Enchanted Island (1958)

Such a frustrating disappointment

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This movie was Alan Dwan's 406th as director. It was also his next to last. It stars a sozzled Dana Andrews as a sailor who has jumped ship on a tropical Island and Jane Powell as the Polynesian princess he falls in love with. She is, of course, the member of a tribe of cannibals.The script takes Herman Melville's turgid novel about religion masquerading as evil and vice versa, and converts it into a brightly-lit Technicolor adventure story. Like others of Dwan's movies of the period, it combines a lesson about duality -- I'm not sure what the lesson was, but it's clearly there. Blond, slight Don Dubbins offers that contrast.Mostly it's interesting for the way cinematographer Jorge Stahl manages to light bright greens and blues in a sepia world.

According to her memoir Jane Powell was initially excited about doing Enchanted Island in which she sang not a note, donned a black wig as there were not too many blonds inhabiting the South Seas and spoke in monosyllable Tarzan style dialog. But Jane did not show her acting chops and it turned into a bad location with a disinterested director in Allan Dwan and a leading man in Dana Andrews who was at the height of his alcoholic problems.Add to that the fact that RKO the producing studio was going out of business and Enchanted Island was sold in a studio fire sale to Warner Brothers. All in all it was a disaster.I suppose a vacation to Acapulco standing in for the South Seas was worth something to all involved in Enchanted Island. A New Bedford trading ship puts in to a South Sea Island and just as the men are starting to loosen up with the women, Captain Ted DeCorsia who is a true New England puritan abruptly calls a halt to things. That doesn't sit well with two of the crew Dana Andrews and Don Dubbins. They take off for the interior of the island where they run into Jane Powell's tribe reputed to be cannibals.Just about what you would expect to happen happens in this setting. Dubbins gets homesick for his girl in New Bedford and that starts everything unraveling. According to Jane Powell the ending was changed so that she would not die. But if the indifferent performances hadn't spoiled the film already, the changed ending certainly did. This film is definitely not what author Herman Melville had in mind when he wrote his novel Typee on which this film is based. Typee incidentally is the name of the tribe Jane belongs to.The one saving grace of the film is Arthur Shields as the cheerful Mr. Dooley who has gone native as the British would say with gusto. He's populated the island with all kinds of children and they all seem to be girls. But Powell isn't one of his. He attributes her blue eyes to a passing Swede who was her father. I guess RKO couldn't afford contacts for Jane as they were liquidating.Except for Shields no one comes out of Enchanted Island the film with any kudos. I should also say though that The Four Lads did get a hit record out of the title song.

This film stars Dana Andrews, Don Dubbins and Jane Powell who is made up to be an island girl. Dana and Don are part of a ship where the captain is an ogre. They leave him when they stop on an island. They end up finding a tribe of people. Jane Powell catches Dana'a eye early on. Jane still looks gorgeous under all the island girl makeup she is wearing. Jane learns English thru Dana and they eventually fall in love. Dana even saves the tribe leaders life when another tribe attacks. His friend wants to leave, but there is no chance to leave while Dana is in love with Jane. Don ends up leaving on his own and Dana tells Jane he loves her. Dana finds out the killed Don because they thought he would bring back trouble. Dana breaks a taboo and is also sentenced to death. He and Jane see Dana's ship and they take a boat to try to escape. Dana gets on the ship and Jane paddles away. He goes after her as the tribe catches them. The head tribe man cannot kill them, but one of the other spears Jane in the back. Dana comes to her and paddles to the ship with her in his lap. I cannot tell you if she died or not. It's not that clear. The captain makes a statement about not marrying a couple in twenty years and that a married man makes a docile hand. That makes me think Jane survived. I could be wrong, but I choose to believe she lived. If she did, I give the film an 8 out of 10. If not, it gets a 6 because I hate sad endings. The film is never boring and quite interesting to watch.

This odd adventure film, set in the tropics and probably shot in Hawaii, stars the horrendously miscast Dana Andrews as a lawless sailor who falls in love with an island maiden, essayed here by whiter than white Jane Powell in an equally turgid performance. I can't comment on the faithfulness of the adaptation, as I haven't read Melville's novel Typee, but Enchanted Island looks cheap (regardless of the colourful locales), is poorly acted, and is thoroughly dull. Even Jorge Stahl's colour cinematography looks like it was shot on leftover stock or 'ends'. A less than satisfactory late career move by director Allan Dwan, Enchanted Island is only for extremely loyal Andrews completists.