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This quickie from Warners packs a lot in its short one-hour running time. Just about everything is thrown in, love, betrayal, greed, jealousy, danger, monsters, etc. etc. I could go on and on! And then there's Bogart with a mustache of all things. He doesn't look too comfortable in it and his performance is a bit wooden and even amateurish but who cares. Margaret Lindsey manages to look positively child-like despite that husky voice of hers. If you get the chance look for her in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" in a worthy cameo as a prima dona. In my humble opinion she was a most underrated actor. E.E. Clive is reliable as the wise doctor. Donald Woods is probably the weakest link here but again, who cares. There's so much going on the performances are almost irrelevant. There's even underwater photography and a cheesy octopus. This is great escapist fun and well worth seeing.

This laughable 60-minute stinker offers pre-star Humphrey Bogart as a South Seas pearl merchant married to Margaret Lindsay. There might have been a decent story here, but it's been hacked to pieces. During the wedding there's a shipwreck, and washed ashore are a sneaky captain (Paul Graetz) and strange passenger (Donald Woods). Hilarious scene with the louvred door... The storm howls outside, but the slatted door keeps out all the wind, rain, and noise! Anyway, Woods and Lindsay seem to hit it off right away while Bogart is blithely unaware. Storyline includes striking pearl divers because of the "devil fish" and thieving natives. E.E. Clive is droll as the preacher, and Gordon Hart plays the weird grandfather. Bogart battles an ugly moustache and possibly the worst-looking octopus in film history. The acting is terrible across the board, with Gratez and Hart coming off worst. Lindsay and Woods are boring, and Bogart is just plain miscast. The plot twist at the end does little to save this one.

Businessman Val Stevens (Humphrey Bogart) is recently married to Lucille (Margaret Lindsay) when he rescues Eric Blake (Donald Woods) and Captain Deever (Paul Graetz) from drowning. Eric sons falls in love with Lucille, but Eric may not be what he seems.

Isle of Fury is a pretty stereotypical Somerset Maugham plot coupled with a stereotypical South Seas island romance. None of the actors are very good, with the possible exception of E.E. Clive as a Bible-quoting doctor and Paul Graetz as the blackmailing ship's captain.

A mustached Bogie gives probably the worst performance of his career as Stevens, and the romance between is Donald Woods and Margaret Lindsay is silly, as the two have no chemistry whatsoever.

However, the highlight of this otherwise totally forgettable film is the sequence where Bogie battles an octopus - it has to be seen to be believed.

...this is your film. I'm giving it four stars just based on the fact that the three leads - Humphrey Bogart, Margaret Lindsay, and Donald Woods managed to carry this thing as well as they did. The film opens on a wedding between Val Stevens (Humphrey Bogart) and Lucille Gordon (Margaret Lindsay), with Lucille having all the enthusiasm of someone who is using her life savings as a down payment on buying a house that she just doesn't like. The way WB has Bogart made up will make you realize why she feels that way if you don't just laugh out loud - bad perm AND bad mustache with bad perm. Donald Woods is the mysterious handsome stranger that shipwrecks on Val and Lucille's tropical island and almost interrupts the ceremony. When Woods' character regains consciousness after being rescued, he instantly begins giving reluctant bride Lucille bedroom eyes. If you think you know where this thing is headed from the beginning you'd probably be right, so I'm going to stop right there and let you watch and find out what happens. Just don't nod off and miss the hilarious scene of Bogart wrestling with a fake octopus that looks like it is right out of Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster.

I've seen Bogart in some odd films given his later film persona - the rather experimental "Midnight" and the early talkie "Bad Sister" - but this is the only truly bad film in which I've seen him, and by bad I mean dull and predictable.

