From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Robert Rossen
Starring
James Mason
Joan Fontaine
Dorothy Dandridge
Joan Collins
Michael Rennie
Patricia Owens
Stephen Boyd
John Williams
John Justin
Diana Wynyard
Basil Sydney
Ronald Squire
Harry Belafonte
I've said before and it deserves repeating here that above and beyond anything else, a movie needs to be entertaining or it hasn't done its primary job. Few appreciate good acting, writing, directing and the like more than I do but if I'm not entertained, I'm not likely to say I had a good time.
Island in the Sun has always been a good time to me. Along with its entertainment value, it's worth noting it has a glittering cast and a wondrously colorful location. In fact, after seeing the film the first time, I became an island lover (any island) and would one day end up living on Maui for six years.
The film was a pet project of Darryl F. Zanuck. I've mentioned him often in these pages... 20th's Century Fox's diminutive dynamo with the ever-present, over-sized cigar and a creative genius for turning out superior films. He was more concerned with who's writing them than with who's in them.
In the mid-50's Zanuck called it a day because he had grown weary of the town he had helped create. He was turning to independent production although Fox would still distribute his films. Island in the Sun was going to be first out of the starting gate for the new independent producer and he was excited.
One thing that definitely got him stirred up was the controversy he knew it would cause. British author Alec Waugh's best-seller was about four romantic entanglements in 1950's West Indies
two of which involve blacks and whites, and Zanuck couldn't wait for it to scorch the silver screen.
In 1949 he made Pinky, about a light-skinned black woman who passes as white, including a relationship with a white doctor who didn't know her truth. In 1949 that caused a sensation. He knew it would but then he copped out by hiring white actress Jeanne Crain to play the title role.
So here, some eight years later, wanting to light a firecracker under most of America and a cherry bomb under Hollywood, Zanuck decided on Island in the Sun with its racial themes but he would do it better... this time blacks would play blacks and whites would play whites. Wow, what a visionary he must have been.
When this big-name cast was announced and word got around about its theme, within days the south was choking on its black-eyed peas and fried chicken. Seriously, theater-owners were warned not to show the film. Never mind that the cameras hadn't even started rolling. We'll pick this up after we talk a little about the story.
The islands of Grenada and Barbados are the chief stand-ins for the fictional island of Santa Marta, a British crown colony. The movie opens, of course, with glorious aerial views of pristine beaches, inviting water, green mountains and picturesque fishing villages. Suddenly there's the dressed-up backside of Belafonte walking along the beach with the soundtrack of his calypso voice singing the title tune... shortly to be heard every hour on your favorite radio station.
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| Fontaine and Belafonte |
The lead roles go to Belafonte and Mason. Belafonte plays a political firebrand, a union organizer, who has just returned to his island home and decides to run for governor. Opposing him is his girlfriend Fontaine's brother-in-law, Mason, who comes from a multi-generational upper-crust white family, who is only running because he wants to ride shotgun over the island's nine-tenths black population. There's never any doubt who's the good guy and the bad guy.
Mason is married to Owens whom he wrongly suspects of having an affair with dapper doctor Rennie. Mason's sister, Collins, who doesn't seem to have anything to do except sunning, has fallen in love with Boyd, a visiting, titled Englishman. They want to marry but when she gets pregnant, she fears the family secret will get out. I mean, how will her aristocratic, all-white in-laws feel about the skin color of the baby? Harry and Meghan, stop laughing!
That's kinda funny because Harry's grandmother had Island in the Sun at one of her command performance events. Maybe it helped.
The fourth couple is Dandridge and Justin. She is a shop girl and he is an aide to the governor. They fall in love almost upon meeting (and I could hardly blame him given she is the most beautiful woman in the film).
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| Dandridge and Justin |
As the story wanders among the four couples, the drama of the political scene is played out (a campaign event is among the best) while Mason, Collins and their parents (Wynyard and Sydney) deal with this blood issue. It does result in a twist... very 50's.
Meanwhile the film becomes a murder story (my favorite section) and that brings in Williams as one of the best wily detectives. By the end, the killer has been apprehended and two couples fly off to brighter futures. The end.
Well, not quite. Let's get back to Zanuck. He caved... just like he did with Pinky. Of course, one cannot show or do much of anything at all in the romance of inter-racial couples because this was the pious fifties. We were not allowed to view these couples kissing or being in even adjoining beds. They barely touched and they didn't even say they loved one another. Dandridge and Justin go the furthest with a hug but just as he goes to kiss her (and she wants to be kissed), she turns a cheek into his. Seen today, of course, one wants to laugh.
Belafonte and Fontaine are a worse combination. They do nothing but stand around and there's no explanation for the attraction, which is hard to buy in the first place. Their attraction and/or possible history with one another goes unexplained. As characters, what would he see in his opponent's sister-in-law? As actors they are so mismatched and again, what would he see in her? He is so lusty and she is so reserved.
The story also missed the boat (if you will) with its near lack of character development. Elia Kazan, who was first approached to direct the film, declined saying the characters had no heart. He didn't care what happened to them and I kind of have to agree with that... at least with most of them.
While I have always loved this entire cast, kudos go chiefly to Belafonte, Dandridge, Mason and Williams. The charismatic Belafonte's role was the best written and I did care about his plight. I also cared about Dandridge's character who just wanted to love and be loved... much like the actress herself. Both of these actors hated making the film.
I have seen nearly every movie Mason ever made and he never disappointed and was always best in those unpleasantly suave parts and this is one of those. Williams was always pure delight, a superstar of character actors, as one knows from Dial M for Murder, Sabrina, To Catch a Thief and others.
In various biographies I have read of this cast and also Zanuck's, there may not have been any hanky-panky going on on the screen but there was plenty offscreen. The British crew found it to be one of their top favorite locations.
And one can certainly see why. The natural splendors are what they are but an enormous debt of gratitude goes to cinematographer Freddie Young who should have at least gotten a nomination from the Oscar voters.
So, yes, great cast, yummy title song, beautifully filmed and most entertaining, perhaps the cherry on the top is that Island in the Sun (and I love that title) is simply a childhood favorite that I couldn't shake if I wanted to. And I don't.
Before you go, Mr. Zanuck wants to speak with you:
Next posting:
An Italian waif
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