Isle of Destiny

Just post amelia earhart. Photographed in "cosmocolor", according to the opening card! Has anyone even heard of that? And it's black and white. Some familiar big hollywood names.. bill gargan, june lang, gilbert roland, who had some small roles in huge films! Somewhere west of hawaii... a female pilot (with her heavy makeup intact!) makes an emergency landing in a heavy storm. Unfortunately, she also gets caught up in a smuggler's illegal arms activity, at "palo pango", which was really catalina island! It's kind of silly but fun. Moonlight magic, sung by the sportsmen, about halfway through. Keep an eye out for katherine demille; she was the adopted daughter of CB... and was married to anthony quinn ! Directed by elmer clifton, who died young at 59. Sadly, he was in production on several films which were later completed after his death. He had worked with some of the greats, including dw griffiths and clara bow.

Despite all the exciting plot elements, "Isle of Destiny" is a rather dull little B-movie. While there is an aviatrix making a round the world trip and gun runners, the story never really created a lot of excitement.

When the story begins, a famous aviatrix, Virginia Atherton (June Lang) and her co-pilot are on a round-the-world flight. However, they seem in no particular hurry and they stop to visit her brother in the US Marines stationed at Palo Pango in the South Pacific. There they meet up with some folks who seem okay but who are actually gun runners intent on stealing the airplane. When they do, it's up to her new friends in the military and her brother to come to the rescue.

Like many movies of the day, this one features William Gargan and Wallace Ford...two veterans of dozens and dozens of Bs. They and the rest of the cast do reasonably well, but Katherine DeMille (daughter of the famous director) comes off rather poorly as she's painted up to look like a native but who looks about as Polynesian as Mantan Moreland.

As for the plot, well, it didn't really make a lot of sense and Catalina Island (off the California coast) didn't exactly look like Polynesia.The thrilling showdown, also, was a disappointment--and it was annoying to see the cliche of the lady in distress who does NOTHING to help when the men are fighting to the death! I say she either helps or you should just leave her! Overall, slow going and a bit silly...but still watchable....not that this is a glowing endorsement.

Society aviatrix June Lang is flying to a South Seas island where her brother, Grant Richards, is the officer in charge of some marines, including William Gargan and Wallace Ford. There's also smuggler Gilbert Roland. He has some contraband he wants to ship out, but is concerned about patrols. He comes up with a plan to challenge Miss Lang to an air race, kidnap her, and force the authorities to use their resources to look for him. He has reckoned without the ensemble, as well as his wife, Katherine Demille; she tends to be jealous and wields a mean blowpipe.

It's well plotted, a touch underwritten, and cheaply produced, considering the solid cast, which also includes Etienne Garidot (in his final movie role), Tom Dugan, and Thurl Ravenscroft. Originally planned for release by Grand National, it got stuck due to that firm's collapse. It was picked up by RKO and released two years after production. Director Elmer Clifton seems a bit out of his depth and can't instill more than a few seconds of tension, even when the good guys are surrounded by hostile natives under the command of Roland.