Devil's Island (1926)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Melodramatic and contrived in the extreme - even for 1926 - this is one of 10 surviving silents (out of 58) of Pauline Frederick and one of only two that are available on DVD. This great tragedienne is almost forgotten now, as so much of her work is lost.Marian Nixon, a young dramatic actress, whose face reminds one of Myrna Loy, tries valiantly, but like everyone else in the cast, with the exception of Ms. Frederick, manages to overact under inept direction. George Lewis as the son is handsome and effective as a young leading man. The only acting honors go though to Frederick, who must be noble throughout and age from a young woman to a suffering mother.The first part of the story takes up 25 minutes, the latter part with the son and mother the remaining 50 minutes. The print I saw on DVD is 75 minutes long, not the 70 listed on the IMDb site.Worth seeing only for Frederick.

A review of the Sunrise Silents DVD: This movie is worth seeing if only for its gorgeously pictorial photography; but of course it relies for its entertainment quality on more than just artistic lighting and captivating tints. One of its chief pleasures is the chance to catch the great Pauline Frederick in a typical role and thus be able to understand and appreciate why she became such a favorite with both critics and fans. She is superb: a subtle yet charismatic actress whose expressive eyes and even her stance convey emotive power. With the exception of the lovely Marian Nixon, the other players don't come close to Miss Frederick's eye-catching performance, but they give it a good try nonetheless. And it's certainly a revelation to see the young George J. Lewis impart such a virile yet charming account of the hero. Director Frank O'Connor is obviously a master of the camera-chained-to the-floor school of film-making (but see his next movie, The Block Signal, for a real change of style). His pacing is so agile and his staging and compositions so attractive, however, that few (if any) paying customers will notice that Barlatier's camera remains absolutely stationary for every second of the film's 70 minutes. In short, a must-see silent for every fan of the genre. The above review was based on the tinted, full-framed (black bars top and bottom) DVD that was once available from Sunrise Silents, a firm that has since gone out of business. A different print of the movie is now available from Alpha Video, which has both advantages (it runs longer and has not only extra scenes, but extra shots here and there) and disadvantages. Oddly, Alpha's longer black and white print isn't half as engaging. It has also been cut at the sides to enable full framing. More importantly, the extra coverage given to scenes such as the marriage market, including the whole sequence with the prisoner who is locked out, both enhance our interest in the proceedings, yet dissipate our involvement in the main action with Pauline Frederick and Richard Tucker. All told, I much prefer the shortened Sunrise Silents version, particularly because Pauline Frederick's performance comes across far, far more effectively. It's marvelous how a little extra coverage can either enhance a performance or undermine its effectiveness. Seeing the longer Alpha version makes you wonder why all the critics rave about Pauline Frederick. It's not only that Alpha's extra footage makes her pacing too slow, but that Alpha's music track distracts rather than enhances our attention.

Fascinating story and solid performances make this a good film.Story opens with the sentencing of a French army doctor (Richard Tucker) to Devil's Island for a life sentence. His fiancée (Pauline Frederick) is devastated. But French law allows (after seven years) for prisoners to marry and live in Cayenne. The glitch is that the wife and any children are also branded as convicts and must live out their lives in Cayenne.After 7 years, Frederick makes her way to Devil's Island and marries Tucker. They have a child who becomes a celebrated surgeon (George Lewis) after the father dies. The son and mother plan an escape but the son meets a girl (Marian Nixon) on the beach and they fall in love. The son tells mother he will not leave Rose-Marie behind. She too has been born into the convict thing. After they discover the girl is a dancer in a saloon and not a convent girl, the mother persuades the son to escape.But at that moment, they are summoned to the commandant's office. They fear their plans have been discovered but because of the son's great surgical skills, they have been pardoned and can return to France.Rose-Marie is left behind to rot in Cayenne. Safely back in France, the mother is wooed by an old friend (John Miljan) responsible for their pardon. The son, however, realizes his mistake in abandoning Rose-Marie.Marian Nixon is terrific as Rose-Marie and is convincing as the good girl born into hell. Pauline Frederick is majestic as the long-suffering wife and mother. George Lewis is solid as the son. Top supporting work from Richard Tucker and John Miljan. Harry Northrup is the commandant. William Dunn and Leo White are prisoners.