Appointment in Honduras (1953) User Reviews

Weak Adventure Drama

[IlyaMauter · 5/10 · 5 May 2003]

Steve Corbett (Glen Ford) is given a mission to find a former Honduras president who was recently deposed in a result of a coup d'etat in order to give him money that will help him to come back to power. In order to do that he is made to join a group of prisoners who were being transported on a boat, force the captain to take them to the shore and set them free, taking as hostages an American couple (played by Ann Sheridan and Zachary Scott) and embark on a dangerous journey through Central American jungle in order to fulfill his mission whatever the cost.

Though the film has it's interesting moments, such as location shots of the jungle and it's inhabitants, the story is weak with uninteresting characters not managing to convince one to care for them. 5/10

A slog through the jungle for everyone, with Rodolfo Acosta bringing along a cheerful lack of conscience

[Terrell-4 · 6/10 · 25 August 2008]

For a Glenn Ford junkie, which is easy for me to be with the films he made in the late Forties and early Fifties, Appointment in Honduras is a temptation hard to resist. Ford hadn't become a superstar yet. Most of his movies during this period had decent budgets and solid co-stars. A lot of them were adventures and westerns. Appointment in Honduras, however, has a lot of clichés to overcome before you can decide if Ford makes it worthwhile. In fact, next to Ford, the best thing about the movie is Rodolfo Acosta who plays Reyes, a murdering bandito who has charm and ruthlessness. Compared to Ford's stalwart integrity and firm- jawed decisiveness, Acosta's cheerful lack of conscience makes the movie interesting.

Ford co-stars with Ann Sheridan and Zachary Scott. They re passengers on a tramp freighter carrying five prisoners to Nicaragua. Jim Corbett (Ford), a tough guy with more grease on his hair than your car needs for an oil change, frees the prisoners, takes over the ship and then lands on the coast. They'll head inland. They take fellow passengers Harry and Sylvia Sheppard (Scott and Sheridan) with them as hostages. Corbett is carrying a money belt stuffed with currency. As they start to hack their way through the jungle toward Guatemala, we learn Corbett is bringing the money to help overthrow a ruthless dictator. What he hasn't counted on is Reyes' determination to come out ahead, or that Harry Sheppard, weak, sleazy and sniveling, is rich enough to tempt the criminals. It doesn't help that Sylvia Sheppard didn't have time to pack when they left the ship. For most of the movie Ann Sheridan has only a nightgown, cut low, to wear. Corbett may avert his eyes, but Reyes enjoys the view.

The jungle is strictly back-lot make believe. One can almost see the potted banana plants being shifted around for each new scene. Every menace that every jungle movie ever had shows up...piranhas, pumas, crocodiles, an anaconda, biting ants, bats, malaria, and a cloud of what were either locusts or really sturdy mosquitoes. Ford's grim determination and Scott's sneering become tiresome. The emerging romance between Corbett and Sylvia is intriguing but unlikely, since after two days of sweating in the fetid jungle neither probably wants to stand downwind from the other, much less embrace.

But the movie has enough of Ford's underplaying to justify staying with it. Ann Sheridan, in my book one of the best of the Forties movie stars, doesn't have much to do except look worried. Sheridan's film career was just about over, but she still was a star who was sexy, good-humored, intelligent and warm-hearted. For those who also like this period in Ford's career, even if the movies weren't always very good, try Lust for Gold (1949), The White Tower (1950), The Secret of Convict Lake (1951), Affair in Trinidad (1952), The Green Glove (1954) and Plunder of the Sun (1953.

Decent Exotic Adventure

[boblipton · 5/10 · 28 September 2023]

There are eight passengers aboard the ship when it puts in at port in Nicaragua: Zachary Scott, his wife, Ann Sheridan, five men bound for prison, and Glenn Ford, carrying money for a Honduran revolution. He's denied entry, so Ford frees the prisoners, and they escape into the jungle, headed for Honduras, carrying the married couple with them as, well, plot points.

