Île de furie

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 (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.

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.

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.

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.