SANGAREE

US, 1953, 94 minutes, Colour.
Fernando Lamas, Arlene Dahl, Patricia Medina, Francis L.Sullivan, Charles Korvin, Tom Drake, John Sutton, Willard Parker, Lester Matthews.
Directed by Edward Ludwig.

This is the type of historical and romantic melodrama that was very popular in the late 1940s, early 1950s. While it is basically entertaining for later audiences, it now seems very much a lush indulgence from the past.

The setting is the immediate past of the War of Independence. The setting is Georgia. The focus is on a property, Sangaree, as well as trade of the produce of the property and the threat of pirates.

Fernando Lamas was a leading man at this time, from Latin America, popular as a romantic lead as well as singing (as in The Merry Widow with Lana Turner). Here he portrays Carlos, a man born poor, adopted by the owner of Sangaree, serving in the war, returning and asked to manage the property and business by the dying owner. His actual son, Roy, played by Tom Drake, is willing to concede management to Carlos. However, the complication is the ambitious sister, Nancy, played by Arlene Dahl (who was to marry Lamas after this). She deceives him by posing on a riverboat as a servant and then revealing herself, haughtily, coldly, at a society reception.

Also in the act is the local Doctor Bristol, played by British Francis L. Sullivan and his manipulative son played by John Sutton. There is fear of plague in the city, Carlos wanting to do something about it and actually being elected to the health officer of the region gaining the of Dr Bristol as well as his son who is engaged to Nancy. This provides the opportunity for a beefy brawl in a local tavern.

There is also a suspicious Frenchman, Pagnol, Charles Kaufman, who is suspected of being the leader of the pirates.

Carlos and Nancy have a great deal of rivalry but she manages the estate well, Carlos and Nancy each succumbing to each other’s charms – but the romance spoiled by his suspicion that she is in league with the pirates. Of course, she is not.

Another complication is Roy’s wife, Martha, Patricia Medina, who has always been in love with Carlos and eventually betrays him with the pirates. And, for her comeuppance, she contracts the plague.

There is a final drama with Dr Bristol refusing entry into his warehouses – Carlos able to infiltrate the warehouse and it is revealed that it is stopped with all the pirated goods from Sangaree and is filled with rats and dead slaves, the source of the plague.

Tongue-in-cheek entertainment, 1950s style – and this film was Paramount venture into the use of 3-D in 1953.