L'isola maledetta

The movie like all B-Movies after Pearl Harbor were rushed into production and filled with patriotic themes and adequate production values. To put down or severely criticize these movies is foolish. The movie has value if you view it in its historical time period . Dave O'Brien and all the actors do what they do best act ! If you can understand the full picture in its historical context then you can enjoy the movie. To shoot spitballs and snitty poof bombs at the movie is a reflection on ones own ignorance, arrogance and lack of understanding of the historical era.

"Prisoner of Japan" was a hard film to sit through. One could see that it was made by a Poverty Row studio, Atlantis Pictures. But even it was among the lesser of the B studios of the day. Of its half dozen movies in 1942 and 1943, the studio had three with some actors of name. But the screenplays for all of these films are just horrible. I have never seen a high school or college play that had scripts as poor as these.

Besides an awful script, this film has a cast in which the few characters seemed to try to under-perform each other. None were much known in 1942. Only Gertrude Michael, as Toni Chase, seemed to have ever had an acting class. Her role was fair. But Alan Baxter as David Bowman, Ernst Deutsch as Matsuru and Tom Seidel as Ensign Bailey were almost laughably bad. The first two were stiff, wooden and hesitant throughout, and Seidel was like a kindergarten kid in a Navy uniform.

The idea for the plot wasn't a bad one. But the screenplay, sets and all technical aspects of the film are poor quality. Thankfully, it was over in 64 minutes. One had to watch to see the end with the subject and title the film has. But, there's absolutely nothing here at all even for war film addicts.

Now, brace yourself, reader, for here's an example of the dynamite dialog in this film. David Bowman, "I'm afraid." Toni Chase, "David, don't be afraid."

Stuffy, set-bound low-budget programmer that shows early promise but then gets bogged down in endless talk. It boils down to a call to pacifists to take up arms and die heroically for their country.

Back in the 1930s and 40s, it was not uncommon to have white folks playing Asians, American Indians and the like. After all, it was the era of Charlie Chan! When seen today, these casting decisions seem insane...and in the case of "Prisoner of Japan", the lead Japanese character is played by Ernst Deutsch--a guy born in Austria-Hungary! Why didn't they just use Deutsch to play a GERMAN bad guy in a different WWII propagnda film?!

The film begins with some US naval officers visiting a small island in the Pacific and having a lovely meal with their American hosts. During this meal, the junior officer sure blabs a lot about secret stuff....which seems incredibly difficult to believe. Then, the Navy folks leave...satisfied that the Bowmans are loyal Americans. However, it's all a ruse...and Japanese soldiers are hidden underneath the house and are operating some sort of radar system.

So why is David Bowman (Alan Baxter) cooperating with the Japanese? Well, he's a complete pacifist and wimp...and will do nothing to fight them in any way. The film clearly is an attack on pacifism and through the course of the movie, it's obvious that it's all about David getting sick and tired of the brutality of the Japanese soldiers and eventually he'll rebell. This is made all the more likely when a plucky American lady (Gertrude Michael) is captured and held by these soldiers....and she keeps needling David to stop being a total wimp!

The budget for this film from tiny Atlantis Pictures was only $19,000--a microscopic budget even for 1942. How could a film possibly be any good when there was no money to pay for competent writers and good actors...as well as a director what wasn't a chimpanzee?! Deutsch looked about as Japanese as a pizza...but the gibberish he spoke sounded a bit Japanesey....and his accent wasn't bad...not that this is a glowing endorsement! The others were just okay...though there was a tendency to overact....and a good director would have re-shot a few of these scenes. Overall, watchable but bad. And it makes you wonder how another studio with better actors, directors and a larger budget could have made this same story.

Alan Baxter is an astronomer on a small island in the South Pacific. He's working for the Navy, trying to track down a directional radio beacon the Japanese are using. Beautiful women like Gertrude Michael are on the island for reasons that are never made clear. So are Japanese forces in the person of Ernst Deutsch, who are holding him prisoner and making him work for them.

All this is vaguely defined except for the utter evil of Deutsch standing in for all Japanese everywhere -- the actor was originally from Czechoslovakia, which I suppose is practically the same thing. We can tell he's evil, because he's annoying, making up a sizable percentage of the annoyance of this movie.

It being 1942 when this was released, it's to be expected that the propaganda component of this movie would be sizable. Unfortunately its simplicity of characterization takes some competent actors and merely makes them look foolish.