Ronald Reagan (Dan McCloud), Rhonda Fleming (Flanders White), Noah Beery Jr (Tapachula Sam), Estelita Rodriguez (Elena), Grant Withers (Bert Nelson), John Wengraf (Lukats), Argentina Brunetti (Tia Feliciana), Rico Alanez (Captain Basilio), Maurice Jara (Marcario), Pilar Del Rey (Victoriana), Nacho Galindo (willing worker).
Director: LEWIS R. FOSTER. Screenplay: Lewis R. Foster. Based on the 1940 novel Gentleman of the Jungle by Tom Gill. Photographed in Technicolor by Lionel Lindon. Film editor: Howard Smith. Music: Lucien Cailliet. Song "I'm in the Mood for Love" (harmonica solo) by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh. Art directors: Hal Pereira, Earl Hedrick. Costumes: Edith Head. Dance director: Jack Baker. Producers: William H. Pine, William C. Thomas. A Pine-Thomas Production.
Copyright 1 January 1953 (in notice: 1952) by Paramount Piuctures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: January 1953. U.K. release: 15 June 1953. Australian release: 24 April 1953. 94 minutes. Cut to 91 minutes in the U.K.
SYNOPSIS: Freed from his long-term contact at Warner Bros, and now on his own as a freelance actor, Ronald Reagan was faced with the problem of finding work. Not just end-of-the-road assignments, but decent pictures that would maintain his star standing in the industry. His agent informed him that the going would be tough. 'Tropic Zone', a "B" readied by the Pine-Thomas mill, proved the best of a mere handful of offers.
In 'Tropic Zone', Pine-Thomas explored the hazards of growing bananas amid greed and corruption in Central America. The film is actually a western, with plantations instead of ranches, and bananas instead of cattle.
Reagan plays Dan McCloud, a roguish American on the run from a neighboring republic because of his involvement in a deposed political faction. Since McCloud is an expert fruit farmer, he is given a job by the local banana baron (John Wengraf), who wants to corner the market by taking over all the other plantations, including one owned by lovely Flanders White (Rhonda Fleming).
COMMENT: By the humble standards of the "Two Dollar Bills", this is a reasonably fair adventure yarn, a bit long in the telling, more than a bit predictable in the plotting, but moderately well acted and directed.
Reagan has much his usual role as the hero who trades in his feet of clay for an iron fist. The other players, led by the over-decorative Rhonda Fleming and the delightfully villainous John Wengraf, are also appropriately typecast.
But the movie's main appeal lies neither in its story nor its actors, but in Lionel 'Around the World in 80 Days' Lindon's lush Technicolor cinematography.
OTHER VIEWS: Except for his final film, The Killers (1964) — which was actually designed for TV anyway — Ronald Reagan was always personable and almost always a Mr. Nice Guy. A bit slow on the uptake maybe, but a hero who in the end could always be relied upon to embrace what the script thought was right.
And not the least of his virtues, so far as women picture-goers were concerned anyway, was his impeccable dress sense. Conservative to the extreme — except perhaps for a too rakish tilt of the hat — Ronnie was rarely anything but a model of sartorial refinement. Even his down-and-out-in-the-tropics attire for 'Tropic Zone" was supremely well-cut. — John Howard Reid writing as Tom Howard.
Director: LEWIS R. FOSTER. Screenplay: Lewis R. Foster. Based on the 1940 novel Gentleman of the Jungle by Tom Gill. Photographed in Technicolor by Lionel Lindon. Film editor: Howard Smith. Music: Lucien Cailliet. Song "I'm in the Mood for Love" (harmonica solo) by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh. Art directors: Hal Pereira, Earl Hedrick. Costumes: Edith Head. Dance director: Jack Baker. Producers: William H. Pine, William C. Thomas. A Pine-Thomas Production.
Copyright 1 January 1953 (in notice: 1952) by Paramount Piuctures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: January 1953. U.K. release: 15 June 1953. Australian release: 24 April 1953. 94 minutes. Cut to 91 minutes in the U.K.
SYNOPSIS: Freed from his long-term contact at Warner Bros, and now on his own as a freelance actor, Ronald Reagan was faced with the problem of finding work. Not just end-of-the-road assignments, but decent pictures that would maintain his star standing in the industry. His agent informed him that the going would be tough. 'Tropic Zone', a "B" readied by the Pine-Thomas mill, proved the best of a mere handful of offers.
In 'Tropic Zone', Pine-Thomas explored the hazards of growing bananas amid greed and corruption in Central America. The film is actually a western, with plantations instead of ranches, and bananas instead of cattle.
Reagan plays Dan McCloud, a roguish American on the run from a neighboring republic because of his involvement in a deposed political faction. Since McCloud is an expert fruit farmer, he is given a job by the local banana baron (John Wengraf), who wants to corner the market by taking over all the other plantations, including one owned by lovely Flanders White (Rhonda Fleming).
COMMENT: By the humble standards of the "Two Dollar Bills", this is a reasonably fair adventure yarn, a bit long in the telling, more than a bit predictable in the plotting, but moderately well acted and directed.
Reagan has much his usual role as the hero who trades in his feet of clay for an iron fist. The other players, led by the over-decorative Rhonda Fleming and the delightfully villainous John Wengraf, are also appropriately typecast.
But the movie's main appeal lies neither in its story nor its actors, but in Lionel 'Around the World in 80 Days' Lindon's lush Technicolor cinematography.
OTHER VIEWS: Except for his final film, The Killers (1964) — which was actually designed for TV anyway — Ronald Reagan was always personable and almost always a Mr. Nice Guy. A bit slow on the uptake maybe, but a hero who in the end could always be relied upon to embrace what the script thought was right.
And not the least of his virtues, so far as women picture-goers were concerned anyway, was his impeccable dress sense. Conservative to the extreme — except perhaps for a too rakish tilt of the hat — Ronnie was rarely anything but a model of sartorial refinement. Even his down-and-out-in-the-tropics attire for 'Tropic Zone" was supremely well-cut. — John Howard Reid writing as Tom Howard.