Waste of time

Perfect cast and a good story

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

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

This is one of the oddest poverty row melodramas, a throwback to silent films and early pre-code when a hidden dot on the map of the world became a refuge for the scum of the earth. It's a hot spot on the map of horny sailors and pirate types, run by slinky Gale Sondergaard in perhaps her only leading role. She's in cahoots to locate lost gold from a sunken ship with sleazy John Carradine, but outside efforts by others and mother nature herself threaten to snowball their plans.In spite of the exotic locale, outrageous plot, pretty girls and a few songs, this is actually pretty creaky, risen by Sondergaard's presence. The fact that she's supposed to be romantically interested in tall, lanky Carradine is beyond unbelievable. Also featured in this pot boiler are Sidney Toler as the main villain, Frank Fenton as Carradine's more handsome rival for Sondergaard, and Veda Ann Borg as one of her toughest "ladies". One of the most laughable sequences comes when two of the main characters use each other for targets in spite of the fact that they are each filled with bullet holes, and each of them are determined to get in the last shot. Obvious stock footage and cheap special effects are supposed to dramatize the monsoon. In the end, the actors are as soggy as the script.

I saw this picture under it's re-release title of "Monsoon", but that's neither here nor there. What strikes me is that once under way, the story made no sense at all, considering the sunken treasure at the center of it was literally at the doorstep of Captain Krogan's (Sidney Toler) native hut. Why didn't he and partner Johnny Pacific (Rick Vallin) just get it themselves instead of luring Clancy (John Carradine) and Burke (Frank Fenton) into this convoluted scheme? But I guess then you wouldn't have a story.While the men are involved in all manner of intrigue and fisticuffs, Gale Sondegaard provides a mysterious and exotic presence as Marge Wilson, proprietor of a gambling den on the Isle of Forgotten Sins. She's partial to Carradine's character, but I never got the attraction; in profile he looks anorexic, and the stripes didn't add any pounds to his frame. Considering they were partners, Clancy and Burke sure took out a lot of furniture over the course of the film, and if this were a Western, their first brawl would rank right up there as one of the best.But oh those underwater scenes! They were slow and downright boring if not so comical. There were a couple of times when the diver looked like he was about to fall over, and that's not easy when you're under water. Well you get what you pay for with these low budget poverty row efforts, and Producers Releasing was one of the poorest.Still, it's an interesting mix of actors with Carradine, Toler and Sondegaard in the mix. I got a kick out of Toler when he broke into Charlie Chan mode speaking to an island girl at one point. The finale is a hoot as Toler's Krogan shoots it out with partner Johnny at point black range, and they both empty their guns before finally going down. Then the monsoon hits, and even though there was warning, all of a sudden the hut is overwhelmed and floating out to sea! Well, the native chief saw it coming when he said there was 'much bad magic in the sky'. He might have been talking about the picture just as well.

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...

If you've ever wanted to see what the classic brawl at the end of THE SPOILERS would look like if one of the guys weighed 110 pounds, this is your chance. John Carradine, just a couple of years after being robbed of the Oscar for his role as preacher Casy in THE GRAPES OF WRATH, here plays the romantic tough-guy lead in a South Seas adventure film which calls on him to have several fistfights with his partner, the comparatively hulking Frank Fenton, and to win them! Dressed in stereotypical tight sailing man outfits, Carradine looks like the skeleton of Gene Kelly in ANCHORS AWEIGH. It's downright bizarre seeing him play Quirt and Flagg with stolid Fenton. And it's only a little less bizarre seeing Gale Sondergaard as his madam lover. I've always liked Sidney Toler, but after seeing this, I realize he was much, much better suited to play Charlie Chan than anything else. His delivery is flat and his sneering smile pasted on. And the less said about Toler in a bathing suit, the better. All in all, it's an amazingly cheap-looking little tropical blunder, interesting for the sets and props which look like Toys R Us rejects and for the chance to see Carradine do something different, even if it's way outside his range.