Very well executed

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

There is nothing in "The Hurricane" to distinguish it as a John Ford film, (it's really rather mediocre), but when the hurricane itself comes it is pretty impressive in a special effects kind of way as we watch the large cast get blown this way and that. The leads are Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour, (who else, I hear you ask), and they are pretty dull. Raymond Massey and John Carradine are the villains, Thomas Mitchell is a drunken doctor (naturally) and Mary Astor clings to a tree. Photographed in part in the South Seas giving it at least a smidgen of authenticity.

Wow, what a picture! If only someone would digitize, remaster and possibly colorize this flick. UCLA Film Archive, are you listening? Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour put on some great skin beauty candy for the viewers. Both had long natural hair and athletic bodies. And the special effects were before their time. The "wind" plays as a character in the movie. You would be surprised at these special effects, given it was filmed in 1937 without computers! On a different note, I wish all seven of Dorothy Lamour's sarong movies were available on DVD with tons of special features, remastered, of course! Did you know that one of Dorothy Lamour's sarongs is in exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum? I can't wait to read her "My Side of the Road" autobiography.

It took John Ford another 18 years to get back to the south seas as a film location after his award winning The Hurricane. He had an incomplete trip with Mister Roberts in 1955, but then made it back for Donovan's Reef in 1963. Both The Hurricane and Donovan's Reef deal with racism and have as their settings, French colonial possessions in the south Pacific. Of course Donovan's Reef takes a far more light hearted approach. In both films Ford feels that colonialism is at best a mixed blessing for the native populace.Jon Hall is a happy and content resident of the small island of Manakoora with a new wife. He's a sailor by trade, first mate on a ship captained by Jerome Cowan. While in Tahiti he defends himself in a barroom brawl, but gets sentenced for assault because he struck a white man. An obnoxious lout with political influence. His lot is made worse with repeated attempts to escape adding time on his sentence and all kinds of torture, physical and psychological, by a cruel guard played by John Carradine.Meanwhile back on Manakoora wife Dorothy Lamour gives birth to a child and Hall becomes something of a native folk hero. That's most unsettling to the Governor Raymond Massey. Massey is one uptight dude with a lot of issues. He says he's defending the law, but he knows he's defending the concept of white supremacy and that fact isn't escaping any of his peers including his own wife Mary Astor.Thomas Mitchell got nominated for his performance as a doctor with a bit of a thirst problem on Manakoora. A decent man, he's revolted by a lot of what he sees. As is C. Aubrey Smith the priest. Both Mitchell and Smith take comfort where they can, Mitchell in booze, Smith in his Catholic faith. Mitchell lost to Joseph Schildkraut for Best Supporting Actor, but two years later won with essentially the same role in Stagecoach.The Hurricane won the very first Oscar given out for Special Effects and the hurricane which should have been called a typhoon in that part of the world even today is something to see. You will not forget the fury of nature that destroys C. Aubrey Smith's church. This ain't your Wizard of Oz type storm.

I remember seeing this movie decades ago as a child and being frightened by the hurricane scenes. I saw the movie again last night on AMC and it was even better than I remembered.The special effects were far better than the computer generated ones of today. Sixty years before the real-life tsunami showed waves leaving villages and towns looking like Hiroshima, John Ford's movie dramatically showed similar results from a major hurricane. Utter devastation.In addition, the story line was excellent. What should be noted is that the movie was based on a book, "The Hurricane", written by Nordhoff and Hall. If their names sound familiar, you may have read their most famous book, "Mutiny on the Bounty". Two authors who certainly knew of the oceans and the South Seas.Wonderful.