Toutes voiles sur Java

A sort of mini-De Mille picture from Republic studios, A Fair Wind To Java is a fast-moving adventure story set in the south seas. Fred MacMurray is excellent as the hero, really quite at home in the sort of costume picture role one wouldn't expect to find him in. What absurdities there are in the story are offset to a large degree by the actor's surprising moral authority as the humane captain. Vera Ralston is lovely if unexceptional as the heroine. The supporting cast is fine and energetic. As always, the Lydecker brothers provide superb special effects on a limited budget. Overall, a watchable, old-fashioned movie, if a tad anachronistic for the fifties. The ending provides genuine spectacle, and is well worth the wait.

Out in the Dutch East Indies and Captain Boll is out looking for treasure, diamonds to be exact. But he is not alone, and not only does he have to contend with on board grumblings, he has angry tribesmen and a rumbling volcano thrown into the bargain as well.

Fair Wind To Java is a just above average adventure yarn, gleaming colour and a tidy production ensure it's a watchable piece. The standard plot formula {complete with pretty female love interest} is boosted by the film's last quarter, here the viewers patience is rewarded with fights aplenty and the presence of Krakatau volcano literally doing its stuff. In fact the last quarter is a joy for those with home cinema, rough seas and volcanic rumblings boom out of the speakers, and certainly up the ante of the viewing experience. Outside of that the film doesn't have much else to highlight, the acting in the main is fine, Fred MacMurray as Boll and Victor McLaglen as O'Brien both turn in solid professional performances, but Vera Ralston as Kim Kim is desperately poor in the main female role.

Not one to recommend to adventure fans with any great confidence, but certainly worth a look on a rainy day. 6/10

In reading a book about Fred MacMurray that came out last year I learned that he considered this the worst of his films. While I don't think it's as bad as all that the main weakness of Fair Wind To Java is the casting of Fred MacMurray in a part that was originally intended for John Wayne.

The same author who wrote the novel this film is based on wrote Wake Of The Red Witch which I consider one of John Wayne's best films and certainly his most romantic. After The Quiet Man came out Wayne decided to terminate his relationship with Republic Pictures and Herbert J. Yates. Republic and Yates made most of their money peddling John Wayne to the major studios with him occasionally doing a film for Republic over the years.

Try as he might MacMurray does not cut it as a swashbuckling captain of the China trade. Worse for him was the fact that his leading lady Vera Hruba Ralston was not what he was used to working with. He who made some of the best comedies around with people Irene Dunne, Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn etc. found Ralston's lack of talent and professionalism too much.

The villain of the story is Robert Douglas an Australian merchant who also goes around as a Malay pirate with a Lone Ranger mask. This was a true comic book villain I just couldn't take seriously.

The climax is the eruption of Krakatoa where a cache of fabled diamonds are hidden in a temple. That's what MacMurray and Douglas and their respective crews are after. Now considering this is Republic Pictures and not one of the major studios the special effects aren't bad. And the color cinematography is nice.

But if you're beyond the age of 12 it's hard to take Fair Wind To Java all that seriously.

During the late 1940s and into the 50s, Vera Ralston was the star of many Republic Studios films. She was from Czechoslovakia and her command of English, especially in the earlier films, wasn't great. So you might wonder WHY...why make her the studio's #1 star? Well, she was also the mistress of Herbert Yates...the man who ran the studio. As a result, she was cast in many films...many of which just didn't suit her talents. Here in "Fair Wind to Java" she plays an Indonesian lady...and it honestly is better suited to her language skills, though seeing her painted brown is a bit sad.

It is unusual to see the male star of the film, Fred MacMurray. He'd been with Paramount for years and was one of their bigger stars....and, at one point, the highest paid actor in Hollywood. So why would he essentially be slumming it in such a film for Republic? I have no idea...perhaps he somehow thought it would be a good idea. Perhaps someone at the studio blackmailed him into making it.

The story finds Fred playing Captain Boll...the skipper of an American sailing ship in the 19th century. Early in the story, some guy sells Boll a slave girl (Ralston) and it turns out she knows the secret to where some treasure is buried. So with her in tow, Boll and his men head back to sea. But soon pirates capture the boat and her crew and it looks as if everyone is screwed.

Unlike a typical Republic release, it's obvious that the studio spent a lot of money making this film. While they were mostly known for B-movies (mostly westerns), here they spent a large sum for the day...$1.25 million to make this movie...a LOT for 1953. Because of this, it's in color and part of it was actually filmed on the Big Island of Hawaii...though much was made closer to home in California.

Despite all this money and effort, however, the story is amazingly limp and also a bit dull. Not a terrible film by any standard, but also not a particularly good one either.

Good guys vs, pirates in a race for a fortune in diamonds. Lots of action and much violence, especially in a scene where Vera Ralston, who plays an escaped slave girl, is captured by the bad guys and whipped to make her tell where the diamonds are. She dosen't tell and pays for it, leading to the explosive ending of a great erupting volcano scene.