Most of the movie is about getting through the jungle and its deadly fauna. Ford plays his role close to his vest so it's impossible to tell whether he's a good guy, or a bad guy. Either way, he clearly lusts for Miss Sheridan, Scott lusts for the cash he's carrying, and the escaped prisoners want the money, a gold mine Mr. Scott knows the location of, and to get out of the country,

Director Jacques Tourneur clearly views this as a job for hire, getting over the plot points, having DP Joseph Biroc point the camera to point out the lush jungle in the Los Angeles Botanical Gardens, and stages, and so forth. Scott, playing one of his weak-but-greedy characters, offers a good performance. Ford seems disengaged, and the Central American criminals, including Jack Elam, ham it up.

film noir elements in an exotic adventure

[xrellerx · 26 August 2002]

This movie has an interesting plot. A wealthy couple is taken hostage and taken through the jungle of Honduras by bandits and Corben, a man that tries to set the group to his hand with promises and lies if necessary. They don't only have to fight the dangers of a jungle, but there's also a strong film noir element going on with the characters. They are all different and have all different plans with their future, but have to put up with each other to survive the jungle. It's a bit like how the characters in Ford's Stagecoach are played out against/for each other. The movie feels somewhat dated since it's so obvious it is recorded in studios, but like most Tourneurs, it's fine for a late rainy night at home. APPOINTMENT IN HONDURAS couldn't get my attention throughout the whole movie though, but I'll keep the video tape still. 5/10

Some Bad Choices

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 4 January 2008]

It was with some interest that I read that Appointment in Honduras was shot in the Los Angeles Botanical Gardens serving as the Central American jungle. We should probably be grateful that RKO did spring for color and did not use the old King Kong set once again.

I can see the minds at RKO now (read Howard Hughes). Rita Hayworth is Harry Cohn's main meal ticket at Columbia, no getting here, but we can probably get Glenn Ford's services. Since they were such a popular screen team, we can team Ford with another redhead and see if the public will buy it. Ann Sheridan was past her best days and she'd work cheap, so the team of Ford and Sheridan was sent to the tropics.

Central America was in the news at the time. The Central Intelligence Agency had a big hand in overthrowing the government in Guatemala of Jacobo Arbenz. Ford's role is rather unclear in this film. At the end he identifies himself as a planter, but I suspect he's probably got some CIA involvement.

The film opens with Ford on a tramp steamer off Central America. He's got a mission of some kind and HAS to get off there, but the captain won't stop. So Ford's got some bad choices to make. He frees some convicts headed by Rudolfo Acosta to help him get ashore. They in turn take quarreling couple, Zachary Scott and Ann Sheridan along as hostages. Acosta's idea, not Ford's.

After that it's a competition between the steamy jungle and the steamier romance heating up between Ford and Sheridan. The two of them do their best, but they're not Ford and Hayworth. It's definitely not Gilda, it's not even Affair in Trinidad.

Some nice color cinematography of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Gardens is the best thing about Appointment in Honduras. Maybe it might stimulate one to go there to see where a Thanksgiving beauty was shot.

Should've Listened To Maltin

[Randy_D · 6/10 · 6 June 2003]

Unfortunately, disAppointment in Honduras does a good job of wasting talent. The only thing worth watching in this movie is Ann Sheridan, who looks fabulous but is given much too little to do.

On a minor side note, it was interesting to see Ann Sheridan and Zachary Scott teamed up again as a couple with marital problems, as in the 1947 release The Unfaithful.

Leonard Maltin's 1987 movie guide pretty much summed up this movie when it said, "Sheridan is not focal point, and a pity."

Underwhelming jungle adventure

[bensonmum2 · 4/10 · 19 December 2020]

Jim Corbett (Glenn Ford) frees four prisoners to help him navigate the Honduran jungle. He's looking for a band of rebels he intends to help. To be successful and stay alive, Corbett and Co face a number of obstacles, including: pumas, piranhas, soldiers, insects, and each other.

