Adventure in the South Seas

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Movie
German title Adventure in the South Seas
Original title Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1942
length 98 minutes
Rod
Director John Cromwell
script Philip Dunne
production Darryl F. Zanuck ,
William Perlberg
music Alfred Newman
camera Arthur C. Miller
cut Walter Thompson
occupation

Adventure in the South Seas (Original title: Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake ) is an American adventure film with Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney from 1942. The novel Benjamin Blake (1941) by Edison Marshall served as a literary model .

action

In the English city ​​of Bristol , during the reign of George III. the young Benjamin Blake with his grandfather, the armorer Amos Kidder. His mother Bessie once ran away with his father, Sir Godfrey Blake, the Baron von Breetholm, and died with him in India . Although it is believed that Benjamin's parents were never married, Amos devotedly cares for his allegedly illegitimate grandson. However, when Benjamin's uncle Sir Arthur Blake learns of the existence of his nephew and sees his claim to Breetholm in danger, he brings Benjamin to his home and makes him his servant, whom he then suppresses and harasses.

Over the years Benjamin grows up to be a man and falls in love with his cousin Isabel, Arthur's lovely daughter. One evening, when he confides in Isabel that he wants to run away, she promises him to wait for him and to marry him as soon as he gets his inheritance back. When Arthur meets the two of them together, he knocks Benjamin out and then threatens to take him to prison. However, Benjamin manages to escape and smuggle himself onto the ship Tropic Star , on which he soon proves himself to be a capable sailor. He befriends the sailor Caleb Green, who tells him about a South Sea island where valuable pearls can be found. One night they secretly leave the ship and swim to the said island. After gaining the trust of the natives there, they find numerous pearls and enjoy an idyllic life. Benjamin falls in love with a beautiful island resident, whom he calls Eve from then on and who after a short time takes him as his wife. Both are happy with each other. However, Eve feels that Benjamin is homesick, which is why she benevolently lets him go when a Dutch ship anchors off the island and brings Benjamin back to his home.

Back in England, his pearls make him a handsome fortune and the services of influential lawyer Bartholomew Pratt, who wants to help him reclaim Breetholm - his legacy and property - from Arthur. When Benjamin visits Isabel and she assures him that she still loves him, she has him arrested surprisingly. In court he is accused of attacking his employer and of having escaped, which is why he is to be sentenced to death. However, his lawyer can prove in time that his client's parents were married on the ship to India, so that Benjamin is the legal heir of Breetholm and can therefore not be found guilty. After his release, Benjamin learns that it was Isabel who betrayed him. Together with her father, he drives her out of his house, where from now on his grandfather Amos will spend his old age. Benjamin then returns to his island to lead a happy life with Eve.

background

Adventure in the South Seas is based on the novel Benjamin Blake by Edison Marshall, which was published in the United States in 1941. The original storyline, in which Eve commits suicide and Benjamin does not return to the island but stays with Isabel in England, has been changed in favor of a happy ending. Due to the censorship, it had to be made clear in the film that Benjamin and Eve consider themselves officially married through tribal rituals. Also let Darryl F. Zanuck , the studio head of 20th Century Fox , the story in a different time embarrassed to the actors to spare the wearing of wigs.

Originally Ida Lupino provided for the role of Isabel, but she entered instead in the movie Night at the port of (1942). Then Maureen O'Hara should take over the role, but she could not fill in due to acute appendicitis, whereupon Frances Farmer finally got the part. The film was shot from September 4 to November 15, 1941. The South Seas recordings were made in Honolulu , Hawaii .

The film was released on January 29, 1942 in US cinemas. In Germany, Adventure in the South Seas was published on June 27, 1949. 20th Century Fox later made a remake under the title Im Reiche des Golden Condor (1953). Cornel Wilde starred under the direction of Delmer Daves .

Reviews

“Entertaining romantic costume film; effectively staged, ”said the lexicon of international films . The film was "a little too long" for Variety . Some sequences would have "slowed down" the narrative flow. Nevertheless, the action requires "undivided attention". The film is by and large "solid, convincing entertainment". Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote that South Seas Adventure was, to put it mildly, "an overly imaginative film." The production looks quite "handsome and complex", but the sets and actors could not convince.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b cf. Notes on tcm.com
  2. ↑ Adventure in the South Seas. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 2, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ "Running time is a little long, with some sequences slowing the action down, but generally the story commands rapt attention and, on the whole, emerges as sound compelling entertainment." See Son of Fury - The Story of Benjamin Blake . In: Variety , 1942.
  4. ↑ “To say that it is an excessively fanciful film would be a mild statement. [...] And the production is polished and rich. " Bosley Crowther : 'Son of Fury,' a Swashbuckling Adventure-Romance From the Novel 'Benjamin Blake,' Arrives at the Roxy Theater . In: The New York Times , January 30, 1942.