Adventure Island (1947) User Reviews

A lot of activity but still a little dull

[Sycotron · 4/10 · 14 September 2008]

There are a lot of happenings crammed into this 66 minute film. Despite all the comings and goings, running around, fire fighting, ship sailing, natives running and danger escaping the overall film just does not move along at a very fast pace. Scenes go on for too long where there is nothing but dialog to carry them. Action scenes are shorter and leave the film feeling a bit out of balance.

The print I watched was in black and white, a little soft in the focus and too dark. Such a shame too. I would have liked to have seen clear color footage of Rhonda Fleming rising out of the ocean surf in a clinging dress. Also the ending copyright date was 1942. So either the date on this site is wrong or the film was held back from release for five years.

A number one bad guy in a number twenty movie!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 15 December 2016]

As a direct descendant of Robert Louis Stevenson's grandfather (Robert Stevenson), I had a compelling reason to watch this Technicolor film in a poor, black-and-white TV copy on a TGG Direct DVD. Well, even in muddy black-and-white, it's not too bad by the considerably less-than-humble standards of director Sam Newfield. Well, Sam is not really a director. True, he knows how to say, "Camera!" and "Action!" and "Cut!", but if super-lovely Rhonda Fleming were to ask him, "How do you want me to play this scene, Sam?" he would look at her in amazement. "Do you know your lines, Rhonda?" And she would reply, "Sure thing, Sam!" – "Well then, say them distinctly. That's all you have do! And please don't make any mistakes, as I hate to take re-takes."

Despite Sam's wishes, the movie actually took 29 days to shoot, instead of the 19 days scheduled. Delays were caused by the Technicolor consultant, Arthur Phelps (who was actually an expert with cinecolor – Technicolor's el cheapo rival) insisting that each shot had to be absolutely perfect. An accident when a hatch, accidentally loosened by Rhonda, fell on Rory Calhoun's nose, occasioning considerable bleeding, didn't help either. And actually, the best performance doesn't come from lovely Rhonda after all, but hails from Alan Napier as the island's number one bad guy. He never makes a mistake!

If you come across a decent color copy, please let us know!

A Typical B-Movie for Its Day

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 6 July 2013]

Two scoundrels, "Captain David Lochlin" (Paul Kelly) and "Mr. Huish" (John Abbot), have been forced off of a ship and left on a semi-populated tropical island to fend for themselves. They happen to save a gentleman named ""Mr. Herrick" (Rory Calhoun) from quicksand who vows to repay them for their kindness. Not long afterward a ship comes along flying a yellow flag of pestilence and in serious need of a captain to get to their destination. David Lochlin agrees to sail it to Sydney but then reneges on his promise, steals the ship and cargo, and changes course to Peru in order to sell everything there. What he doesn't realize is that the owner's daughter "Faith Wishart" (Rhonda Fleming) has been hiding in the cabin and overhears Captain Lochlin's plans. At any rate, rather than divulging the rest of the story I will just say that this turned out to be a typical B-Movie for its day. The movie is a bit short (only 66 minutes), the acting was only average and it was filmed in black and white. Now, I'm not complaining about the latter and I fully understand that color film was quite a bit more expensive during this time. But the fact is that black and white film simply doesn't do justice to Rhonda Fleming or the beautiful tropical scenery. I'm just telling it like it is. All things considered then, I rate this film as about average.

More Than a Programmer

[dougdoepke · 4 November 2018]

Plot- In the south seas, an ex-ship's captain conspires to get a new sailing ship to captain. In the process he gets a morally indebted friend to help. It seems to be working until they land on a mysterious island full of natives and one imperious white guy. Then too, who is that strange woman hiding below decks.

Despite the brief runtime (66-minutes), Paramount was likely boosting it's two rising stars with better than average programmer material. The screenplay features a complex friendship between Calhoun and Kelly, plus an emotionally conflicted Fleming. I especially like that tense quicksand struggle where the friendship is established. Trouble is Kelly has few scruples while Calhoun is basically a straight-shooter. How Calhoun manages to balance morality with friendship drives the plot line. After all, he has obligations to both. Also, the island natives prove over time to be more than atmospheric décor. Too bad that Napier's soulless island tyrant amounts to a bad guy contrivance but at least it's well performed. Then too, Fleming's role is clearly a device to inject some glamour into the proceedings.

Nonetheless, the Technicolor canvas is captivating, especially when the clipper's majestic white sails are framed against ocean and sky. All in all, the flick's better than expected for a programmer time frame. So viewers could do a lot worse.

Pearls, Provisions, and Rhonda

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 11 December 2011]

Adventure Island is a dime store version of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Ebb Tide which Paramount had already filmed on a considerably bigger budget a decade earlier. The difference between that A film and this B picture from the Pine-Thomas unit is readily noticeable.

