Isle of Fury

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 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.

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.

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 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.