''The Hurricane'' is a 1937 film set in the

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'', ...

, directed by

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

and produced by

Samuel Goldwyn Productions Samuel Goldwyn Productions was an American film production company founded by Samuel Goldwyn in 1923, and active through 1959. Personally controlled by Goldwyn and focused on production rather than distribution, the company developed into the m ...

, about a Polynesian who is unjustly imprisoned. The climax features a special effects

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

. It stars

Dorothy Lamour Dorothy Lamour (born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the '' Road to...'' movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing ...

and Jon Hall, with

Mary Astor Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese ...

C. Aubrey Smith Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948) was an English Test cricketer who became a stage and film actor, acquiring a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, as in the first sound version of ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937) ...

, Thomas Mitchell, Raymond Massey,

John Carradine John Carradine ( ; born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later Jo ...

, and

Jerome Cowan Jerome Palmer Cowan (October 6, 1897 – January 24, 1972) was an American stage, film, and television actor. Early years Cowan was born in New York City, the son of William Cowan, a confectioner of Scottish descent, and Julia Cowan, née Palm ...

James Norman Hall James Norman Hall (22 April 1887 – 5 July 1951) was an American writer best known for '' The Bounty Trilogy'', three historical novels he wrote with Charles Nordhoff: ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1932), '' Men Against the Sea'' (1934) and '' Pitca ...

, Jon Hall's uncle, co-wrote the novel of the same name on which ''The Hurricane'' is based.

Plot

As a passenger ship sails by the bleak ruins of a deserted island, Dr. Kersaint ( Thomas Mitchell) blows his former home a kiss. When a fellow passenger (

Inez Courtney Inez Courtney (October 12, 1897 – April 5, 1975) was an American actress on the Broadway stage and in films. Early years Born in Amsterdam, New York, Courtney came from a large Irish-American family. After her father's death when she was fif ...

) asks him about the place, he tells its tragic story, segueing into a flashback. During the colonial era in the South Pacific, the natives of the island of Manakoora are a contented lot. Terangi ( Jon Hall), the first mate on an island-hopping

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, marries Marama (

), the daughter of the chief (

Al Kikume Al Kikume (9 October 1894 – 27 March 1972), born Elmer Kikume Gozier, was an American actor and stuntman of Hawaiian descent. He was born in Topeka, Kansas and died in Los Angeles. Beginning with his first credited role, in the indepen ...

). She has a premonition and begs him not to leave, or at least take her with him on the ship's next voyage, but he makes her stay behind. Upon reaching

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

, the crew goes to a bar to celebrate. When a racist white man orders them to leave, Terangi strikes him and breaks his jaw. Unfortunately, the man has strong political connections, and the governor is forced to sentence him to six months in jail, over the objections of Terangi's captain, Nagle (

). Back on Manakoora, Dr. Kersaint begs recently appointed local French Governor Eugene De Laage ( Raymond Massey) to have Terangi brought home to serve his sentence under parole, but De Laage refuses to compromise his stern interpretation of the law, despite the pleas of Captain Nagle, Father Paul (

), and even his own wife (

). Unable to bear being confined, Terangi repeatedly tries to escape, eventually lengthening his sentence to 16 years, much to the delight of a particularly harsh jailer (

). Finally, after eight years, Terangi succeeds in escaping, but unintentionally kills a guard. He steals a canoe and returns to Manakoora after an arduous journey. At the end, he is rescued from his overturned canoe by Father Paul, who promises to remain silent. Terangi is reunited with Marama and a daughter (Kuulei De Clercq) he has never seen before. Chief Mehevi recommends the family hide on a

tabu Tabu may refer to: Cultural and legal concepts *Taboo (spelled ''tabu'' in earlier historical records), something that is unacceptable in society *Tapu (Polynesian culture) (also spelled ''tabu''), a Polynesian cultural concept from which the wor ...

island, where no one will look for them. However, De Laage discovers their preparations and commandeers the schooner to hunt them down. Terangi turns back to warn his people after he sees birds fleeing the island, an unprecedented, ominous event that Marama had dreamed about many years before. A once-in-a-lifetime hurricane strikes the island. A few, among them Dr. Kersaint and his pregnant patient, weather the disaster in a canoe, while Terangi ties his family and Madame De Laage to a stout tree. The rest drown, and the island is stripped bare. The tree floats away. Terangi later finds a war canoe in the water, which he uses to get his party to a small island. When they spot the schooner, Terangi signals it with smoke before fleeing in the canoe with his family. Governor De Laage embraces his wife, but then spots something on the water through his binoculars. Madame De Laage insists it must be a floating log; after a pause, her husband agrees with her.

