BIRD OF PARADISE
US, 1951, 100 minutes, Colour.
Debra Paget, Louis Jourdan, Jeff Chandler, Everett Sloane, Jack Elam.
Directed by Delmer Daves.
Bird of Paradise is a colourful remake of the 1932 film by King Vidor with Joel Mc Crea and Delores del Rio. The film was made on location in the Hawaiian Islands and purports to offer customs and dances and rituals authentically researched.
Jon Hall made this kind of film in the 30s as did Dorothy Lamour in her sarong adventures, so popular in-the late 30s and early 40s at Paramount studios. (She and Hall appeared together in John Ford's Hurricane.)
Louis Jourdan is the hero, a Frenchman who goes to the Islands and finds true love and the meaning of life. Debra Paget is the island princess who falls in love with him but who sacrifices herself to tee volcano for the sake of the island people (the kind of material parodied, not so effectively, by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in John Patrick Shanly's Joe versus the Volcano). Jeff Chandler is the island prince.
The film was written and directed by Delmer Daves who made a number of Warner Bros. romantic dramas in the 40s and is noted for his romantic melodramas of the 60s including Susan Slade, A Summer Place. During the 50s he made a number of westerns which focused on racial prejudice. Broken Arrow was a break-through western (starring Debra Paget and Jeff Chandler). Race issues are also presented in this film (with Jack Elam a particularly obnoxious racist.)
1. Colourful island melodrama? Romance?
2. Authentic Hawaiian locations? The sea and the islands? The authentically researched traditions? The musical score?
3. The title, the focus, the Pacific islands considered paradise? The inhabitants and their idyllic existence? The contrast with their beliefs, superstitions, religion, destruction?
4. The themes of racial prejudice and the convict and his vitriolic attack on the Kanakas? Sailing on the boat? The reaction of Andre, of Tenga? The passengers? The background of Tenga and white settlers marrying islanders?
5. Andre, the Frenchman befriending Tenga in the U.S., coming for a holiday, lack of racial prejudice? On the boat, to the island, swimming ashore, the witchdoctor and his warnings? The chief and his accepting Andre? Friendship with Tenga and life on the island? Idyllic? Hunting, swimming? preparing to receive the Mana? The love for the princess, her talking to him, the witchdoctor and the bad omens? The favourable omens? Tenga sending Andre to the island, his encounter with the
sailor, the sailors children, his bitter story and exile? The sailors return to the island and his being killed? The traditions for the marriage, the ceremony, the Princess choosing Andre, the ritual kidnapping; the marriage? No children? The possibility of a second wife, and Andre's handling the situation? The volcano, the eruption, the princess sacrificing herself, Andre's grief? his final words leaving the island?
6. Tenga, the prince, education in the West, returning home? Vigorous, hunting, the customs? Helping Andre? Helping bin with his parents? The gifts? Knowing that the princess had spoken to him? Arranging the marriage? Traditions, the sacrifice?
7. The princess, attracted to Andre, speaking to him, the silences? Going to the witch doctor, the omens? The choice, the kidnapping, the ceremony? No children, offering the second wife? The decision to sacrifice herself for the islanders, throwing herself into the volcano?
8. The sailor on the island, his history, bitterness, children, death, warning to Andre?
9. The witch doctor, the omens, threats? The confrontation with the King? The volcano and the sacrifice?
10. The King and his wife, traditions, rule over the islanders, over the witch doctor?
11. Popular sarong movies of the 40s and 50s? The exotic islands? Romance? underlying racial themes?