ISLE OF FURY (Warner Brothers, 1936), directed by Frank McDonald, is an obscure 60-minute feature most notable as one of the first starring roles of movie icon, Humphrey Bogart. Having made a promising start as the cold-blooded killer in THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936), the studio kept Bogart busy in an assortment of major and minor film productions such as this. Though best appreciated playing gangsters or secondary to the studio's top actors of the day as Edward G. Robinson, Pat O'Brien and James Cagney, Bogart shows he can play the romantic hero as well. Supported by capable studio stock players as Margaret Lindsay and Donald Woods, with material based on the novel "The Narrow Corner" by W. Somerset Maugham, this edition was hardly original in concept considering that it was previously filmed three years earlier (1933) under Maugham's original book title with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Patricia Ellis and Ralph Bellamy. Regardless of which film version adapted by a renowned author is better, both screen adaptations remain forgotten by film scholars.

Forward: "There still remain far from the lanes of travel, myriads of unmarked islands, the refuge of lost men." Set on the island of Tankana, the story opens with a private wedding ceremony of Valentine "Val" Stevens (Humphrey Bogart) to Lucille Gordon (Margaret Lindsay) during a massive thunderstorm outside. After taking the wedding vows. Val is informed of a boat nearly covered by high waves of an offshore reef. He runs out to rescue passengers, Eric Blake (Donald Woods) and Captain Deever (Paul Graetz) and brings them to his cottage. As Blake regains consciousness, the first face he sees is Lucille, and replies to himself as beautiful. With Val in charge of a pearl diving expedition, he's quite busy getting his native divers to work. Val allows Blake to keep Lucille company in his absence. After being rescued by Blake from being trapped by an octopus while diving in the ocean below, Val and Eric not only become the best of friends but offers Eric a job position working as his partner. Eric turns down the offer for reasons of his own. Rumor starts to spread around the island regarding both Val and Eric's past secrets and the possibility that one of them is wanted for murder of a Richard Lord back in the states. Also in the cast are E. E. Clive (Doctor Hardy); Gordon Hart (Grandpa Anderson); Tetsu Komai (Kim Lee) and Miki Morita (Oh-Kay).

It is often felt that second features tell a whole lot more than those on a two-hour range. ISLE OF FURY is one of them. Though the characters are not fully developed (The Lucille character lived on the island all her life and had made a promise to her now deceased mother to marry Val is not fully explained). Regardless of unanswered questions, ISLE OF FURY has enough material with interesting diving scenes to hold interest.

Available on DVD format, ISLE OF FURY gets some cable television exposure on Turner Classic Movies for those interested in watching Humphrey Bogart early in his Warner Brothers career, and a very rare instance where Bogey sports a mustache. (**)

Isle of Fury which starred Humphrey Bogart, Margaret Lindsay and Donald Woods is a remake of a previous Warner Brothers feature, The Narrow Corner based on a novel by the same name by W. Somerset Maugham. The original film came out in 1933 and starred Ralph Bellamy, Patricia Ellis, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in the roles played by Bogart, Lindsay and Woods respectively.

Knowing how things operated at Warner Brothers and also having seen both the original and remake they did of The Dawn Patrol, I'm willing to wager half the next month's rent that whole chunks of the film, all the action sequences are just carried over from the original film. That's just how Jack Warner did things over at his studio.

I'm also willing to bet knowing the original source is Somerset Maugham who also wrote that racy epic Rain baed in the South Seas that the original since it was before the Code was a great deal spicier. The new version is 9 minutes longer and probably the spice has been removed.

Warner Brothers never got anywhere near the South Seas, probably the film was shot in Catalina. The plot concerns Bogart and Lindsay who are being married as the film opens when news of a foundering sailing ship off their island and hung up on a reef brings a call for rescue. Only two get rescued, the captain Paul Graetz, and a mysterious passenger Donald Woods.

Bogart and Woods hit it off and become friends and Lindsay and Woods hit it off even better. Both Bogart and Woods however have something in their respective pasts.

The part that Bogey plays is something he might have done later on with bigger budgets. This film was done on the cheap, the special effects are crude by today's standards. Today of course the movie going public would demand location shooting in some place like Fiji or Samoa.

It's B picture from Bryan Foy's B picture unit at Warner Brothers so take it for what it's worth.

They must have filmed half of the script and just called it a wrap. Poor writing and acting abound, and the mustache is worse than the octopus! Skip this one unless you really love Bogart.

