Masterful Movie

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Moby Dick with sex appeal. Another adaptation of The Pardoner's Tale (men turned against each other by greed) to a different historical context, a la The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Here the setting is a South Seas island and a whaling vessel in the 1850s, with a bag of pearls (especially an enormous black one) standing in for gold. Stewart Granger and Robert Taylor play off of each other well in a Cain and Abel dynamic. Ann Blythe makes good eye candy in a wardrobe of interesting period textiles, as the unfortunately named "Pris." Interesting to see a nineteenth-century set movie involving a woman at sea. Betta St. John is smoldering as her dark counterpart "The Native Girl," in politically incorrect grease paint. Other things to recommend it are Oscar-nominated cinematography, Lewis Stone's last film appearance, a rousing action score, and a harrowing whale chase with a rubber model complete with flippable fluke. Lots of great ship shots as well, and really remarkable art direction. A presumably authentic sequence of a whale being butchered and boiled for oil is a highlight, and has more grit and realism than one expects from these florid, high-seas romances. It seems the beach shots were filmed on location in Jamaica, a bit of a let-down because I was hoping I might catch some familiar Hawaii scenery, but they are beautiful and passable as Pacific locales nonetheless. The film looses momentum a bit toward the end, but on the whole it's more interesting and better done than many of the genre.

This film has quite a good story by Ben Ames Williams, which was competently brought to the screen. Robert Taylor is the "good" brother and Stewart Granger the "bad" one. Ann Blyth is the woman who marries Taylor thinking Granger is dead. Three years later Granger and Taylor would star in "The Last Hunt" with a reversal of roles: Granger as the "good" guy and Taylor the "bad". There are two aspects of this film which create a strong impression:1)the destructive relationship between the brothers, which started in childhood with Granger always taking for himself Taylor's toys. Now Granger wants to take away Taylor's ship and also his wife. 2)How Granger is able to seduce Ann Blyth by making her think her husband is a coward. Blyth is a bit too "angelical" for her role, when you see the ship you have the feeling you are seeing a miniature on MGM's tank, but both Granger and Taylor are excellent. Great entertainment.

A good old fashioned swashbuckler. Taylor's acting comes across as a bit wooden at times, but the scenes with his brother and the Polynesian girl are enticing.....reminiscent of Gauguin in Tahiti. A good way to get lost for a few hours.

I have seen this movie several times and discover something new every time. One of the best things about this movie is the flashback sequence with Granger fighting pirates Whitmore and Kasznar for a bag of pearls. The rest of the movie explains how he tries to get his brother [Taylor] to them back from the lagoon where they were lost. You will need to see this movie at least two times before you understand all of the hidden plot twists.