I know it was a mistake to do so, but I was so hoping Appointment in Honduras would be as entertaining as the similarly named Affair in Trinidad - also with Glenn Ford. I know that film has its detractors, but I always find it so much fun. Unfortunately, the similarity in names is where the comparison of these films ends. Overall, I found this one an underwhelming, fairly dull trudge to get through. Scene after scene of Corbett hitting the jungle growth with a machete or yelling at the other members of his party got old pretty quick. It didn't take long for me to stop caring about which characters were killed and which survived. The final gun battle wasn't as entertaining as it should have been. The way it was filmed, it was difficult to determine character positioning in relation to each other. Very substandard directing and editing as far as I'm concerned. Finally on my list of complaints, there's Ann Sheridan. Annoyed doesn't begin to describe my feelings toward her and her character. I know she was meant to play the Rita Hayworth role (same red hair and all) opposite Glenn Ford that had been so successful before (see the previously mentioned Affair in Trinidad for example), but she's a poor imitation.

One interesting thing for me at least was the presence of a very young Jack Elam. He doesn't do much, but it was pretty cool all the same.

4/10

Adventure Classic by Jacques TOURNEUR

[ZeddaZogenau · 7/10 · 22 January 2024]

This director was really at home in every genre. For a long time, the French master director Jacques Tourneur (1904-1977) was ridiculed as a B filmmaker from Hollywood's mass production, whose importance has only really been recognized in the last three decades. Whether in the horror film (Cat People, 1942), in the film noir (Out of the Past, 1947), political thriller (Berlin Express, 1948) and even in the sandal film with the muscle-bound Steve Reeves (La battaglia di Maratona, 1959) - every genre This outstanding director put his own stamp on it. In the present case, it is the adventure film that is being put together from scratch. Glenn Ford is on a secret mission and has to make his way through the Central American jungle with a dysfunctional married couple (Ann Sheridan and Zachary Scott) and a few gangsters. You don't just have to deal with creepers and wild animals. The worst beast is man...

Films by this director are always recommended and will not be quickly forgotten in the decades to come.

great for fans of really bad movies

[[e-mail] · 4/10 · 24 February 2006]

Bad script, bad editing, bad direction, bad film but great for fans of really bad movies with interesting casts: Glen Ford, still leading man quality; Zachary Scott with his usual smooth performance; and Ann Sheridan, the reason I bought the DVD, always worth watching even if her good roles were in the past. As they wandered through the jungle I kept wondering why they didn't just step off the set and go the commissary. Things I liked were the red-yellow color tones on the DVD I saw and the crude - scratching on film - special effects of the ants and the flying insects, whatever they were and it was interesting to see Stuart Whitman in a small role as the telegraph operator at the beginning and Jack Elam as one of the bad guys.

adventure in the (california) jungle

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 24 November 2022]

Another drama-thriiler from the 1950's when they filmed somewhere in california, but it's basically a western, set in some far away exotic land. An odd combination of passengers is aboard a ship, but due to a possible uprising, cannot land at it's intended destination of honduras. Corbett (ford) is an american, meddling in foreign affairs of state. He teams up with the prisoners aboard to commandeer the ship for his own purposes. And caught in the middle are the sheppards (ann sheridan, zach scott), a rich couple traveling to central america. Liberal use of backdrops, as corbett brings the sheppards along as hostages, on his own personal mission. Can they survive the jungle, in spite of the dangers all around them? It's okay. The suspense comes from two angles... no-one trusts anyone else, and the critters of the jungle might just get them all! I thought the jungle looked familiar... this film and african queen both did some filming at the LA arboretum. Directed by jacques tourneur, who had done "out of the past" with mitchum. Sadly, sheridan and scott both died young at 51; she was probably best known for "man who came to dinner", about ten years before this film. She made some great films in the 1940s, as did scott and ford.

A TARZAN ADVENTURE SET IN MODERN TIMES

[larryanderson · 5/10 · 11 July 2022]

Glenn Ford rocks as a sort of Jungle-Adventurer who battles everyone in the movie and is involved in ALL the action. I have been to all the countries they mention in the movie and agree with how rustic those areas are. Everybody who searches the jungle wants gold and treasure. Ford arms and leads a group of modern day pirates who don't trust each other and end up turning against everyone. Glenn Ford ends up with Ann Sheridan and all ends well.

