Isle of Forgotten Sins (1943)

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

While I would not consider director Ulmer's cult reputation as overrated, I cannot deny having been disappointed by some of his work which is generally deemed as above-average; one such title is THE STRANGE WOMAN (1946) and another would be the film under review. Tropic-island adventures are usually good-looking, action-packed and spectacular – but this is (typically for Ulmer) a low-budget and studio-bound production which resorts to repetitive, if highly energetic, fisticuffs for excitement...while the climactic monsoon (the film was re-issued under that name, by the way, borne also by the copy I watched) is dealt with so quickly one could be excused for taking it as an afterthought had it not been anticipated in the dialogue! Though the casting of the principals looks promising on paper, it is rendered futile by miscasting (John Carradine as a lusty man of action!) and undernourished or otherwise clichéd characterization (Gale Sondergaard and Sidney Toler respectively)! This is not to say that the film is not agreeable to watch throughout its terse 82-minute duration as an example of an efficient potboiler from this era. Interestingly, the South Sea saloon setting, deep sea-diving backdrop and rivalry over sunken treasure recalls or looks forward to three fine John Wayne vehicles i.e. SEVEN SINNERS (1940), REAP THE WILD WIND (1942) and WAKE OF THE RED WITCH (1948) respectively – comparisons to which do not really do favors to Ulmer's much more modest effort...

This Producers Releasing Corporation distribution straight from poverty row has just about everything you could imagine or want to see and hear in a B picture second biller: barroom brawls, sunken treasure, a treasure map, an underwater grotto, double-crosses, fist fights, hold ups, restless natives, menacing drums, a big storm, and a flashlight-wielding marionette in a diving suit. But wait, there's more: classical music, torch songs, island ballads, synchronized swimming, beautiful girls wearing sarongs, Gale Sondergaard and above all, Sidney Toler naked to the waist and dripping wet in a bathing suit. If you have a taste for B movies, this is truly must see entertainment!

From it's wonderful opening with the credits on the sand to the Monsoon ending (and the use of Wagner's music for the underwater sequence; the opening of the Rheingold which actually takes place under water) this a great way to spend a little over an hour with two of Hollywoods most entertaining actors; Sondergaard and Carradine are both cast against type and are wonderful. As are Toler, Borg and Birell. A lot of fun!!!!I have the Alpha release which is worn but fine.

John Carradine and Frank Fenton drink a lot and get in fist fights, some over Gale Sondergaard who's a bar owner/madam (?) of a bunch of American bar girls/hookers(?) on a little south sea island. A scene at the beginning when Gale wakes up the girls fascinates me for some reason. Veda Ann Borg is very campy as a two-faced "native" girl. Gale -- that big kitty -- does a great acting job in this silly, fun mishmosh.