The Narrow Corner

The Narrow Corner has the advantage of having Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as the star and a great supporting cast, including Patricia Ellis, who never looked prettier in any of her other Warner Bros. movies. The movie also has ace director Alfred Green, who shows his stuff near the start of the movie, using rear projections to show a boat going through a storm with really high waves. This is a 1933 movie, and even coming close to showing a boat weathering high waves in a storm showed real technical skill (a skill not matched by the production crew in a later scene when Fairbanks' character navigates a boat through a narrow island reef during another storm). But then Warner Bros. kept a tight rein on budgets, so even with quick edits, Green had problems making some of the later seagoing scenes look passably authentic. Some of the later shots using boat models were just bad. But those first scenes of the boat weathering a storm were done very well for 1933. As to the story about a young man changing as he goes on a forced voyage, the story gave Warner Bros. a chance to use it its repertory company of actors in a South Seas setting. In about 70 minutes, the Depression-era movie audiences then had a chance to see characters with real problems in a distant setting. Darryl Zanuck's quitting as head of production at Warner Bros. in 1933, and the coming of the strict Production Code in 1934, ended any chance that would be more movies like The Narrow Corner. Soon, there would be mostly whitebread, asexual movies coming from Warner Bros., minus the cynicism, single entendres and negative overtones that the Code censored out of Hollywood movies.

According to Turner Classic Movies, following "The Narrow Corner" Warner Brothers dropped Douglas Fairbanks Junior's contract. While he isn't bad in the film, I could understand why. While not a bad film, it is very undistinguished and a bit bland despite its tropical locale.

When the film begins, three rogues are fleeing Australia. You really aren't sure why but the three have various dark secrets and they long for some tropical isle where they can forget their pasts. Fred (Fairbanks) is young and handsome and you wonder why he's with the doctor and sleazy captain of their boat.

The three and their tiny crew arrive at some Dutch-controlled island in the Pacific. There, surprisingly, they find some folks who speak beautiful English--including the cute and very friendly Louise (Patricia Ellis). But Fred is torn...he has fallen hard for Louise but a real nice guy, Eric (Ralph Bellamy) is already in love with her and Fred isn't the type to hurt a friend.

The tropical location was Catalina Island and despite looking warm and lush, apparently it was rather cold...and the ending must have left Fairbanks and Ellis soaking wet and freezing. Overall, not a bad film but one with many lulls and not enough to recommend you rush to see it....more a time-passer than anything else.

In Sydney, Australia, bear-drinking captain Arthur Hohl (as Nichols) is hired by likewise burping Sidney Toler (as Ryan) to take handsome Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (as Fred Blake) on an extended South Pacific Ocean voyage. Harboring some dark secret, Mr. Fairbanks must lay low for approximately a year. They pick up opium-addicted doctor Dudley Digges (as Saunders) before setting sail. After a storm, Fairbanks takes off all his clothes and swims to an island where he meets pretty Patricia Ellis (as Louise Frith). They fall in love, but she is promised to reliable Ralph Bellamy (as Eric Whittenson). The romance is strained and the otherwise interesting W. Somerset Maugham characters come across as hysterical.

**** The Narrow Corner (7/8/33) Alfred E. Green ~ Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Patricia Ellis, Ralph Bellamy, Dudley Digges

Unevenness of pace and the lack of any real pizzazz in the script keep this pre-Code effort from being engaging, despite its short run time (just 69 minutes). The film is lethargic in its setup, and eventually we see the main character's backstory in a diagonal split-screen flashback, but not until about the 45 minutes point. He's killed a man, and is now trying to keep out of sight by being taken out into the South Sea by a dyspeptic skipper, that is, until a storm takes him to an island. There he meets a young woman, her suitor, and a cantankerous old man. The film eventually rushes at breakneck speed through melodramatic events that stem from a love triangle and a couple of other subplots, but the weak setup hinders their impact. Pretty Patricia Ellis and shirtless (and at one point nekkid) Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. try to boost the sagging story and they have their moments I suppose, but it's not enough. Very forgettable.

In his efforts to find interesting roles to play during his contract days at Warner Brothers Pictures Douglas Fairbanks Jr. chose the part of Fred Blake, the troubled repentant hero of W.Somerset Maugham's novel 'The Narrow Corner'. As adapted by Robert Presnell and directed by Alfred E.Green, the story has young Doug,a former playboy pressured by his wealthy father to escape a manslaughter charge in Australia until the heat is off.The young man is spirited away aboard a disreputable schooner captained by an even less reputable skipper who has been paid to keep him distant from the law and further involvement with troublesome females.But,as fate would have it,after surviving a typhoon,the little ship puts in for repairs at an island paradise peopled by Danish settlers. Through the kindness of the inhabitants and particularly by the innocence of lovely Patricia Ellis and the comraderie of Ralph Bellamy,Fairbanks Jr. begins to mature as a responsible adult.However, tragedy lurks just around the corner.

The essential philosophy and moral of novelist Maugham is retained throughout this wonderful film.In great supporting roles are Arthur Hohl as the coarse,vulgar skipper,Reginald Owen as the girl's eccentric father, and Dudley Digges as the world-weary,opium-addicted physician.The film was remade with plot differences a few years later as 'Isle of Fury' with Humphrey Bogart!