Island in the Sun (1957)
On a Caribbean island, a rich landowner's son, Maxwell Fleury, is fighting for political office against black labor leader David Boyeur. As if the contentious election weren't enough, there are plenty of scandals to go around: Boyeur has a secret white lover and Fleury's wife, Sylvia, is also having an affair. And then, of course, there's the small matter of a recently murdered aristocrat.
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So much average
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
by one of the greats in the cinematography field (Freddie Young, credited as many of his films were as F.A. Young).But isn't it amazing when you are watching a film and suddenly an actor pops up who you just know you've seen before in a similar role???? It took me awhile but just before Mason turns himself in, I figured out that John Williams also played a detective inspector (although in this film a Colonel), in Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder...typecasting? Maybe, but Williams is just so good in a role like this, you can just see how he gets the criminal to confess to the crime by slow insinuation and guilt-tripping. Mason is caught up in the trap just like Ray Milland.Apart from that small side plot, the rest is so trivially done and I'm sorry but Joan Fontaine tries just too hard with all her practised smiles to look as young as Mr. Belafonte, more an aunt or mother. Why did she do this role is beyond me.This could have been greater film if Miss Dandridge's storyline had been more developed. And Stephen Boyd (although pre-Ben Hur) is equally wasted (as he was in some other Fox films (see The Best of Everything,Fantastic Voyage). Was he really considered for Anthony in Cleopatra??? (with Joan???) That might have been fun.
This film, having been made in 1957 has a very intriguing and slanted portrayal of a wealthy plantation owner (well-portrayed by James Mason) and a few over-privileged white women (Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins and her vapid mother, who owns a large estate).Harry Belafonte is wonderful as the West Indies native of this fictional island. He (ostensibly) is pursued by Fontaine, but rejects her world. Why is her American world supposed to be considered so ideal?. Well, this was written in 1957.Having lived in South Florida, and traveled, in this day and age a story regarding poverty wages and slave labor would be much starker and realistic. Sugar cane plantations still exist to this day, in Belle Glade, and the Everglades area. A story we rarely hear about, unfortunately.This film is worth watching for the hypocrisy of the time, as a curiosity piece. I also consider the Lana Turner film ("Imitation of Life")to fall into the category of denial and repression of human rights, which still exist in America to this day. 8/10.
Disappointing film dealing with life in the Caribbean.The film might have fared better if it had been a musical. The movie marked the re-teaming of Harry Belafonte and the late Dorothy Dandridge from "Carmen Jones" fame 3 years before. Belafonte sings well at the beginning before this film evolves into too many plots, pregnancy, murder, racial tension, politics, etc. The subject matter is totally uneven and the film suffers as a result. Dandridge was never weaker before in any of her brief film career. She evokes little to no emotion and the luster of Carmen, 3 years before, is totally gone.There is entirely too much going on here. James Mason is caught up in a killing, running for political office, and facing the reality that he is partially black. Belafonte loves Joan Fontaine, of all people, but by the end can't marry her due to racial-political considerations on the island. Joan Collins loves Stephen Boyd, he is given so little to do here, but he will be in The House of Lords, so how can she marry him if their children might be black. (Collins and Mason are brother and sister in this Peyton Place circus-atmosphere.) To complicate matters still further, old timer Diana Wynyard, an Oscar nominee for 1933's "Cavalcade," appears in the film as the mother of Collins and Mason. She is effective in the part but the plot twists again when it is revealed that she had Collins from another man.Robert Rossen who directed this mess, did so much better years before with his winning "All the King's Men." That 1949 Oscar winner for best picture stuck with basically one theme. This one is all over the mull berry bush.
I actually liked this movie. It doesn't seem to get as much credit as it should, seeing that it is the first movie to ever star an interracial couple (between the beautiful Dorothy Dandridge and the cute John Justin. Also, would've been between much older, but good actress Joan Fontaine and handsome Harry Belafonte). The scenery is beautiful and the plot is very good, but I think it's the storyline and script that make it so bad. It really doesn't count for a romance seeing that Ms. Dandridge and Mr. Justin were hardly aloud to touch each other and another character got pregnant out of wedlock, who was white. But this if you want a great movie with a beautiful tropical set (filmed on location in the Caribbean), interracial romance, suspense, mystery, a little singing, race relations, and politics, I suggest this movie.