User Reviews

Paramount designated DOROTHY LAMOUR their sarong girl and couldn't resist pairing her with JON HALL in another one of those South Seas epics that inevitably ends with the Gods getting angry enough to cause the local volcano to erupt. Well, it does erupt here and there's an earthquake too, but nothing atones for the banal script.

Paramount would repeat the story somewhat with RAINBOW ISLAND ('44), three years later, again a South Seas tale in Technicolor with a volcano erupting for the climactic scene but it was more a spoof of Lamour's usual films than ALOMA OF THE SOUTH SEAS, which takes itself seriously.

The plot has JON HALL sent off to England for an education (as a tot he's played by Scotty Beckett, another unlikely child performer to turn into Jon Hall). When he returns to the island, he picks up his romance with native gal Lamour until all hell breaks loose to stir things up for the finale. But it's too late to rescue the film from boredom.

Summing up: Prettily photographed in Oscar-nominated Technicolor and some Special Effects, also Oscar-nominated, but hardly worth all the expense.

PARAMOUNT followed up box-office success TYPHOON (1940) with a remake of ALOMA OF THE SOUTH SEAS (1926). Jon Hall (TANOA) replacing Robert Preston as the male lead with Dorothy Lamour (ALOMA) as his romantic South-Seas interest (again). Lynne Overman (CORKY) is along for the ride as the older male-mentor and for comedy relief.

THE NUTS; TANOA is prepared for Kingship of his tropical paradise by being sent too the U.S.A. to learn Western knowledge with CORKY as chaperon. ALOMA in his absence is being groomed as future consort and Queen. Childhood friend/rival REVO (Phillip Reed) now is more interested in ALOMA then KARI (Katherine DeMille) who loves him. This creates a complicated love QUADRANGLE! It is resolved, unfortunately for two (2) of them not very happily. Then again Murder and Volcanic eruptions are not really the way to solve such problems.

Like THE HURRICANE (1937) and TYPHOON (1940) this film ends with the BIG DISASTER. It is not in there league. Though with Gordon Jennings at the helm of the SFX for PARAMOUNT you get your money's worth, though it only lasts about six (6) minutes. Being in TechniColor it is most impressive. SFX shots were very difficult composites with the Three (3) Strip TechniColor film stock. This is WAY before digital com-positing created seamless effects. Only a master like Jennings can make it credible, he knew the limitations of the time so they had to be over the top and startling, exceeding expectations. The eruption later found itself into other films including WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (1951) and ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT (1961).

Unfortunately it is not possible to judge the film against its silent (1926) predecessor. PARAMOUNT being particularly lax in the preservation of its film library and history. Unfortunately UNIVERSAL the current owner of its library is just as indifferent. No doubt hoping all will rot away so they can just use them for a tax write-off for decades of projected loss income. A typical short-term solution by 'Big Business'.

ALOMA OF THE SOUTH SEAS is typical of a series of pictures made by Paramount Studios during the late '30s and early '40s, set on some far-off tropical island paradise with a sarong-clad Dorothy Lamour. While these features may have wanted for sophistication and better production values, box office returns clearly indicated that American audiences, weary of a debilitating depression and a demanding war effort, were more than willing to buy tickets to a proxy Polynesia for an hour and a half's escape from reality.

Escape from reality is right, because these movies were as far removed from reality as the Oort Cloud is from the Earth. But they were popular enough to make the unpretentious Miss Lamour one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood at the time. In fact, she is the main reason I purchased a copy of this film from an online source, though more for its historical value than for any erudition one might expect. As a movie collector, I wanted to have at least one Dorothy Lamour sarong picture in which she was not accompanied by Crosby and Hope and this - THE HURRICANE notwithstanding - is the one I liked best.

Not that it is a good movie. It isn't but, to be enjoyed at all, it must be viewed within the context of its time. The plot is almost non-existent. It's the old eternal triangle in which two erstwhile boyhood friends Tanoa (Jon Hall) and Revo (Philip Reed) vie for the hand of Aloma (Lamour). That's it! There is a faint hint of some kind of island revolt but it never materializes, so the only question is who will be left to embrace Aloma at the fadeout. Incredibly, the situation is resolved not through the efforts or ingenuity of any of the principals, but by a convenient geological cataclysm: a spectacular volcanic eruption that's actually worth waiting for (and explains my overly generous rating of 8).

Dorothy Lamour does well enough in her lightweight role as the island maiden, but Jon Hall is too beefy to pass for the virile Polynesian native chieftain in a skimpy wrap-around. He is also betrayed by the script. As a leader of his people who had studied in America (including Harvard, of all places) he has absolutely nothing to do except moon over Miss Lamour (Nice work, if you can get it!). As for the islanders themselves, they come out in droves for the ritualistic dances but, at all other times, are noticeably absent.

Yet, even left as is, ALOMA could have benefited immeasurably from actual outdoor locations, as did the silent 1926 version which was shot in Puerto Rico and Bermuda. By confining filming to a sound stage, Paramount left us with a claustrophobic effect that looks more like the interior of a lush greenhouse than sultry island.

In her memoir, "My Side of the Road," Dorothy Lamour recalled, with some amusement, a harrowing experience while filming ALOMA. "During the volcanic explosion, I was supposed to swing across a gorge from one ledge to another but I didn't push off hard enough and was short of my target. Then, as I swung back, I couldn't reach the other ledge either. The crew urged me to let go the vine and jump but it looked like too far a drop so I clung on for dear life. As I struggled to stay on, I could feel my sarong slowly unravel until it finally slipped off. Everyone was laughing but I hung on until I was rescued." The scene was reshot with Lamour clinging to Jon Hall.

ALOMA OF THE SOUTH SEAS is a movie that can be enjoyed, but only if viewed as a diversion; otherwise, it will seem antiquated and silly.