This film contains two moments of inventive worth. The rest of it is dated beyond belief. Maybe historically interesting to some, and a rare example of what, in my youth, used to be called "full frontal" female nudity in a U Certificate film. (There is a four second shot shot of some hapless naked stand-in reflected upside-down in a pool of water.) Not worth bothering with as entertainment.
Douglas Fairbanks strands himself on a deserted South Sea island for a bet and spends a lot of time bounding about striking dramatic poses - he never walks anywhere - he bounds. Look at me! I am so Athletic Tra-La! And delivering all his lines as if he were a carnival barker drumming up business for some side show - then laughing at everything he says. He finds himself endlessly amusing. Some people are easily pleased.
The version I watched (another £1 wasted at Tesco's) is badly cropped down the right hand side of the screen. I would guess 10% of the width of the screen is missing - this particularly noticeable in the opening credits and on screen preamble.
The moments of inventive worth? Right at the start of the movie Fairbanks jumps off the boat. It is the most perfect getting off a boat jump I have ever seen. It is beautiful. And the final shots of the movie, when our 'Hero' has pimped his native girlie onto the stage to do native dancing, he is sat in the audience and they blow kisses to each other. Except they don't blow kisses because, as was established earlier in the movie, the natives don't kiss. They rub noses. So what Fairbanks and native girlie do is blow nose rubs to one another. I've never seen it done before or since. It's almost funny. It's certainly very odd.
Douglas Fairbanks strands himself on a deserted South Sea island for a bet and spends a lot of time bounding about striking dramatic poses - he never walks anywhere - he bounds. Look at me! I am so Athletic Tra-La! And delivering all his lines as if he were a carnival barker drumming up business for some side show - then laughing at everything he says. He finds himself endlessly amusing. Some people are easily pleased.
The version I watched (another £1 wasted at Tesco's) is badly cropped down the right hand side of the screen. I would guess 10% of the width of the screen is missing - this particularly noticeable in the opening credits and on screen preamble.
The moments of inventive worth? Right at the start of the movie Fairbanks jumps off the boat. It is the most perfect getting off a boat jump I have ever seen. It is beautiful. And the final shots of the movie, when our 'Hero' has pimped his native girlie onto the stage to do native dancing, he is sat in the audience and they blow kisses to each other. Except they don't blow kisses because, as was established earlier in the movie, the natives don't kiss. They rub noses. So what Fairbanks and native girlie do is blow nose rubs to one another. I've never seen it done before or since. It's almost funny. It's certainly very odd.