On a Trek with Glenn Ford

[JLRMovieReviews · 8/10 · 26 July 2011]

Glenn Ford is on a mission. He must get to Honduras at all costs. We get the feeling he's smuggling something or is a contact person for something going down. He's on a steamer with husband-and-wife passengers Zachary Scott and Ann Sheridan. Just why they're there, I forget. But of course, they get dragged into Glenn's mission as hostages, so they have to brave the elements, too. Stuart Whitman and Jack Elam costar in this colorful and exotic film about danger at every corner and in every swamp, with alligators, crocodiles, snakes, tiger fish abound. Don't get in Glenn's way or else, because he means business here! This does have a very campy feel to it, making the viewer feel that they're not to take things too seriously. I had a lot of fun just imagining that, as they are all battling through the brush and the rain on this island, they are really on a movie set! It also helps that Ann and Glenn are practically sweating on each other, even though Ann's married to Zachary. And, the shots of a jungle and the apparent on-location outdoors helps fit the mood. I see that the rating on this is on the poor side, but I've seen worse. If you happen to come across this and want some entertainment for 75 minutes, then this over-the-top film should fulfill your adventure fix with some good company. Just watch out for those tiger fish!

All those wild beasts and deadly creatures and nobody gets eaten. So disappointing!!

[shiannedog · 6/10 · 9 July 2021]

This is not a bad movie, but it's also not great. Glen Ford does well and the others acted up to expectations. I found Ann Sheridan to be annoying and unattractive but she was certainly bullish enough for the role. The jungle scenes were superbly shot so I give kudos to the cinematographer. The plot was interesting but the the focus of the film being on the marital problems of the hostages made It an unsatisfying viewing experience. 5.9/10.

Jungle Revolt

[EdgarST · 4/10 · 30 October 2014]

Since Tarzan went to Guatemala in 1935, Charlie Chan to Panamá in 1940 and Fox organized a "Carnival in Costa Rica" in 1947, I decided to watch Jacques Tourneur's "Appointment in Honduras", just to have a richer view of how Hollywood depicted Central America in the old days. Now they are a bit more exact, although the approach (from the "exotic value" perspective) has changed little, if we consider how Costa Rica has been a Jurassic garden for T-Rexes, Panamá a center for tailors who are UK spies, while Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are still the settings of stories of violence. But back then things were so corny (and not from the natives' side, but from Hollywood's), that one has to take most of these films with a grain of salt and laugh. Of those I think that "Charlie Chan in Panamá" is the best, due to its dark plot of treason during II World War, but this fabrication is as ugly as it is opportunistic, using recent facts as starting points without even considering all the tragedy, deaths and losses that can be originated by a political assassination or a coup d'état (with the assistance of the CIA or any other American "industry"). In days of the real overthrowing of Jacobo Arbenz (president of Guatemala), with the collaboration of highly paid American hired-assassins (1954), Glenn Ford plays Corbett, somebody quite close to those men, who supposedly has to help an overthrown president instead. Guatemala is replaced by Honduras, the president is called Prieto, and he has to receive money "for the cause" from Corbett. To do so Corbett has to take command of a ship, make it stop by the Honduran shore, and then cross the jungle up a river in search of Prieto to fulfill his mission. You can have three guesses to determine why Corbett does all that, but in the end, when he identifies himself as a farmer, no character in the film and nor the audience watching believes him. Before he finds Prieto, of course, Corbett has to make that dangerous jungle trip with four convicts that helped execute the operation, led by wicked Rodolfo Acosta, who took two passengers along as hostages: Ann Sheridan, who has to cross the jungle in her night gown, and her rich, mean and coward husband, played by Zachary Scott, good as usual. In their way they meet soldiers, crocodiles, ants, serpents, jungle cats, tropical storms, swarms, piranhas that swam all the way up from South America to appear in this film, an anopheles mosquito that transmits malaria to Corbett and all the clichés scriptwriter Karen DeWolf imagined or believed you would find in the Central American jungles. They never see an orchid, a high full moon, a bright butterfly or a marijuana plant that would have been so helpful to keep them relaxed. All that is left is bare tension by primitive motives, bad acting and Tourneur's boredom or indifference to the material, all in Technicolor. I don't know you, but I'd rather stick to Tarzan, Charlie Chan and the Costa Rican carnival.

