''Adventure Island'' is a 1947 American

South Seas Today the term South Seas, or South Sea, is used in several contexts. Most commonly it refers to the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of the equator. In 1513, when Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa coined the term ''Mar del Sur'', ...

action/adventure film shot in

Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and ...

and directed by

Sam Newfield Sam Newfield, born Samuel Neufeld, (December 6, 1899 - November 10, 1964), also known as Sherman Scott or Peter Stewart, was an American B-movie Film director, director, one of the most prolific in American film history—he is credited with d ...

(using the pseudonym Peter Stewart) for Paramount Pictures'

Pine-Thomas Pine-Thomas Productions was a prolific B-picture unit of Paramount Pictures from 1940–1957, producing 81 films. Co-producers William H. Pine (February 15, 1896 – April 29, 1955) and William C. Thomas (August 11, 1903 – April 2, 1984) were kno ...

Productions. This marked one of the few times in which Newfield worked for a major studio. The film stars

Rory Calhoun Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown, August 8, 1922April 28, 1999) was an American film and television actor. He starred in numerous Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared in supporting roles in films such as ''How to Marry a Millio ...

and

Rhonda Fleming Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamoro ...

. This film is a remake of the silent film ''

Ebb Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tabl ...

'' (1922) and the film ''

'' (1937), all based on the 1894 novel of the same name by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

and his stepson

Lloyd Osbourne Samuel Lloyd Osbourne (April 7, 1868 – May 22, 1947) was an American author and the stepson of the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom he co-authored three books, including '' The Wrecker'', and provided input and ideas on oth ...

Plot

Three sailors and a woman roam an island ruled by a deadly tyrant.

Cast

as Mr. Herrick *

as Faith Wishart * Paul Kelly as Capt. Donald Lochlin *

John Abbott Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott (March 12, 1821 – October 30, 1893) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the third prime minister of Canada from 1891 to 1892. He held office as the leader of the Conservative Party. Abbot ...

as Huish *

Alan Napier Alan William Napier-Clavering (7 January 1903 – 8 August 1988), better known as Alan Napier, was an English actor. After a decade in West End theatre, he had a long film career in Britain and later, in Hollywood. Napier is best remembered for ...

as Attwater

Production

The film was produced by

Pine-Thomas Productions Pine-Thomas Productions was a prolific B-picture unit of Paramount Pictures from 1940–1957, producing 81 films. Co-producers William H. Pine (February 15, 1896 – April 29, 1955) and William C. Thomas (August 11, 1903 – April 2, 1984) were kno ...

, which specialized in low-budget action films. However, the budget for this film was larger than that of most Pine-Thomas productions. Rory Calhoun and Rhoda Fleming were borrowed from David O. Selznick. Filming began in September 1946 on Santa Catalina Island. Ninety percent of the film was shot on the island in order to reduce the need for studio space, and the script was rewritten to minimize indoor scenes. The owner of the boat used in the film later sued the producers for damaging it.

Reception

In a contemporary review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', critic

A. H. Weiler Abraham H. Weiler (December 10, 1908 – January 22, 2002) was an American writer and critic best known for being a film critic and motion picture editor for ''The New York Times''. He also served a term as chairman of the New York Film Critics ...

compared the film negatively with the 1937 film ''

'': "'Adventure Island' is a dull, incredible and slowly paced fiction of a very venerable school. Paramount's earlier version had the services of

Oscar Homolka Oskar Homolka (August 12, 1898 – January 27, 1978) was an Austrian film and theatre actor, who went on to work in Germany, Britain and America. Both his voice and his appearance fitted him for roles as communist spies or Soviet officials, for w ...

Barry Fitzgerald William Joseph Shields (10 March 1888 – 14 January 1961), known professionally as Barry Fitzgerald, was an Irish stage, film and television actor. In a career spanning almost forty years, he appeared in such notable films as ''Bringing Up Ba ...

and

Ray Milland Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985. He is remembered for his Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival Award-winning ...

as well as

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

and a professional script. 'Adventure Island' has

, which is pleasant, and a script not nearly so pleasant."

References

External links

*
''Adventure Island''
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...