Being a Bogart fan, I had to check this one out. The poster and publicity shots were intriguing. This didn't look like a Bogie picture at all. This was quite enjoyable. The only thing subpar was the budget and production values. The story line, based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, and the performances were all first rate. The story includes more than one man of mystery, a love triangle, a bible-quoting doctor, a heroic sidekick, double-crossing, Bogie working against a deadline, and a tension-filled ending. For performances, you have an early Bogie role showing his hopeless romantic side but featuring him being rescued instead of the other way around. Margaret Lindsay and Donald Woods create the other two angles in the love triangle and are quite likeable in their roles. E. E. Clive is perfect as the resident doctor, dispensing medicine and advice in equal doses. Yes, the special effects are laughable and the storm could have been staged better. But unlike some of his other early films, this is one less known Bogie film that bears repeated viewing.

On a remote Pacific island, in a tiny office, Humphrey Bogart and Margaret Lindsay are getting married during a nighttime thunderstorm. The ceremony is not quite done when news comes in of a foundering ship. Bogart rushes through the end of his vows then takes off out into the storm. He returns moments later having rescued handsome young Donald Woods, who is apparently on the run to or from something.

Things happen pretty fast in this efficient but exciting adventure picture. Woods and Bogart become pals; Woods expresses a romantic interest in Lindsay, who maintains her dignity; and outsiders arriving on the island hint at previous events that have brought these characters to such a far flung locale.

Along the way, Bogart dives for pearls and encounters a giant squid. Also a couple of Bogie's employees attempt to hijack his stash of pearls and he is rescued by his new friend Woods.

Donald Woods is fine as the standard tall handsome young newcomer. Margaret Lindsay isn't given much to do but nevertheless succeeds in showing a personality and taking some agency in making her own choices. Humphrey Bogart, not surprisingly, has the best role here as hard nosed businessman and loyal friend facing challenges from multiple directions.

At only an hour long, it's obviously no epic. But it's a lot of fun while it lasts.

This is a remake of "The Narrow Corner" and I have seen several variations on the film (such as "Tiger Shark" and "Danger Lights"). So, from the onset I found the material very familiar and very predictable. In fact, beginning at the very first scenes featuring the wedding and the shipwreck, I already knew exactly what would be happening later in the movie! The only unusual thing about this B-movie was seeing Humphrey Bogart as the poor husband--and with a very cheesy fake mustache. Why he was given such an uninteresting and thankless role is simply because he was not yet a star. By 1936, he'd been in quite a few films but almost exclusively in bit parts and walk-ons. Though he'd been in Hollywood for about five years, he really hadn't yet made a name for himself.

As I said before, the film starts with a wedding on a tiny island in the Pacific. When a boat crashes in the reef, in comes a more handsome and interesting man (Donald Woods) and the new wife is captivated. However, the husband is a sap and he doesn't realize how serious this is and befriends Woods--to his regret.

Overall, this is a very simple B-movie with little (other than the novelty of seeing Bogart in a crappy film) to positively distinguish it. And, on the negative side, there is a silly rubber octopus that just needs to be seen to believed. Not horrible but certainly not very good either.

Isle of Fury (1936)

** (out of 4)

A rather bland love triangle set in the South Seas as Val (Humphrey Bogart) and Lucille (Margaret Lindsay) are married during a rough storm and minutes later there's a boat crash and Eric (Donald Woods) washes ashore. Soon all three become friends but Lucille begins to have extra feelings Eric as she starts to realize that she'll never fulfill her dreams on this island. This here is a remake of the 1932 film THE NARROW CORNER, a film I haven't seen so I can't compare the two. With that out of the way, this film here makes for some slight entertainment but in the end pretty much everyone can skip it unless you're fans of the cast. The biggest problem is, once again, the screenplay which was clearly not given too much attention, which I guess can be understood since this was meant to be the second film on a double bill. The screenplay never really knows what it wants to do because one moment we're on an adventure and then the next we're tied up in a love triangle that never really seems to work either because more attention is spent on Bogart and Woods instead of Woods and Lindsay. The film is certainly confused in what it wants to do but like many "B" movies it's at least smart enough to throw everything in and just hope something sticks. This film throws in a real crazy sequence where Bogart dives down to get some pearls and is attacked by a large octopus and soon enough Woods is underwater fighting it as well. I'm not sure what it is but no matter what movie you're watching it's always a plus when a killer octopus shows up. As far as the performances go I wasn't too thrilled with Lindsay who seemed to be sleepwalking throughout the film but I did enjoy Bogart and Woods. I thought these two actors really kept the film moving as they had a nice chemistry together and you have to love Bogie's mustache. The ending is pretty weak but the film only runs 62-minutes and makes for a decent time killer, although only fans of the stars should really seek it out.