Some interesting stuff but mostly just an average Hollywood jungle adventures with crocodiles, pumas etc

[bob the moo · 22 November 2004]

On board a tramp steamer sailing of the coast of South America is Corbett – a mysterious man trying to get to Honduras. However with a revolution raging within its borders, the captain refuses to land there. Desperate to get his package to the leaders of the counter-revolution, Corbett frees some prisoners on the ship and takes control. Drifting close enough to the coast to make it into the delta and head up river, they take a rich American couple (the Sheppards) along for the ride as hostages. However none of them are really prepared for a jungle voyage that sees them face crocodiles, tiger fish, ants, pumas and the Honduran military.

When I started this film I was a bit put off by the stiff tone but I didn't know anything about the Honduran revolution and thought it would be interesting. Very quickly I found that this backdrop was no more than the background for a fairly standard jungle adventure film that sees all the usual stuff bring rolled out in regards animal attacks etc. The story is not that interesting on the surface and I did find it hard to really get into even with such a short running time; however it did have some interesting aspects at times that it could (and should) have made more of. Chiefly the power battle between Corbett and Reyes is too obvious for the most part and could have been written with more subtlety and intelligence – it produces some good stuff and a reasonable conclusion. The dynamics between Corbett and Harry Sheppard while Sylvia appears to long for the tough man over her own husband is very interesting but given too little time – but still made me wake up every so often.

Unfortunately the film tends to shy away from this stuff in favour of more crowd-pleasing stuff with all the usual animal attacks. Wrestling with pumas and shooting at stock footage crocodiles is not great fun but I did draw breath at the stock footage of a crocodile being picked bare by tiger fish. The effects for ants and flies are terrible by modern standards and may get some laughs but none of it is really exciting. The cast do OK when given the chance with the material but mostly they are pretty average. Ford is nothing special and is mostly just tough jawed and nothing more. Acosta's Reyes is by the numbers and his crew match him. Sheridan and Scott are more interesting and their tense interplay is interesting – sadly they are not the focus and they really could have bee better used than this.

Overall this is an average jungle adventure film with all the usual fare in a plot that doesn't really use its setting very well. The plot does allow some interesting stuff in the characters but these are not made the most of, leaving a film that is fairly enjoyable but is really nothing special and is certainly not comparable to the more famous films in the Jacques Tourneur back catalogue.

Unpleasant film

[jromanbaker · 3/10 · 29 May 2022]

Why the UK censors gave this a ' U ' certificate ( for everyone, including children alone ) is beyond me. Glenn Ford on his way to aid a deposed leader in Honduras finds himself in a jungle that has more ' natural ' horror scenes than any other jungle I have seen. He has along with him Zachary Scott and his wife played by Ann Sheridan. She is one of my favourite actors and she plays valiantly a woman in a nightdress against all the horrors the jungle throws at her. They are also accompanied by sex starved convicts. No more spoilers. Despite Tourneur's direction and the vivid colour and fine photography even I had nightmares after seeing it. There is brief and revolting imagery of animals and reptiles devouring and attacking but brief though they were this film is not suitable for those who dislike these images. The atmosphere is full of threat, little plausible psychology and has a genuinely nasty feel about it. The natural and the human cruelty does not make for good viewing.

Better be careful or the American Alligators or South American Piranha or Australian Cockatoo will get you!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 28 February 2022]

"Appointment in Honduras" is a third-rate picture from RKO. While the jungle scenes generally looked good (with Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden being used for the Central American scenes), the film takes no care to get the jungle right. Again and again, you see animals that simply don't exist in Central America--such as the American alligator, the 'tigerfish' (the fish shown are not tigerfish but South American piranha) as well as Australian Cockatoo! You can only assume the studio assumed viewers wouldn't notice the difference. While this might seem ultra-sloppy, the dialog and acting are even worse!

