Bird of Paradise (1932)
Country: US
Technical: bw 80m
Director: King Vidor
Cast: Joel McCrea, Dolores del Rio, John Halliday
Synopsis:
A schooner puts in at the Virgin Islands and the ship's mate falls for the local princess, who unfortunately is taboo, being destined to placate the island's volcano god.
Review:
Pre-Code sensual exotica of the Tarzan variety: the tall, handsome hero enjoys a brief idyll on an island with his wide-eyed native girl, who thus learns to kiss and, naturally enough, it is she who must learn his tongue, not the other way around. Male wish-fulfilment, then, and indeed we are made to wake up from our fantasy when, at the end, she must return to her grisly fate rather than be sullied by contact with western civilization, lest she dissolve like the dream that she is. Vidor uses his locations well, but the film is illuminated by Del Rio's bewitching performance as the feisty, natural, courageous Luana; whether swimming nude through moonlit waters, reclining, arms behind her head, on a straw mat, or dribbling fruit juice from her lips into McCrea's feverish mouth, she is everything the movies should be.
Country: US
Technical: bw 80m
Director: King Vidor
Cast: Joel McCrea, Dolores del Rio, John Halliday
Synopsis:
A schooner puts in at the Virgin Islands and the ship's mate falls for the local princess, who unfortunately is taboo, being destined to placate the island's volcano god.
Review:
Pre-Code sensual exotica of the Tarzan variety: the tall, handsome hero enjoys a brief idyll on an island with his wide-eyed native girl, who thus learns to kiss and, naturally enough, it is she who must learn his tongue, not the other way around. Male wish-fulfilment, then, and indeed we are made to wake up from our fantasy when, at the end, she must return to her grisly fate rather than be sullied by contact with western civilization, lest she dissolve like the dream that she is. Vidor uses his locations well, but the film is illuminated by Del Rio's bewitching performance as the feisty, natural, courageous Luana; whether swimming nude through moonlit waters, reclining, arms behind her head, on a straw mat, or dribbling fruit juice from her lips into McCrea's feverish mouth, she is everything the movies should be.
Country: US
Technical: bw 80m
Director: King Vidor
Cast: Joel McCrea, Dolores del Rio, John Halliday
Synopsis:
A schooner puts in at the Virgin Islands and the ship's mate falls for the local princess, who unfortunately is taboo, being destined to placate the island's volcano god.
Review:
Pre-Code sensual exotica of the Tarzan variety: the tall, handsome hero enjoys a brief idyll on an island with his wide-eyed native girl, who thus learns to kiss and, naturally enough, it is she who must learn his tongue, not the other way around. Male wish-fulfilment, then, and indeed we are made to wake up from our fantasy when, at the end, she must return to her grisly fate rather than be sullied by contact with western civilization, lest she dissolve like the dream that she is. Vidor uses his locations well, but the film is illuminated by Del Rio's bewitching performance as the feisty, natural, courageous Luana; whether swimming nude through moonlit waters, reclining, arms behind her head, on a straw mat, or dribbling fruit juice from her lips into McCrea's feverish mouth, she is everything the movies should be.