Cast

as Marama * Jon Hall as Terangi *

as Madame Germaine De Laage *

as Father Paul * Thomas Mitchell as Dr. Kersaint * Raymond Massey as Governor Eugene De Laage *

as Warden *

as Captain Nagle *

as Chief Mehevi * Kuulei De Clercq as Tita *

Layne Tom Jr. Layne Tom Jr. (born Richard Layne Tom, Jr.) (June 19, 1927 – January 14, 2015) was an American actor. Career He holds the distinction of having played three different Charlie Chan sons: as Charlie Chan Jr. in ''Charlie Chan at the Olympi ...

as Mako *

Mamo Clark Mamo or woowoo is a common name for two species of extinct birds. Together with the extant ʻIʻiwi they make up the genus ''Drepanis''. These nectarivorous finches were endemic to Hawaii but are now extinct. The Hawaiian name may be relat ...

as Hitia *

Movita Castaneda Maria Luisa "Movita" Castaneda (April 12, 1916 – February 12, 2015) was an American actress best known for having been the second wife of actor Marlon Brando. In films, she played exotic women/singers, such as in '' Flying Down to Rio'' (193 ...

as Arai

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for three

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

s, winning in the category for Best Sound. * Best Sound Recording -

Thomas T. Moulton Thomas T. Moulton (January 1, 1896 – March 29, 1967) was an American sound engineer. He won five Academy Awards in the category Sound Recording and was nominated for eleven more in the same category. He was also nominated four times in the ...

* Best Supporting Actor (nomination) - Thomas Mitchell * Best Music, Score (nomination) - Alfred Newman

Critical reception

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 Frank S. Nugent praised the climactic

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

created by

James Basevi James Basevi (born 21 September 1890, Plymouth, Devon, England – d. 27 March 1962, Bellflower, California) was a British-born art director and special effects expert. After his military service during World War I Basevi emigrated to Canada an ...

, stating, "It is a hurricane to blast you from the orchestra pit to the first mezzanine. It is a hurricane to film your eyes with spin-drift, to beat at your ears with its thunder, to clutch at your heart and send your diaphragm vaulting over your floating rib into the region just south of your tonsils." He complimented the performances of all of the principal actors with the exception of Hall, whose Terangi was described as "a competent Tarzan". Nugent also faulted the uneven pacing, but in the end, characterized the film as "one of the most thrilling spectacles the screen has provided this year."

Literary references

In his memoir '' La tregua'' ("The Truce"; re-titled ''The Reawakening'' for publication in the U.S.),

Primo Levi Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Jewish Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works ...

recounted his experience watching ''The Hurricane'' among other films while he was interned at a Soviet transit camp at Starye Dorogi in the aftermath of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The audience of Soviet troops, former prisoners of war, and

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivors (Levi included) became more and more unruly as the movie progressed, culminating in what Levi called a "

witches' sabbath A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals. The phrase became popular in the 20th century. Origins In 1668, Johannes Praetorius published his literary work "Blockes-Berges Verrichtu ...

" when the actual hurricane appeared on screen. A fight broke out in the cramped theater, during which some of the troops attempted to climb poles to reach rooms occupied by women, adjacent to the balcony. Several of the Italians ran up the stairs to come to the women's defence, pushing the poles away from the balcony. Due to the frenzy, the projectionist decided to shut off the film before the end, to Levi's dismay (he recalled the film as "quite a good American film of the thirties").

Remake

A remake of this movie was released in 1979, directed by

Jan Troell Jan Gustaf Troell (born 23 July 1931) is a Swedish writer-director, and cinematographer. His realistic films, with a lyrical photography in which nature is prominent, have placed him in the first rank of modern Swedish film directors along with I ...

and starring

Jason Robards Jr. Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill, Robards received two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes ...

and

Mia Farrow Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera '' Peyton Place'' and gained further recognition for her subsequent ...

Home media

''The Hurricane'' was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

by Kino Lorber Studio Classics in November 2015.

References

External links

* * * *
''The Hurricane''
at Virtual History {{DEFAULTSORT:Hurricane, The 1937 films 1937 drama films American black-and-white films American disaster films American drama films Films about tropical cyclones Films based on American novels Films directed by John Ford Films directed by Stuart Heisler Films scored by Alfred Newman Films set in French Polynesia Films set on fictional islands Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award 1930s prison films Samuel Goldwyn Productions films Films with screenplays by Dudley Nichols United Artists films 1930s disaster films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films