One of Humphrey Bogart's worst movies. Bogie plays a man hiding out on a tiny Pacific island. He also sports a silly mustache. Don't feel too bad for him, though. He's married to beautiful Margaret Lindsay. Stranger Donald Woods shows up in a storm and immediately falls for Lindsay. Bogie, playing the stupidest husband ever, is the last person to figure it out. It's a poor movie that seems interminably slow for an hour. Bogart fans will want to see it for his mustache and to see him wrestle an octopus like a boss. But ultimately it's a boring, predictable endeavor that is a remake of an earlier film I haven't seen.

Humphrey Bogart, exposing a lot of midriff and riddled with a silly mustache, is a conventional good guy in this Warners quickie, never a comfortable place for him to be. (This was around the same time he made "The Petrified Forest," cementing his usual snarling-bad-guy persona.) He's OK, and so are leads Margaret Lindsay and Donald Woods, in a cheap-looking riff on an old Somerset Maugham story. They're all on a tiny South Seas island, where Bogie, newly wed to Lindsay, runs a pearl diving operation that's threatened when the natives refuse to dive, citing an unknown underwater danger. That turns out to be an octopus, one that looks like it's from a Roger Corman '50s special. Meantime, Lindsay is conflicted over her allegiance to Bogie, whom she married out of obligation and respect, and Woods, who generates more heat. There's no neat way to resolve that conflict, and the movie just kind of ends. Meantime we have casual racism, studio-bound sets clashing with what's probably stock location footage, a philosophical, Bible-quoting doctor (E. E. Clive), and a satisfying plot twist near the end involving why everybody's on that little island. It's not exactly good, and the director. Frank McDonald, was one of Warners' lesser directorial lights, but it's fast and uneven and entertaining.

Despite looking very much like a B-film and a rush job by Warner Bros. to produce an early Bogart film, ISLE OF FURY has enough intriguing elements in the story to make it worth watching if you're a Bogart fan. Even then, had enough presence to be worthy of better projects than this.

It's filmed on a small budget with a number of fake island sets except for a few outdoor scenes but gets off to a good start with a storm at sea and the introduction of a few strange characters. One of them is DONALD WOODS, rescued by Bogart's men from a storm when his boat is torn apart.

Woods takes an instant shine to Bogart's new wife (MARGARET LINDSAY) with just a suggestion that the relationship between Bogart and Woods hints at something in their past that neither wants to talk about. The romantic angle is handled awkwardly in the script and not played with much intensity by the trio involved.

The plot thickens and various incidents lead to a conclusion with but one surprising twist. Overall, the feeling is that the ending is more than a little abrupt without enough explanation about the characters or their motivations.

Strictly a surface telling of a story based on some original work by Somerset Maugham. None of the supporting roles are particularly well handled.

This film aired today on TCM and the transfer looks great. Bogart, Lindsay and E.E Clive perform in a high seas adventure with Bogart as a pearl merchant. Lots to look at here with a short running time. This was one of warner's pictures of the week with a great cast, director, and cinematographer Fantastic Film (**** Out Of *****)

Look for many warner extras here in bit roles. I am surprised that there are as many low rated "Whiners" how they thought this film was terrible, but a true Bogie fan would never call any of his films bad. There is no reason for trashing any of his films, but if I did I would consider all his films great except his non Warner's films that must have been independent productions...