The story begins on a steamer. Corbett (Glenn Ford) frees several prisoners in the hold after he gets them to agree to stage a mutiny. When they take over the ship, they take Mr. Sheppard (Zacahary Scott) with them on a raft...and his wife (Ann Sheridan) demands they take her with them...which they do. The rest of the film consists of the group trying to evade troops...as well as these silly non-Central American animals.

So why did I dislike the film so much? Well, the characters just didn't make a lot of sense--particularly Mrs. Sheppard. While she's being kidnapped, she's surly, complains CONSTANTLY and is nothing but a burden. Now considering Corbett didn't need her, why didn't he just shoot her or leave her?? Yet, amazingly, later they fall in love....which makes zero sense. As for Corbett, Ford infuses a massive dose of Oscar the Grouch into this character...and it's the most one-note performance I've seen out of this normally competent actor. Given that Zachary Scott is mostly wasted and says and does little, he seems to have come off best! I blame the script and director more than the actors for these awful performances...but they, too, should take some of the blame!

Overall, this is an action/adventure story without much of either. It also seems sloppy and ill-conceived...and isn't even a decent time-passer.

The jungles contain many dangers.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 5 September 2016]

Rivers with tiger fish that can devour a crocodile in seconds; Man eating ants, giant cats, blood thirsty bats, just a few. Just some of the dangers that follow a group of people kidnapped off of a passenger ship in an effort to find a treasure in war torn Honduras. If the alligators, ants or tiger fish don't get them, government agents will, no questions asks before the guns fire.

Taking a trip over to RKO from Columbia, Glenn Ford replaces redhead Rita Hayworth with the slightly older but still sultry Ann Sheridan, here playing the wife of Zachary Scott and proving that she is as tough as any man as she faces these dangers, even falling into the tiger fish infested waters. She deals with the lustful looks of the Hispanic bandits who kidnapped her and Scott, allegedly in cahoots with Ford but eventually at odds over lustful greed.

Enjoyable for the kind of film it is, this is colorful and filled with a ton of adventure, and is equally as fast moving. Neither a rip-off of "The African Queen" or a pre-cursor to the "Indiana Jones" series, this is just pure entertainment, pure and simple, and who could ask for more?

Running the gauntlet through the jungle

[clanciai · 8/10 · 8 December 2023]

The only good thing about this film is some very efficient music by Louis Forbes, which actually match all the terrible horrors the company encounter in the jungle, like crocodiles, pirayas, flesh-eating ants, clouds of mosquitos, pumas, stormy weather with thunder and lightning, and soldiers pursuing them for the bandits that Glenn Ford engaged to lead them to Guatemala, while they are hopelessly lost in the jungles of Honduras. Ann Sheridan does her best to save the film, her husband is Zachary Scott who cuts a rather poor figure, while the leader is Glenn Ford who works hard all the way against nature, against greedy gangsters in his group who fight each other, trying to grab the money that Glenn Ford is supposed to use to save a kidnapped president in the mountains, and so the adventures ramble on in an endless ordeal of constant hardships and misfortunes - they should logically have perished all in the jungle of fevers and insects, but instead most of them just kill each other. The first casualty is actually Stuart Whitman in one of his first roles as the telegraphist on the ship. Naturally Glenn Ford is left in the end with Ann Sheridan.

Splendid little adventure yarn

[searchanddestroy-1 · 5 March 2023]

Director Jacques Tourneur was not only excellent in the horror element: CAT PEOPLE, LEOPARD MEN, NIGHT OF THE DEMON; western: WICHITA, WAY OF A GAUCHO; crime thrillers: OUT OF THE PAST ; but also in adventures: FLAME AND THE ARROW, ANNE OF THE INDIES, and this one, despite the obvious settings without any locations, but a simple studio lot in Los Angeles. This is full of charm, tension, character depiction, supporting roles which are exquisite to watch. Ann Sheridan brings her delightful touch to this men's tale, and Zachary Scott is as convincing as ever in the villain role. An important film in Jacques Tourneur's filmography.