Saturday Island

Darnell and Hunter are stranded on a deserted island where they spend most of the time arguing.. The characters are so incompatible that any believable romance is out of the question. You must be satisfied just watching the stars to watch this. The good thing is Darnell on the beach looks great in technicolor .The bad thing is the Tab Hunter role is badly written and badly acted he sounds more like a brat on vacation than a marines corporal who has to deal with an emergency situation. The character is pretty annoying ,spends most of the time arguing with the Darnell character who is a female officer,like he was arguing with his older sister. It was Hunters first starring role,they took a chance having him star next to an established star like Darnell,the results are mixed,he looks all-american boyish but the choice to have him star with a mature actress fails miserably..The movie actually spends more time showcasing Hunters half naked physique than it bothers with Darnell. So,basicaly this movie is for hardcore Tab HUnter fans,even more than Darnell fans.

I remembered this films ads. I must have been 10 or 12. It was Linda Darnell & Tab Hunter (a new Hollywood discovery) standing near naked on an island. Well I wanted to see it. I didn't. Years later I finally acquired a VCR tape. It was enjoyable. Great acting. Hardly. The script was all but ridiculous, and no actor could make it into a Shakespearean TEMPEST. They don't try.It does look as tho the actors were having a good time though. This was the movie that made Tab Hunter a star. Linda Darnel was a beauty. And for 1952, this was a hot rendition of look but barely touch. Wonder what the Legion of Decency thought of this film back then?

I first saw this movie when it came out in 1952 and for years have looked for it for my collection. It is sad that Hollywood has not tried to save this film and others like it. Tab Hunter was exciting to young women at that time because he was young and had a great body. Ms. Darnell was a sexy nurse that Tab (a young U. S. Marine) saves after their ship is torpedoed by the Japanese. They make it to a lush tropical island where a budding romance begins. The scenes are beautiful and so are the suggestive scenes of their attraction for each other. Their romance is interrupted when Mr. Laurie crashes his plane in the water off their island and is rescued by Tab. Darnell and Laurie are closer in age and their love grows. I loved this movie and hope that someday technology will allow the distribution on DVD this film.

Handsome blond Tab Hunter (as Michael "Mike" Dugan) and desirably beautiful nurse Linda Darnell (as Elizabeth "Lizzie" Smythe) are shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean during a World War II bombing. They bicker about his being too boyish a "pride of the Marines," and which of the two is top commander. She's a lieutenant. He's a corporal, but pulls rank as the duo's captain. They find a skeleton on "Saturday Island" (known in the US as "Island of Desire") and read the diary of "Grimshaw"…

In a flashback to 1930, John Laurie (as Grimshaw) loses native lover Sheila Chong (as Tukua) and is attacked by a sea serpent…

Back in the present, Mr. Hunter finds himself increasingly aroused by his island mate, but Ms. Darnell plays very hard to get. She calls herself an "old maid," but still looks mighty attractive. Hunter is a young Adonis. As soon as things heat up for the couple, a plane crash lands British pilot Donald Gray (as William "Bill" Peck) on the island. He loses his left arm to the crash, but his heart to Darnell. This is more interesting as a story about loyalty than it is about sex, but it's too awkwardly played.

**** Saturday Island (3/14/52) Stuart Heisler ~ Tab Hunter, Linda Darnell, Donald Gray, John Laurie

Ridiculous story about a never consummated romance between astonishingly handsome blond teen marine and awesomely gorgeous older woman stranded on a desert island...only to be all heartbroken when she prefers the stodgy pencilmoustached one armed older Pilot who drops from the sky..... this technicolour tease should almost be the BLUE LAGOON of 1952. The idea that she just did not have this peachy hunk's loincloth ripped away within their first half hour alone together defies credibility. There are scenes as revealing as Christopher Atkins romping about in 1980, and incredulously, they remain physically apart for the duration of this hammy but spunky film. Tab Hunter is blindingly handsome and Linda Darnell is every bit as lustworthy as Jane Russell. Astonishingly, in or out of the cheesecloth nappy he half wears, and through her designer rags, somehow they forget to just spend 24-7 licking each other senseless. Visually it is all swoon-worthy but every ten minutes the viewer erupts from a staring stupor to screech "Oh! Come on!" at the screen.