L'île de la terreur

Wild Oranges (1924)

*** (out of 4)

Highly entertaining thriller about a man (Frank Mayo) who leaves society after his new bride is killed in a freak carriage accident. The man takes off on his ship with his second hand (Ford Sterling) and they eventually run into a small island where a young woman (Virginia Valli) lives with her grandfather. The man and young woman quickly fall in love but a crazed convict (Charles A. Post) isn't going to let them live in peace. This isn't a masterpiece but it is a highly entertaining little gem that features some great direction by Vidor. His direction is really what makes the film because it's so laid back that you can't help but feel like you're actually on this peaceful island. There's an isolated atmosphere running throughout the movie that really puts her right there in the action and it's this laid back feeling that works so well once the psychopath starts to take his revenge on the woman who rejected him. There are many suspenseful scenes with one of the best coming early one when the convict threatens to feed the girl to some alligators if she doesn't kiss him. The scene involves real and fake alligators but it's very well done. The final ten minutes is one long fight sequence, which is directed wonderfully well. The scene goes on and on but it's exciting and extremely well drawn out as it starts in one room, hits several others and then goes to a few new locations outside the house. The performances aren't as strong as one would hope but they're good enough to carry the film.

Some pretty cool shooting on location in the swamps of Georgia, which director King Vidor pushed for and which was a big milestone for Hollywood, and some nice footage at sea as well. Unfortunately, it's not very remarkable otherwise. The story is weak, the pace is slow, and the cast has no star appeal. The characters in the deep South are also very cartoonish. I liked the scene where the widower (Frank Mayo) is thinking of the young woman (Virginia Valli), and she comes to him in an overlay, and it's probably the film's best, much better than the long, drawn-out brawl.

Favorite intertitle: "Mystery - the insidious scents of earth - the veiled lure of sex - Life's traps were set with just such treacheries!-"

John Woolfolk (Framk Mayo) has his new bride tragically killed right after they get married. He decides to seal himself off from other people and sail the seas. After a few years he comes ashore and finds beautiful Millie (Virginia Valli) who lives with her senile father and childlike but violent Nicholas (Charles A. Post). Millie falls for John and, eventually, breaks through to him. He wants to take her and her father away--but Nicholas has other plans...

Pretty much unknown until TCM showed it recently. It's a beautiful print with nicely tinted scenes and a great new score also. The film itself is just basically a nice solid drama--well acted and directed. Valli is beautiful, Mayo is masculine and Post is downright frightening as Nicholas. Well-done movie--worth catching.

John Woolfolk loses his young bride in a carriage accident. It's 3 years later and he has found some peace sailing his boat solo. Millie Stope and her grandfather, who is hiding from the Civil War, are living on an isolated island. She is excited with Woolfolk's arrival but he would rather be alone. The deranged escaped prisoner Nicholas starts harassing her.

This is a silent film and action drama. I would think that she's begging for help as soon as possible. What the film should do is to slow-roll Nicholas' instability. He comes in so angry and creepy that Millie would be within her rights to defend herself with a gun. She certainly shouldn't be fishing on the docks after being threatened by Nicholas. She should be barricading in her home and preparing to battle it out.

Hereditary phobias drive Millie (Virginia Valli)and her grandfather (Nigel De Brulier) to retreat from the world on a small deserted island off the Florida coast. There is some reference to the grandfather's exile as a self-induced political banishment but the two are so fraught with anxiety attacks that it seems implausible that they would get up the courage to ever leave their home in the first place.

In another part of the world, John Woolfolk (Frank Mayo) marries and loses his bride in the same day in an accident. He takes to the sea in his small sailing boat (tiny yacht?) with his first mate, Paul Harvard (former Keystone cop Sgt. Ford Sterling) to forget and also to avoid ever falling in love again.

Prior to John's dropping anchor in the island's bay for fresh water, an escaped homicidal maniac Iscah Nicholas (Charles A. Post) attaches himself to Millie and grandpa and basically terrorizes them both. He gets a hankering for Millie, constantly threatening her and vowing to kill her grandfather if she doesn't do his bidding which includes kissing and ultimately marriage. Millie has a wanted poster saying that Charles is an escaped murderer convicted of killing an elderly woman.

Nellie falls for john as he stays anchored in the harbor and their love blossoms even though John is still in denial. He sails away only to turn around to retrieve Millie.

Millie of course is thrilled he's back and when he finally proposes to take her away with him, she is afraid to leave. He convinces her but she is still fearful of Isach. They agree that she will steal away with grandpa before Isach is the wiser but Isach knows there is something brewing and catches Millie and Grandpa putting on their coats (in Florida?!) to leave. He kills grandpa and takes Millie up the stairs to the bedroom and ties her up.

John shows up to get Millie, gun in hand, and discovering grandpa face down on the livingroom floor, he hears noises from upstairs and goes to investigate. When he reaches the door, the gun gets knocked out of his hand and Isach jumps him in a fight to the death. Isach is twice as large as John and motivated. Meanwhile, Millie is shown squirming in the bed half clothed (for 1924).

It is quite a fight. After skirmishing their way down a steep flight of stairs and into the livingroom, John finds a knife in the struggle and manages to stick it into Isach. That at least slows the madman down enough to allow John and Millie to leave the house. Isach follows and gets knifed again. John and Millie make their way to the dock where first mate Paul is waiting and he jumps in to continue the fight while John and Millie make their getaway in a dinghy.

Once aboard the yacht, they make their plans to cast off. Somehow Isach has found a gun and from the dock, wounds Paul in the head as his comes on deck to way anchor.

Something that has always been present in this movie finally gets Isach and the castaways brave the breakers in rough seas to get away. Paul passes out from his wound and the once timid Millie finds herself navigating the breakers as John does the depth sounds. Somewhere in here Millie is able to overcome her fears and leave them behind.

What makes this film magical is the new score. I amplifies the exotic nature of this tale. Kudos to the TCM winning composer.