Le Lagon bleu

One of my favorite ballads is of British origin and it's If You Were The Only Girl In The World. It became popular in the Twenties right around the time that the silent British cinema came out with the first version of The Blue Lagoon. I didn't even know there was one until researching it only today. The song certainly could have served as a theme for all the versions.

I can only compare this version to the one done by Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins that came out in 1980. That one of course had the full frontal nudity and the accompanying scandal, something that the high minded J. Arthur Rank would never have put into one of his films. Still Jean Simmons and Donald Houston are something to look at.

This is another of those universal stories that everyone knows, a boy and girl shipwrecked at sea at the ages of 10 and 9 and stay for ten years on a desert island. At first one of the sailors from the boat they were on, Noel Purcell is shipwrecked with them. He apparently teaches them enough to survive because he dies and the kids have to fend for themselves.

And as these are Edwardian era English kids they aren't exactly schooled in the facts of life. Never mind with her the only girl and him the only boy they figure it out.

Besides the sensationalism the main difference between this and the Atkins/Shields version is that Simmons and Houston are thoroughly British and Chris and Brooke cannot be mistaken for anything, but Americans. Still the sexual tension is there as we know the first time we see them as adults. We know, but they have to figure it out.

This version is dated in time because when they do get their first visitors in a pair of cutthroats played by James Hayter and Cyril Cusack they are identified as coming in the summer of 1914. Life does play funny tricks because soon enough there would be any number of British boys and girls who would love to be playing house in the south seas as opposed to being in the trenches in France and hearing bad news about a loved one there.

And in researching The Blue Lagoon I learned there is yet another version coming out soon. Maybe that might give impetus to some film preservers to go to work on this one. It's a good film, but the color is pretty washed out and it needs a visit to the film labs.

One of my lifetime favourite movies. Saw it circa 1950 as a 10 year-old and it fired my imagination. Apart from causing me to fall in love with Jean Simmons, it's believability and innocence was mesmerizing. Of all of the movies I have ever seen, I think I remember this one the best.

Is there anywhere to purchase a copy of it on tape. Am not a movie collector, but would love to have this one.

Jean Simmons was truly one of the most beautiful and talented movie actresses of all time.

This may not be regarded as a review on any film, but just a comment on a film I saw when I was a youngster. I remember coming home of an evening all full of wonder at what I had seen. I tried to retell my parents part of the story but they listened without understanding well what was so strange about two kids stranded on an island who fall in love and grow together and have a son. As you must have guessed by now I'm referring to The Blue Lagoon (1949) which has kept me bewitched and bewildered through the years (almost 50) and now wonder full of anxiety and disgust who or what has prevented the film from being available in cassette or DVD or whatever. I've spent a lifetime chasing the opportunity to get hold of it one day and nobody knows anything about it. What a waste indeed! Sorry if my English is not at all technical or scientific, but my mother tongue is Spanish. I'm doing my best to make myself understood. Thank you, My name is Juan and I'm writing from Uruguay in S.America.

I first saw this film on the late, late, late show in 1978 when I was seventeen. I actually videotaped it on our new '78 RCA VCR and showed it to everyone. Everybody enjoyed it. I, myself, thought it was a very good movie and when I heard of it's remake a couple of years later I thought, "Oh, no! They're going to ruin it!" which they did. The original with Jean Simmons was so innocent and left to the imagination. In the Brooke Shields/Christopher Akins version, I didn't exactly want to see them "do it." That took away the innocence of the story of two kids shipwrecked on an island.

The film was shown again on late night television in 1980, but that was the last time it was ever broadcast in the Los Angeles area. I later taped over my original taping not realizing that it would never air again. All these years later it still hasn't been released on video, nor have the cable channels picked it up. I hope others will continue to post their thoughts and comments on this film.

The very first version of "The Blue Lagoon" was a silent film back in 1923. This is a lovely sound version...one significantly better than the sleazy 1980 version which emphasized sex...something rather disturbing considering how young these folks are supposed to be. Here, we have a more wholesome and better version..one actually worth your time.

The story begins with a ship sinking. Two small children and an old man manage to get aboard a dingy and they paddle away until they eventually find a habitable island. Sadly, the old man soon dies and the pair are left to care for themselves. The film then jumps ahead ten years and most of the film consists of their adventures and their ultimate fates.

This is a modestly enjoable film with one big problem...the ending is incredibly downbeat and not especially enjoyable. Still, it is well made, the characters are NOT highly sexualizes like the later film and it is mostly enjoyable.

By the way, it's really not that important, but IMDB's summary says this occurs during the Victorian era. Well, it actually occurs just AFTER Victoria's death...provbably about 1905 or thereabouts. Victoria and the Victorian era ended in 1901.