Men in Exile

Warner Brothers quickie with Dick Purcell as a taxi driver, mixed up in a murder, fleeing to some strange island for sanctuary, where he quickly manages to get caught up in a gun-running racket. Along the way he gets a job working for the lovely June Travis at her mother's inn, while trying to sever ties with the crooks on the island. Victor Varconi plays Colonel Gomez, who is the military head of the island. Varconi strolls around with a sword (about a century too late for this stuff) and seems to think that a firing squad is the suitable punishment for every crime. His main goal is to try to find out who the Mr. Big is who is running the gun racket. There is a character named General Alcatraz, but no Asian named Hop Sing Sing.

Purcell is okay in the lead. I don't recall seeing Travis before, and I see she had a short career, which is too bad. Veda Ann Borg, as the wife of one of the gun-runners, wears a few slinky outfits. Olin Howland has a small but important role. John Alexander plays the only black person on the island. In one scene, Purcell calls him by a name which would be frowned upon today. Oh well, this was 1937.

Cabbie Jimmy Carmody (Dick Purcell) gives a ride to three men to a jewelry store. They force him to drive the getaway after killing a clerk during the robbery. People catches his licence plate and being an ex-con makes him an automatic suspect. Using his old connections, he flees to Caribo, a tropical island of fugitives and outcasts. He is invited into Rocky Crane's smuggling operation. He falls for Sally Haines who works the desk at her family's hotel. Colonel Emanuel Gomez is constantly hunting for smugglers and revolutionaries.

This movie rushes quickly to get to the island. It's functional but it doesn't have anything exceptional. The acting is melodramatic and a little stiff. It has a bit of the tropical flavor but the stage locations do not help. The sweatiness does help. I don't find Purcell a compelling lead, at least not this role. Varconi may be the best of the lot in his role. Overall, this is a barely passable second tier thriller.

Good-looking good guy Dick Purcell wants to go straight in this 1930s gangster corn with help from lovely June Travis. John Farrow gets some early practice before good scripts come along. Young Alan Baxter gets emotional and experiments with different facial expressions. Victor Varconi reminds us of better movies by sounding just like Bela Lugosi. The 58 minutes is over eventually.

The first, credited, full -length film directed by John Farrow (Mia's dad!). Extra exotic, due to its "location"... the Caribbean island of Caribo, the haven for criminals, according to the opening title card. "Jimmy" (Dick Purcell) is forced to run off to the getaway when he is forced to be part of a holdup back in the states. Jimmy starts working for the family that runs the inn, and tries to protect them, but bad stuff happens, and of course Jimmy gets caught up in more trouble. Starts out kind of fun, but moves pretty slowly, in spite of the fact that it's only 58 minutes. No real major stars in this one...must have been the "B" feature at the moving picture show. The story actually has legs...too bad they didn't put more into the script to make it a full length film. Some of the actors do a great job, but a couple of them are flatter than cardboard. June Travis, Victor Varconi, and Norman Willis co-star. Peruvian Carlos DeValdez made a ton of films in the 1930s, but died suddenly at age 45. Our star, Purcell, died of a heart attack at 35, according to wikipedia.

John Farrow, in his first full feature -- so to speak, since it's a one-hour Warner B -- tackles his favorite theme of the 1930s: take a random group of people, put them in an exotic location under pressure and see how they behave. His best handling of it was FIVE CAME BACK and it's a good theme.

The basic interest of the story is somewhat undercut by the fact that it's all B actors, none of whom manage to demonstrate any intensity. The best is Alan Baxter, but the others never seem more than querulous The camera work is very simple. The camera sets into classical compositions and never seems to move more than a few inches, except for the big introduction scene about ten minutes in and once when June Travis runs off to speak with her brother.

Still, I have a weakness for these one-hour Warners and this one fills its time slot efficiently if not brilliantly. Even though Farrow would return to the theme and do it much better, this short-form version will fill in an hour decently.