Three derelicts on a beach get a chance to two escape imprisonment when they're offered a chance to sail a schooner with cargo that is flying a yellow flag of smallpox out of harbor. The captain and first mate are dead and it's up to Paul Kelly who used to be a captain and Rory Calhoun and John Abbott to take it out. The cargo also contains the late captain's daughter Rhonda Fleming.

This is not a happy quartet by any means and they have lots of differences of opinion until they reach an uncharted island where Alan Napier affecting the airs of an English squire rules the island because he's convinced the natives he's a god. Kind of like that other Paramount classic The Island of Dr. Moreau. He's a religious fanatic giving the natives guns and gospel while exploiting them to dive for pearls.

The main reason to see this film which is not one of the Pine-Thomas best films is Alan Napier who is having a ball with this part. If he could have he would have imported foxes to hunt.

It's not just greed over pearls and provisions it's Fleming. As a proper English gentleman and religious individual Napier is not about to go native as some of us would. But when redheaded Rhonda shows up, well let's say even the gods have their needs.

The print is washed out and the rest of the cast looks like they're waiting for the paychecks to clear from Paramount. But Napier is having a great old time gobbling away in a Thanksgiving special.

The tide has ebbed in this penny dreadful "B" action/thriller.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 28 May 2014]

The Pine-Thomas independent releases of the 1940's appear on the surface to be more important than they were because they were all released from Paramount. Of course, some of them are going to be better than the others, but for the most part, they are the equivalent of Monogram and PRC films from the same era with mostly less than adequate casts and plots, budgets that seem distinctly low, and the quality of early television. In the case of "Adventure Island", Pine-Thomas has taken an old Paramount film ("Ebb Tide", based upon a story by Robert Louis Stevenson) and given it a streamlined remake with one-dimensional characters and a feeling of exploitation.

The story has two sailors (Paul Kelly and Rory Calhoun) becoming involved in a smuggling ring, all of a sudden shipwrecked on a deserted island with their beautiful passenger (Rhonda Fleming), and at the mercy of a mad man (John Abbott) who makes himself a God to the people on the island and punishes those who disobey him with a cruel and unusual punishment. It is up to Kelly and Calhoun, in an effort to survive, to prove to Abbott's people that he is as human as they are, and get off the island in one piece.

The melodrama is so silly here that you spend more time shaking your head at the film than watching it, and I was also raising my eyebrows so far back, I was afraid my eyes might get stuck inside looking up. Fleming and Calhoun provide definite eye-candy, but the characters played by Kelly and Abbott are so one-dimensional that they become more like cartoon characters than actual people. Then, there's the disturbing way Abbott disposes of his enemies. This is a tough film to get through, and it is barely over an hour.

a drunkard as the sidekick: the director's trademark

[Cristi_Ciopron · 3/10 · 7 December 2015]

Rhonda Fleming was yummy, and the girl from the island was good-looking, too, and these two women, together with Napier's nonchalance and smooth performance as the soft-spoken governor are the good things in the movie, and it takes Newfield to make such a trite one, and to this half-wit have been handed very many movies, and his use of pseudonyms might perhaps give off that he was aware of his quality; a few actors, like Napier and Kelly, do what they can with the novel's leftovers (Napier's look seems a wry homage to the novelist). But Newfield was so obviously insensitive and indifferent to the plot, and uninspired to manage it, it's like having the cameras on automatic pilot; yet the business was such, that even Newfield got hired, and made tens of movies with Crabbe, McCoy, Steele, several with Brown, Boyd, Zucco, and in movies like this one you can see that he wasn't making concessions, but was simply wholly untalented. The sailors arrive on the island after more than half of the movie.

Napier plays the insane governor who has bewitched the natives of an island.

I have seen it copyrighted '42.

Despite the cheapness of the production, I liked it!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 20 June 2018]

Sam Newfield directed and produced a ton of cheapo films during his career. So, when I saw he was responsible for this movie, I just assumed it was cheap crap....and I am glad I was only half right! While the film was made on a tiny budget, it turns out to be a good film...one well worth your time, particularly if you like seeing actors playing against type. What I mean by this is that the normally urbane British actors, John Abbott and Alan Napier, play folks nothing like their usual characters. Abbott plays a sociopathic alcoholic and Napier plays a megalomaniac with visions of godhood! Talk about playing against type!!

When the story begin, three losers (Rory Calhoun, Paul Kelly and John Abbott) meet up and form a strange partnership to pilot a ship to Sydney. However, soon after the trip begins, Herrick (Calhoun) realizes his two new friends and partners are complete rogues who plan on stealing the ship and cargo! But Herrick is an honorable rogue and insists they deliver the ship...as does the old skipper's daughter (Rhonda Fleming). However, during the course of this trip they're all in for a surprise...the cargo is fake and the ship was supposed to be scuttled. The only thing that stopped this was the unexpected death of the first captain.

