Island Captives (1937)

User Rating:

(awaiting 5 votes)

Director:

Glenn Kershner

Writer:

Al Martin (story)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Romance

Tagline:

A SOUTH SEA ISLAND ROMANCE PACKED WITH THRILLS!

Plot:

A murdered businessman's daughter is shipwrecked on a jungle island with the son of the man who killed her father. Both are threatened by a smuggling ring that uses the island as its headquarters. |

Plot Keywords:

Island | Businessman | Smuggling | Archive Footage | Sea Storm

Cast

Edward J. Nugent	...	Tom Willoughby (as Eddie Nugent)
Joan Barclay	...	Helen Carsons
Henry Brandon	...	Dick Bannister
Charles King	...	Kelly
Forrest Taylor	...	C.B. Hudson
Carmen Laroux	...	Taino (as Carmen La Roux)
Frederick Farmer	...	Sparks Graham
John Beck	...	George Carsons
John Sheehan	...	Island Police Commandant (as John Sheean)

Runtime:

53 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Hawaii, USA

Company:

Falcon Pictures Corporation

a "pretty good" island adventure

I'm just AMAZED that this made it to DVD... but maybe the exotic locale combined with a simple love story had something to do with it. Island Captives stars Eddie Nugent as Tom Willoughby and Joan Barclay as Helen Carsons. Helen is on a ship that goes down on the way to visit her father, who has a crop growing and export business on Tahiti. Bad things happen, and Helen must confront the local corruption which seems to be everywhere, led by the head honcho, played by Charles King. They are helped and hurt by the honcho''s island girl Taino (although it sounds like they all say "Taio"), played by Carmen LaRoux. She had made Desert Trail with John Wayne in 1935, but died young at 30. Much of the action happens in the bar, which was quite large and well constructed for a south sea island. According to IMDb, this was the only film that Glenn Kershner ever directed, even though he lived to be 100, and had been in the business since 1924. Kershner must have loved Hawaii, since that's where he died, where many of the scenes in Island Captives appear to be from, either live or stock footage. Sound quality, photography, and film condition are just miserable; it's like this was the first talkie ever made, but if you are willing to look past that, the acting, and a pretty loose script, then it's a "pretty good" south sea adventure, which was probably pretty rare for those days. It's SHORT -- only 53 minutes, and about a quarter of THAT is beach shots of Hawaii, and L-O-N-G extended shots of the men standing holding the fishing nets and climbing the palm trees.