The rebel from Java

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Movie
German title The rebel from Java
Original title Fair Wind to Java
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1953
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Joseph Kane
script Richard Tregaskis
production Joseph Kane
music Victor Young
camera Jack Marta
cut Richard L. Van Enger
occupation

The Rebel of Java (Original Title: Fair Wind to Java ) is an American adventure film from 1953 directed by Joseph Kane . The leading roles are cast with Fred MacMurray and Vera Ralston .

The film is based on Garland Roark's novel Fair Wind to Java , published in Garden City , New York in 1948 .

action

This story begins about three weeks before a terrible natural disaster. An American sailing ship cruises in Javanese waters. It is Gerrymander who controls Captain Boll for the Calva and Adams company in Boston. Boll heads for Surabaya after repelling an attack by a pirate ship. His first mate is jealous of him and wants his job. Since the ship has not made a profit in the past few months, its goal seems to be getting closer. Boll learns from Soerabaja, an Indonesian whose life he once saved, that a junk that sank is said to have had the famous Pieterzoon diamonds on board, which have disappeared. Soerabaja also tells him that a man named Saint Ebenzer, a naturalized former Dutch citizen, is after the diamonds. He explicitly warns Boll against this. Immediately afterwards, Soerabaja is ambushed by Ebenezer's men. This time Boll is late, the old man has been killed. Ebenezer is still there, however, and is now warning Boll in turn against looking for the diamonds, if he did, it would be certain death.

When Boll inquires about the secret cargo, he is presented with a dancer who has been kidnapped from a sultan's palace. After tough negotiations, Boll pays 450 guilders for them and has them brought to his ship, hidden in a box. Flint observes the captain and not only notices that he is smuggling a slave on board, but also that Boll is asking the woman about the Pieterzoon diamonds. He blackmails him with his knowledge and suggests a partnership that Boll is forced to get involved in. When the captain tried again to learn something about the diamonds from Kim Kim, the kidnapped woman, she indignantly turned him out of the room. The other day he tells her about his dream of owning his own ship and how hard he had to get through. Touched, Kim replies that she will do everything to make his dream come true. Shortly afterwards she tells him about an island with a mountain and a temple dedicated to the fire god Vishnu . Her mother went there with her once and told her that the Pieterzoon diamonds belonged to Vishnu. The diamonds are sun and fire, like Vishnu. The island is an island of fire with a volcano. Her father was killed because of the diamonds he brought back there.

Flint is now not idle, and tries to incite the crew against Boll, which backfires. As they sail towards the island with Vishnu's temple, Kim Kim fears that the god will be upset. But also Saint Ebenezer, aka Pulo Bazaar, heads for the island. In a moment of inattention, Basar and his men attack the "Gerrymander". A fight ensues that ends with Captain Boll and his crew as well as Kim Kim being overpowered and taken to Besar's island fortress. Pulo Besar, as he calls himself there, rules there in unimaginable luxury. When Kim refuses to dance, Kim orders her to be tortured in order to whip out the secret of the Pieterzoon diamonds. However, the young woman is absolutely silent. Even when her mother is shown to her, who is also supposed to be tortured, Kim Kim refuses. Only when she is threatened with killing Boll does she agree to lead Besar to the treasure.

The pirate ship is now heading for the volcanic island of Krakatau. Boll finds a way to free himself and his men and to pursue the pirates. The pirates who are on the "Gerrymander" can be put out of action and so take over the ship again and follow Besar's ship. As the ships approach the island, there is already a huge rumble there, a volcanic eruption is announced. But Besar ignores the danger in anticipation of the diamonds in the temple, and Boll is hot on his heels. When Boll realizes that Kim Kim is in dire danger, all that matters to him is to save her. At the last second he pulls her out of the danger zone and takes her to the "Gerrymander". When they both look back, the volcano erupts and the island sinks, and with it Besar. Boll and Kim Kim hug. Although the Pieterzoon diamonds are lost for him, Boll can fulfill his dream of owning a ship, because he receives 100,000 guilders from the Dutch authorities for the handover of Besar's island fortress. Boll buys the “Gerrymander”, which will be used to steer the seas in the future, and of course his wife will also be on board: Kim Kim.