Now with a boat of worthless water (instead of champagne), the group make their way towards an island they just discovered off the normal trade routes. This island is a major find....there are valuable pearls to be had there. But there is one serious problem...the island is controlled by a cold maniac (Napier) and he's got the locals convinced he's some sort of god! What's next....especially when this 'god' takes a liking to the lady and insists she stay??

I liked this film for two main reasons: the characters played by Napier and Abbott as well as the violence level in the film. It's not exactly gratuitous but folks get killed by snakes, acid and all sorts of nastiness which sure keeps your attention! The script is also surprisingly good and the film well worth your time...unlike MOST of the director's other work.

Fast-paced "B" Island adventure

[dcole-2 · 9/10 · 28 December 2006]

Sam Newfield, here working under the nom de plume of Peter Stewart, actually has a good cast and decent script this time out. All those involved acquit themselves well. For any of you familiar with Mr. Newfield, who'd shoot a movie in 3 days and frequently have lots of people standing around talking for indefinite periods of time, this is a welcome surprise. The film moves fast, the actors are all good (OK, Rory Calhoun is a little stiff, but he's the good guy, so get over it)and there's actually some character development (former drunk skipper Kelly who finds redemption). They don't get to the island of the title till two-thirds of the way through, but that won't bother you. Alan Napier then appears and steals the show in a sinister performance. It's a lot of fun and doesn't betray its low budget origins.

Early Days For Rory Calhoun and Rhonda Fleming

[boblipton · 6/10 · 22 December 2018]

Three beachcombers are thrown in jail for stealing the governor's pigs. They're let out on condition that Paul Kelly captain a schooner bound for Australia carrying a cargo of champagne; her captain has just died of smallpox. He takes along John Abbot and Rory Calhoun and discovers that the captain's daughter, Rhonda Fleming, is a passenger. They also find out that it's not champagne in the hold.

It's based on THE EBB-TIDE, a novel co-written by Robert Louis Stevenson. It had been turned into a movie twice before. As directed by Sam Newfield -- under a pseudonym, since he was now working for the respectable but tight-fisted "Dollar Bills" of Paramount -- it's a pure adventure story, combining bits and pieces of other plots, like Alan Napier as the mad White ruler of the title location. Newfield had a 29-day shooting schedule, longer than he had ever had before and shoots with his usual bland efficiency. It's exciting where it's supposed to be and if you get the feeling you've seen this all before, well, that's usually the case with Pine-Thomas productions. They used up-and-coming or down-on-their-luck performers in proven stories. Also, they always turned a profit.

This film was well casted.

[oscar-35 · 2 May 2013]

*Spoiler/plot- Adventure Island, 1947. A rag-tag ship's crew members with dubious pasts get picked up from an island after a shipwreck. The rescue ship has to land on an island for provisions. The island is controlled by a British dictator who rules the island and it's natives harshly for his own demented amusement. The ships crew battles for justice.

*Special Stars- Rory Calhoun, Alan Napier, Rhonda Fleming, Paul Kelly.

*Theme- People's background's often hinder their new lives and future ambitions.

*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. Watch for several newcomers appearance like Rory Calhoun, and Rhonda Fleming.

*Emotion- This film was well casted with several recognizable established character actors and some new faces in lead roles. The plot is complex, BUT it takes time for the drama's villain to arrive in the late third reel. The script is very slow paced and is quite ordinary. This film doesn't rate very high, unless you wish to see early first film appearances.

Sam Newfield for Paramount Studios, I don't believe it !!!

[searchanddestroy-1 · 20 February 2024]

Yes folks, I still can't believe such an unbelievable thing. I guess I am dreaming...Sam Newfield, the prince, the wizard of Poverty Row Hollywood, the most prolific director of grade Z films ever. And in his latest years nearly.... Edward L Cahn, also an opponent to Newfield in terms of Z stuff, worked for big majors- Universal, Metro Goldwyn Mayer -, but it was during his early days, in the thirties, with LAW AND ORDER, for instance; but that was his early career, certainly not his latest films. Imagine Edward L Cahn working for MGM or Twentieth Century Fox in 1961 !!!! Ha ha ha Here with this Sam Newfield's movie, I still can't believe it is from Paramount, despite the presence of Rory Calhoun and Rhonda Fleming, for whom adventure films were more than an habit, a cliché.... Good little lousy picture, agreeable, fun to watch. But, why Williams Pine and Thomas worked with Sam Newfield, I guess this will remain the biggest mystery in the world, far far before thhe Great pyramids of Egypt constructions.