Bird of Paradise (1932)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I think this must be one of the finest films I have ever seen and even as old as it is it leaves todays movies in ruins with its genuinity and simple uncomplicated plot. As mentioned Joel Macrae falls in love with the absolutely gorgeous Dolores Del Rio and the cultures end up dividing them in the end. It showed to me how civilized man wants to have his island love but then would like to take her back to civilization and what for. He would not have what he fell in love with. Simple Island life take it or leave it but don't try and get her back to another world she would never understand or appreciate. Very erotic kissing scene as islanders rub noses he kisses her and the actions lend to the imagination of what is really intended but all just a great film with lots of entertaining dancing music and island culture before the missionaries came and ruined it all to their puritanical ideals

Yaaawwwn. As Shakespeare put it, much ado about nothing. Most of the critics seemed to take "Boid of Paradise" (my 1st wife was from Brooklyn) as something in need of serious thought. I seriously thought it was tiresome.Big fuss about Del Rio's nude underwater swim. You couldn't even notice a nipple in the ripple. Hedy Lamarr displayed more skin in her first flick.Joel McRae, star of my fave Hitchock movie, "Foreign Correspondent" looked too skinny as he swung from vine to vine. Weismuller was really a swinger (in more ways than one) in the Tarzan series.Some of the scenes were ludicrous, especially the one with McRae riding tortoise-back. Hi-yo turtle.The native dance scenes were impressive, and, to be honest, the love scenes between the two stars were pretty convincing. One looked like a French kiss or, at least, a French-Canadian kiss.The erupting volcano and flowing lava did not convince, but, then it was '32 and special effects were not as sophisticated as they are today.All in all, "Bird of Paradise" was so-so. Hey, this bird laid an egg.

While the plot of this film may seem trite to us today, it was fresh and original in 1932 when it was made. This may well have been the first "throw the girl into the volcano" movie. Considering the technical limitations of film-making in 1932, the photography and special effects are quite good: the whirlpool, the erupting volcano and the river of lava.Contradicting other postings to this website, I did not see a "rape" scene. What I saw was the male lead chase the female lead after she had been teasing him, then he wrestled her and pinned her down to introduce her to Western-style kissing. A rapist doesn't kiss his victim, and a rape victim would not want her attacker to continue kissing her.The action of the plot moves quickly and is never bogged down by the dialog. This is an entertaining film, which you could view as you would any antique: it's charming for the era in which it was created.

As I watched this on PBS I imagined my grandfather spending his twenty cents to watch in the theater. Romance and passion in the tropical sea breeze. A sea adventurer(Joel McCrea) falls in love with an island beauty(Dolores del Rio)who's destiny is to be sacrificed to Pele, the God of Volcanos. Of note: del Rio's nude underwater swimming scene. And Max Steiner's score is the first to orchestrate a "talkie" from beginning to end. The supporting cast includes: Richard Gallagher, John Halliday, Reginald Simpson and Lon Chaney Jr.