The Beachcomber (1954)

Director:

Muriel Box

Writers:

Sydney Box (writer)
W. Somerset Maugham (story)

Release Date:

10 August 1954 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Tagline:

W. Somerset Maugham's Trouble-Making Love-Making Tramp of the Tropics

Plot:

Mr. Gray is the new Resident in Charge of the Welcome Islands in the Indian Ocean. The Islands are full of life...

Plot Keywords:

Island | Beautiful Woman | Remake

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Glynis Johns	...	Martha Jones
Robert Newton	...	Edward 'Honorable Ted' Wilson
Donald Sinden	...	Ewart Gray
Paul Rogers	...	Owen Jones
Donald Pleasence	...	Tromp
Walter Crisham	...	Vederala
Michael Hordern	...	The Headman
Auric Lorand	...	Alfred, Major Domo
Tony Quinn	...	Ship Captain
Ah Chong Choy	...	Wang the Barkeep
Ronald Lewis	...	Headman's Son
Jean Rollins	...	Amao
Lizabeth Rollins	...	Girl at Maputiti
Michael Mellinger	...	Medical Orderly

Runtime:

USA:82 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

London Independent Producers

Movie Connections:

Remake of Vessel of Wrath (1938)

On the Beach

There were two reasons why I looked forward to seeing 'The Beachcomber'. They were Robert Newton and Glynis Johns. Newton, off-screen a roisterer in the Richard Burton, Trevor Howard mould gave full-blooded performances in movies like 'Blackbeard the Pirate' and 'Treasure Island' and I loved his outrageous, eye-rolling style. And Glynis Johns has one of those scratchy, sexy voices that I find almost irresistible.

Imagine my disappointment to find Ms Johns playing a pious missionary nurse with a Welsh accent and no opportunity to sound sexy. Mind you she was nothing if not versatile, at one stage performing an appendectomy while later healing an elephant's injured trunk. And Newton, ideally cast as a drunken remittance man (the 'black sheep' of an upper class English family being paid to stay away) is at half power throughout, missing every chance for histrionics.

There's some pleasant location Technicolor photography in the pacific islands and a bar-room brawl hammier than anything john Ford ever choreographed for Messrs. Wayne and McGlagen but the practice of blacking up Donald Pleasance, Ronald Lewis and possibly others to play natives is always offensive.

The plot from usually interesting Somerset Maugham is just the old chestnut about the redemptive power of a good woman's love. Though there is another moral to the story – 'an elephant never forgets'