Sous le ciel des tropiques

Hell Harbor is a Caribbean port, formerly home to pirates. Henry Morgan (Gibson Gowland) kills and robs Peg Leg who sold a load of pearls. He gets blackmailed by Joseph Horngold (Jean Hersholt) and agrees to sell the marriage to his daughter Anita Morgan (Lupe Velez). She dreams of going to Havana. American pearl buyer Bob Wade (John Holland) arrives.

It's pre-Code and it's filmed in Florida. Florida is the most intriguing aspect. This has a bit of pirate-like local flavors although it's too in your face. Lupe Velez looks beautiful and is full of charisma. There is some good style attempted and some not-good execution. It's on TCM. It needs more restoration.

Henry King who was a contract director later on for 20th Century Fox and turned out some of their best films did this one for an outfit called Inspirational Pictures. The star here is Lupe Velez who by all accounts was one wild child. She plays one here in Hell Harbor.

She's the descendant of the famous pirate Henry Morgan in fact on this obscure Caribbean island everybody's a descendant of those bloodthirsty buccaneers of yore. But Lupe yearns for the big city life to be found in Havana.

Her meal ticket she sees as playboy John Holland who is arriving on his yacht and Lupe has just what he wants. Well one of the two things he wants. The other is pearls and trader Jean Hersholt has those. He also wants Lupe and Lupe's dead Gibson Gowland is quite willing to promote a marriage like that. Hersholt and Gowland have plans for Holland that don't include matrimony.

The location shooting in Tampa and surrounding environs substitute well for the Caribbean. Well it's close enough in any event. You'll also see cowboy sidekick Al St.John in an unusual non-western role as one of the island denizens. But of course there's the seductive Lupe Velez who got everyone's 1930 mojo going. Also unusual to see Jean Hersholt who is best remembered as the kindly Dr. Christian in a villainous part.

What Lupe Velez had never goes out of style.

If you want to view Henry King's "Hell Harbor" simply as a form of entertainment, then you'll probably enjoy it. Otherwise, it seems kind of flat, with Lupe Vélez playing a woman whose father wants to marry her off, but she hopes to flee to Havana with a sailor from the US.

I guess the fact remains that most movies out of Hollywood don't have the most complex plots. One thing about this one is that it got released before the Hays Code, and there's a scene or two that couldn't have gotten filmed a few years later.

It's somewhat entertaining, if nothing special. Vélez's co-star Jean Hersholt was the paternal half-uncle (by marriage) of Leslie Nielsen.

This film begins on a remote island somewhere in the Caribbean Sea with a lecherous man by the name of "Joseph Horngold" (Jean Hersholt) owning the local trading post and seeking to buy a beautiful woman named "Anita Morgan" (Lupe Velez) as a wife from her ill-tempered and destitute father "Henry Morgan" (Gibson Gowland). Anita, on the other hand, wants nothing to do with Joseph Horngold and seeks to take whatever measures she can to prevent the marriage at all costs. It's then that a young sea captain named "Bob Wade" (John Holland) arrives in Hell Harbor and after one look Anita is immediately attracted to him. Of course, the fact that he can deprive Joseph Horngold of the money he needs to buy her from her father also figures into her considerations as well. In any case, he soon unwittingly becomes a central player in Anita's plan to find happiness and she is willing to do whatever it takes in that regard. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an extremely old film which definitely shows its age in all departments. It was also rather boring. That being said, I generally overlook certain faults in older films of this type due to my belief that one should not hold it to the same standards of today. But it was difficult for me to ignore the incredibly slow pace and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Early talkie boasts of the degenerate barfly Gibson Gowland (from "GREED") and the lovely Lupe Velez (the Mexican Spitfire)as his daughter. Luminous location photography and distinctive sound recording overshadow the stodgy dialogue. The acting is good but overstated. Lupe is beautiful but overdoes the cuteness, like a 30's version of Sandra Bullock.