Production notes and background

The film was shot between June 23 and mid-October 1952. Parts of the film were shot at Point Dume in Malibu , California , while other shots were shot in Hilo , Hawaii . A lagoon and volcano were built on the Republic Pictures site. It is not known whether the plans to shoot films in Indonesia, as reported by the Hollywood Reporter in April 1951, were realized . 25 stuntmen were used in the scenes with the pirates. It is a film made by Republic Pictures Corp. The brothers Howard and Theodore Lydecker were responsible for the special effects in the film. The costumes are from Adele Palmer . Contemporary promotional materials reported at the time that the film cost $ 2,000,000 to make.

The world premiere of the film took place on January 28, 1953 in Miami and Miami Beach . On April 28, 1953, the film ran generally in the United States. The Java Rebel premiered on October 6, 1953 in the Federal Republic of Germany and in March 1954 in Austria.

After the success of the film Wake of the Red Witch , which was based on Garland Roark's novel of the same name, Republic Pictures President Herbert J. Yates also bought the rights to Roark's new adventure novel Fair Wind Java . Although Hollywood Reporters reported that John K. Butler was to write the script, it was then written by Richard Tregaskis, a war correspondent who had just returned from Indonesia. John Wayne, who played the main male role in Wake of the Red Witch (German title: Im Banne der Roten Witch ), was originally intended for the main role in this film, but this was not the case. Another film that took on the subject of Krakatau was the 1969 Cinerama production Krakatoa - The Greatest Adventure of the Last Century by Bernard L. Kowalski , starring Maximilian Schell , Diane Baker and Brian Keith .

Accompanying commentary at the beginning of the film: “In 1883 one of the greatest natural disasters the world had ever known took place in the Dutch East Indies . Volcanoes and violent earthquakes are nothing unusual on Java and the many surrounding large and small islands. But the eruption of Krakatau surpassed anything that had come before. The huge explosion could still be felt 5000 miles away, in which the island literally jumped to pieces and 50,000 people drowned in the immense tidal wave that washed over the neighboring islands. "

Krakatau

is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. In the eruption on August 27, 1883, the island was almost completely destroyed. This eruption was the second largest volcanic eruption in modern times. 165 towns and villages were destroyed and 36,417 people were killed on the surrounding islands. Two thirds of the volcanic island sank into the sea.

Vishnu

is originally a Vedic deity, a god of the sun, light and warmth, who set time in motion, pervaded the universe and measured space.

criticism

HHT went into the New York Times about the premiere of the film and was not very enthusiastic. He spoke of an exotic ornate place of work for Fred MacMurray, Vera Ralston and the other actors. The critic also disliked the constantly inflated striving for painterly effects, and the dialogues and senseless brawls that he described as "stupid" did not find his approval. The actors would drag themselves on until the bitter finale.

In At-A-Glance Film Reviews , the verdict was no better. The low-budget seafaring adventure lacks perspective, tension and the appearance of a plot is not even rudimentary.

Cinema spoke of an "exciting adventure with a truly explosive climax" and Cinefacts said: "Gripping adventure film". For the lexicon of international film, it was a matter of "brightly colored adventure cinema ".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fair Wind to Java (1953) - Screenplay Info. In: Turner Classic Movies . Accessed April 10, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ a b Fair Wind to Java (1953) - Original Print Info. In: Turner Classic Movies . Accessed April 10, 2020 (English).
  3. ^ A b Fair Wind to Java (1953) - Notes. In: Turner Classic Movies . Accessed April 10, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ Fair Wind to Java posterdb.de
  5. ↑ HHT: Brawling Adventure, Fair Wind to Java In: The New York Times, August 28, 1953 (English). Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  6. ↑ Fair Wind to Java at rinkworks.com (English)
  7. ↑ The Rebel of Java at cinema.de (with pictures)
  8. ↑ The Rebel of Java at cinefacts.de. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  9. ↑ The Rebel of Java. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used