has Hollywood ever done right by Melville? Can't think of any examples off the top of my head. I mean "Billy Budd" was embalmed Oscar bait and Huston's "Moby Dick" was just a botched job all around.

"Enchanted Island" is a decent enough film but the terrible ending...well, that ruins much of the good I'd seen in the picture up until then!

When the story begins, a crew of a 19th century merchant ship has just landed on Nuku Hiva island in the South Pacific. Despite seeming like a great place to chase the pretty native girls (or, perhaps because of it), the jerk-face Captain orders everyone back aboard the ship...they're heading out! Not surprisingly, the crew is angry as they haven't had shore leave in 14 months! In fact, a fight breaks out and two of the men, Abner and Tom (Dana Andrews and Don Dubbins) run into the interior of the island. Despite hearing that the Typee people are savage cannibals, they're treated pretty well up until the two really spoil everything.

The film is based on Herman Melville's first novel and is a modestly entertaining about life among the savages of Acapulco, Mexico where the film was actually made. However, the ending is bad in several ways-- you just have to see it to believe it...and believe me...you WILL hate it as it makes no sense at all. A sad waste because of this.

In the 1940's, minimalist Dana Andrews seemed like a real person in movies surrounded by actors... but by the mid-to-late 1950's he sometimes looked like a hired stock actor completely misplaced, especially for the Hermann Melville adaptation of Typee titled ENCHANTED ISLAND...

Where he and equally miscast Don Dubbins are two sailors from a late 19th Century ship (captained by a grouchy Ted de Corsia) that lands on the titular South Pacific location, and they aren't allowed to have fun with the loose native girls...

And for 90-minutes Andrews helps an injured Dubbins, too weak to even cross a small creek, into a jungle setting where the rest of the programmer's highlighted by Dana's far too easy male-fantasy courtship with Jane Powell as a gorgeous, blue-eyed native whose leader, Friedrich von Ledebur, may or may not be a cannibal...

Yet this matters very little since the ISLAND is too limited for an adventure; young dopey Dubbins splits too soon for a buddy-action flick; the couple has meager chemistry for a genuine romance; and with natives so friendly there's hardly any suspense, making Powell's scantily-clad garb and the pulp-novel-cover aesthetic the only ENCHANTING aspects on board.

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.

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.