Sinners in Paradise (1938)

That was an excellent one.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Right from the start, we can tell that this DVD from TCM.com is a good quality production... it has menu options and appears to have been restored professionally. Madge Evans and John Boles star in this south sea thriller about people being shipwrecked on an island. According to Evans, director James Whale was NOT happy about having to make this film, and it was near the end of his career. Universal packed a lot of story into this 65 minute shortie, so things move right along. Similar plot to Gilligan's Island... bigshots, rich folks, and assorted characters (a tarot card reader! ) crash-land on an inhabited south sea island, and try to make a deal with the resident "Malone" (Bruce Cabot) to get back to civilization. Gene Lockhart is in here as "the Senator"... who huffs and puffs his nasty outbursts every couple minutes. Malone is clearly on the run from "something", but no-one knows what. He always seems to have clean, ironed shirts, in spite of his being on a south sea island for years! Fistfights, gun fights, people are shot, people try to steal a boat...This one kind of loses steam about halfway through. After they meet Malone, it kinds of falls apart. Will anyone get off the island? A big chunk of the script is just silly and doesn't really progress in the last third of the film. The last few minutes kind of ties up a lot of loose ends, but it could have been so much better. I blame it on a weak script. It's okay. One of those fun, exotic south sea adventures, but it got silly right around the middle. Original story by Harold Buckley, who had several films made from his books in the 1930s. We were right in the heart of the film production code, so much of this story is predictable...

For a film from the late 1930s it's not a bad film. The technological limitations for special effects and cost of shooting on stage verse on location are apparent, but the story is fairly compelling enough.A band of assorted individuals with various pasts and agendas take flight aboard a "flying boat", and find themselves challenged in a new environment.The film by today's standards may seem somewhat racist in regards to one Asian character, but is more or less a product of its time, and the character in question is noble to a fault, and in fact key to helping the rest of the characters.Marion Martin shows that her acting chops weren't quite there yet (and she had yet to engage in an exercise regime), Bruce Cabot of King Kong fame shows his range, and a number of other well known actors of the time do well to bring to life the characters in this film.Again, the shortcomings are the technical aspects, Martin's lack of theatrical training, and money. Otherwise it's a solid B-performer that'll help whittle away a lazy Sunday afternoon.If you need a classic film on your TV or computer, you could do worse, but you could also do better. Either way, give it a shot and see what you think.Not a great film, but nor a bad film.Give it a shot.

Getting set to write my 800th IMDb review,I decided to search around on Amazon UK for titles by directing auteur James Whale.Getting near the end of the listings for his famous Horror movies,I was surprised to stumble upon a near-forgotten Adventure Drama that Whale's had made,which led to me getting ready to pay a visit to paradise.The plot:Desperate to each get away from their troubled lives,a group of people get on board a luxury sea plane to China.On the way to China,the plane gets caught in the middle of a tropic storm,which causes it to crash in the ocean.Barely surviving the crash,the handful of survivors spot an island near the wreck,and decide to swim to the shore.Reaching the island,the survivors start to fear that they will not be found,due to the island appearing to be completely deserted.Searching round the island,the survivors are shocked to discover 2 inhibitions:one called Jim Taylor and the other one being his loyal servant Ping.Placing their hopes on him helping them to get off the island,Taylor reveals that he has other plans,as he uncovers each of the survivors hidden pasts.View on the film:Filmed when the change in studio head had led to him losing his main supporters,directing auteur James Whale is only about to show the edge of his past, eye-catching, stylised canvas.Whale & cinematographer George Robinson (who had worked with Whale on the interesting The Road Back) cleverly use a minimal amount of flames to create a scorching hot atmosphere on the island.Despite working on a low budget,Whale's is impressively still able to continue on some of the main themes featured in his work,thanks to the survivors trying to keep their shady upper-class backgrounds hidden,by each giving themselves a "humble" appearance on the island,which the lower-class Taylor is able to reveal as a facade.Taking a scatter-shot approach in their focus of the island residences ,the screenplay by Harold Buckley/Louis Stevens/ Lester Cole & Robert Lee Johnson is disappointingly unable to give each of the characters "their moment" to shine,which whilst allowing Jim Taylor to stand out as a boo-hiss baddie,leads to most of the survivors not being given any distinctive features.Along with a fun cameo from Dwight Frye, John Boles gives a marvellous performance in his reunion with Whale,as Boles curls Taylor's lips on every order that he barks to his fellow islanders,as the crash survivors discover that this is an island far from paradise.

I really want to like 'Sinners In Paradise' more than I actually did, just because the premise is so big, so juicy, it could be so much more than it is, and because what James Whale actually left us with feels like just a teaser of what he could have done. The film could easily have been twice as long as it is, and even to those who viewed it in 1938, it probably came off as very entertaining and thrilling at times, but some were probably left feeling disappointed, as the idea is really half-baked.Part 'Lord Of The Flies', part 'Gilligan's Island', I was wishing that 'Sinners In Paradise' would be just more... sinister the entire time. I kept hoping for these people to die off Agatha Christie murder mystery style, and I waited and waited for it to happen. But it never did. Alas, there are quite a few enjoyable characters here, but certain characters are just pure filler, and its a shame that their characters weren't more well developed, because there is certainly the time for it. Madge Evans and John Boles are basically pretty forgettable as our leads, and they are overshadowed by more likable characters like Gene Lockhart and Willie Fung.All in all, 'Sinners In Paradise' comes off as an enjoyable, watchable film, from the man who brought us 'Frankenstein' in 1931, but it feels like Whale was just looking more to have fun with making this film, rather than having it be a serious endeavor. I hope this film makes it to the screen again one day, perhaps as a remake, but more in the vein of films like 'Identity' instead of 'Six Days, Seven Nights'.SINNERS IN PARADISE -----7/10.