When an airplane pilot by the name of "Roy Atkins" (Archie Twitchell) goes missing somewhere in the South China Sea two other pilots named "Bob Mitchell" (Ray Milland) and "Jimmy Wallace" (Lynne Overman) are ordered to fly over a certain area in search of him. Unfortunately, they encounter a storm while doing so and have to crash land on what appears to be an unpopulated, volcanic island. Not long afterward they meet an attractive young woman by the name of "Tura" (Dorothy Lamour) who has with her a chimpanzee and lion cub as her only companions. But what they don't realize at the time is that extremely hostile natives occasionally visit the island from time to time and that their lives are in great danger if discovered by them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather dated film which didn't really get interesting until about halfway through. Likewise, although the scenery was nice I didn't especially care for the performance of Lynne Overman who became somewhat annoying quite early on in the movie. That being said, while it wasn't a bad film by any means, I honestly expected better and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.
5 Reviews
Oh Lamour Lamour..... welcome to Mill and.
mark.waltz16 December 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This silly melodrama starts off o.k. and is pretty cute until the entrance of a despicable villain played by J. Carroll Naish. It all starts when pilot Ray Milland crash lands on a tropical island where Princess Dorothy Lamour rules with the aide of a cute lion cub and a mischievous chimpanzee. She greets Mill and by tossing a knife at him while the chimp tosses coconuts.
Romance ensues almost immediately but is threatened by Naish's arrival with a battalion of angry natives. This leads to Lamour, Mill and and his comical sidekick Lynne Overman all being held captive ad approaching alligators prepare for a meal of human flesh by clicking their chops. Silliness abound with Lamour looking fetching in her sarong and wearing lipstick presumably made out of berries.
The first half gives way to stereotypical native uprisings with a twist towards the end involving the sudden introduction of Milland's hi- fallutin' fiancée. This just stretches out the plot and takes the action aboard ship to get it off the island. Overman's schtick gets tiresome after a while. Colorful but only slightly camp, this is slightly disappointing considering all the hype I've heard about this over the years.
Romance ensues almost immediately but is threatened by Naish's arrival with a battalion of angry natives. This leads to Lamour, Mill and and his comical sidekick Lynne Overman all being held captive ad approaching alligators prepare for a meal of human flesh by clicking their chops. Silliness abound with Lamour looking fetching in her sarong and wearing lipstick presumably made out of berries.
The first half gives way to stereotypical native uprisings with a twist towards the end involving the sudden introduction of Milland's hi- fallutin' fiancée. This just stretches out the plot and takes the action aboard ship to get it off the island. Overman's schtick gets tiresome after a while. Colorful but only slightly camp, this is slightly disappointing considering all the hype I've heard about this over the years.
Crocodiles
januszlvii26 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Her Island Romance is a very strange movie. You would think with that title it would be a romance film, but although there is romance and ( Spoilers ahead) Island girl Tula ( Dorothy Lamour) does end up with pilot Bob ( Ray Milland), the scenes with the sacrifice to the crocodiles ( and there are double digit crocodiles in the movie) and the volcano eruption and the death of the Island natives are the ones you will remember. Tula who is an Island Princess is used as the means to sacrifice girls to the crocodiles by bad guy Kuasa (J. Carrol Naish). This scene reminds me of Black Moon where Juanita ( Dorothy Burgess) essentially does the same thing. Of course, Tula gets a better outcome then Juanita who is killed by her husband, because she was going to kill her daughter. The biggest problem with the film is Lynne Overman who was the comedy relief. His voice was aggravating. One major plus is not having Tula be able to speak English ( makes it work better), and the chimpanzee really works well and is not window dressing, I give it 7/10 stars. A good but not great movie:
The Sarong Girl does it again!
dougandwin7 August 2004
How well I remember first seeing this movie over 60 years ago, and the climatic scene of the volcanic eruption and the crocodile invasion has stuck with me ever since. It was Dorothy Lamour's third movie in which she spends all her time in a sarong, and does it very well - the second time they put Ray Milland with her also!. The story is fairly hackneyed, but the film looks great in Technicolor, and the visual effects for 1938 are quite good. I enjoyed the principals, along with the supporting cast of Lynne Overman (who apparently had to be in every epic produced by Paramount) , and J. Carrol Naish as the required villain who kidnapped Dorothy as a child, and of course, gets his come-uppance in a spectacular way. A good way to spend and hour and a half, but cannot be taken seriously.
Pretty, pretty, pretty!
HarlequeenStudio26 March 2018
Trigger warning - this film contains the sweetest kissing and the cutest Ray Milland ever! I could watch Dorothy Lamour play with him on the beach for two straight hours, but they had to come up with some plot and soon enough there's this army of extras interrupting their foreplay. And just when you think they spoiled it, Dorothy emerges from all that mess in a spectacular ceremonial outfit and then some horrific action Indian Jones style follows. Photography is like a dream and highlights the beauty of the main protagonists so much so that it can cause serious hyperventilation - be warned.
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