Les îles de l'enfer

This is a decent film noir production. It stars John Payne in the latter portion of his career--when he was no longer a pretty-boy or light-weight singer. He was good as an angry noir hero and I certainly thought that he was up to the task. However, the plot is another story. While it's not bad, it's VERY, VERY familiar--like the writer was simply regurgitating portions of other movies he'd recently seen. In MANY ways, it's a reworking of "The Maltese Falcon" that is set in Mexico--and even has a similar sort of dame and a fat guy doing a Sidney Greenstreet imitation! It is also like several other B-movies I've seen over the years. Nothing particularly original about this one. It's got a few weaknesses (the woman is so OBVIOUSLY evil yet our hero doesn't recognize this for the longest time--even though he's a well-educated guy!) and about all you'd expect from a film of this sort--double-crosses, murders and the like. A decent time-passer but no more.

Perhaps it aided in my final enjoyment of Hell's Island in that I had very low expectations going into it. Payne, Murphy, and Sullivan are all very good in their respective roles and delivered from start to finish. Not all, but several of the minor/supporting performances/characters also provided ongoing interest as well. While many reviewers described the story as familiar, for me it didn't come across that way. Perhaps it was a combination of the setting and direction, along with a few moments of solid dialogue, but I found Hell's Island quite enjoyable from beginning to end. Great, no, but enjoyable yes. Check it out and see for yourself.

John Payne teamed with director Phil Karlson in the last of their three collaborations. Not as good as Kansas City Confidential, Hell's Island still packs quite a wallop. And Mary Astor from The Maltese Falcon, Claire Trevor from Murder My Sweet, and Jane Greer from Out Of The Past have nothing on Mary Murphy as one scheming two timing dame.

The ever avuncular Francis L. Sullivan hires Payne who was once involved with Murphy to go to some Caribbean island and check on a ruby that her husband Paul Picerni smuggled into the country. He figures that Payne can get close to her. Picerni is on another island in prison.

Payne and Murphy were supposed to be married, but she threw him over for the high flying and high living Picerni. Presumably when she married him Murphy did not know about the smuggling that allowed him to live the good life in the tropics.

Three murders later and Payne who is still carrying a Statue of Liberty size torch for Murphy starts to wise up. Paul Picerni only has one scene in the film and it's with Payne. He tells him the facts of life and really opens up his eyes, can't say more.

Mary Murphy is probably best known as the good girl that biker Marlon Brando fell for in The Wild One. But as far as I'm concerned Hell's Island contains her career performance.

If you see this fine tropic noir film, I think you'll agree.

All the Classic Stuff is Here for a Sorta Exiting-Wounded Film-Noir, a Genre Forced Out of the Minds of Film-Makers and Audiences...

Pushed to the More Family and Living Room-Friendly by the "Powers that Be".

Starting Around 1950 Forces Seen and Unseen (the Puppet Masters), were Manipulating in Motion, Trying to Coral the American Herd Toward the Oncoming "Eisenhower-Era" that Shunned the "Dark Stuff" of Pop-Culture...

Targeting Film-Noir, Rock 'n Roll, and Comic Books, to Name 3 Big-Ones, and By Hook and by Crook They Managed to (for the Good of us all) Changed...

Film-Noir into "Police-Procedural"......Rock 'n Roll from its Black and Hillbilly Roots into "White-Bread-Teen Idols", with about as much "Soul" as an Infantry-Soldiers Boots, and Finally......the Dark, Violent, Ghastly and the Wonderfully "Arty" Very Popular Comics, Like the Infamous "E. C.'s...into Saintly, Sappy, and Not-as-Much-Fun..."Code-Comics" that were Without an Edge, Insufferable.

This Phil Karlson Directed 1955 "Film-Noir", Starring John Payne and Mary Murphy , could be Looked-Upon as a Homage, an Old-Timey Look- Back to the Pure-Noir Days Before the "Death-Warrant" became Official and was Now Taking its "Last Bow".

Karlson is Considered One of the Best-B-Movie Directors and His Filmography is Stunningly Impressive and Here He Knows what He is Doing.

This is the Twilight Time of Film-Noir, the Ingredients are Here but the Packaging is "New", Ordered by those more "$$$$" Focused, with "Art" a Secondary, if any, Concern.

Shot in Vista-Vision, Nothing Says Tightly-Bound and Claustrophobic Like a Wide-Screen......Photographed in Technicolor, Nothing Says Encompassing, Threatening, and Inescapable Shadows Like All the Colors of the Rainbow.

Karlson, and Crew, to Their Credit, Recognized the Power of What Film-Noir Delivered and its, at the Time Waning Want from the "Big Brother" Types, and "Hell's Island" UN-Apologetically Delivers what Fans of Film-Noir Love and Respect from Their "Bastard-Child", Organic Rebel-Genre.

But, 5 Years or so After the Push to Purge Pure Film-Noir from Existence this was What Resulted and it is a Good Representation of the Walking-Dead Films-Noir of its Day.

Fans would have to Pay Their Respects and Wait for it's Resurrection in what became Known as "Neo-Noir" and Start the Cycle Reborn and "Rebooted".

Note...It's been reported from numerous sources that a "Good" Print of the Movie is hard to find...it's certainly worth a restoration and a "New-Look". Because it is a sign-post for the State-of-the-Art for Film-Noir in 1955. Historically it is worth a watch and deserves, considering all that was said above, makes it a prime-cut that should not be over-looked.

After 99 River Street and Kansas City Confidential, world-weary bruiser John Payne teams up with director Phil Karlson for Hell's Island, this time in VistaVision (Payne apparently had the foresight to see that television would become a profitable market for color films). After being jilted, Payne drank himself out of a job in the L.A. district attorney's office and now serves as bouncer in a Vegas casino. A wheelchair-bound stranger (Francis L. Sullivan) engages him to locate a ruby that disappeared in a Caribbean plane crash; the bait is that it may be in the possession of the woman (Mary Murphy) who jilted him. Payne flies off to Santo Rosario and into a web of duplicity at whose center Murphy waits (she does the "femme" better than she does the "fatale," however). There's a splendid moment when she shuts up her doors and draws the curtains on the memory of her rich busband, now in a penal colony across the subtropical waters for supposedly causing the deadly crash. The movie's texture is spun from Payne's carrying a torch that fails to illuminate the amplitude of clues and warning signals all around him. Professionally done if not especially memorable, Hell's Island remains an enjoyable color noir -- the Payne/Karlson combo rarely disappoints.