Mercy Island

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Movie
Original title Mercy Island
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1941
length 72 minutes
Rod
Director William Morgan
script Malcolm Stuart Boylan
production Armand Schaefer for Republic Pictures
music Walter Scharf , Cy Fire
camera Reggie Lanning
cut Murray Seldeen
Ernest J. Nims
occupation

Mercy Island is a 1941 American drama directed by William Morgan. The script goes back to Theodore Pratt's novel of the same name, which was first published in New York in 1941.

The film received an Oscar nomination in the category "Best Film Music".

action

Warren Ramsey, known as Ram by his friends, is an extremely ambitious lawyer. He is on vacation in the Florida Keys with his wife Leslie . They charter a boat to visit Clay Foster, Warren's college friend. They want to go fishing together. Two of the local Conks, as the natives are called, Captain Lowe and his dockboy Wicey, pick up the trio on their boat, and Warren also has a huge fish on the line. Everything seems fine. When the fish manages to break free, the lawyer insists on going after him. Lowes and Wicey's warnings that they might get lost in the labyrinth of islets are ignored. Without further ado , he takes over the helm himself and promptly the boat runs onto a reef , where Warren sustains a head wound and loses consciousness. The propeller of the boat will be lost. The group is stranded on a nearby island after Warren regains consciousness. Wicey has become increasingly nervous as they explore the island. You will come across a small garden and a hut. Shortly afterwards, a man appears who tells them that he is Captain Powell, a former seafarer, who is seeking rest here. Warren, suspicious as always, doesn't believe the story, especially since the man expertly sews and tends his head wound.

The evening is quiet, Wicey has gone to look for the propeller while the others are gathering food. During the night, Warren wakes up and suddenly knows who the stranger is - Dr. Sanderson. After recalling the context, he tells the others that Sanderson fled the mainland after being charged with manslaughter. Sanderson had been a prison doctor and had given a man who was about to be executed a sedative for panic. The man died shortly afterwards. As a result, Sanderson was dismissed and charged by the governor. It was assumed that he wanted to spare the man the execution. A mysterious package of money convinced the jury that the man's family had bribed Sanderson to this extent, although Sanderson had always stuck to his statement that he had only wanted to take away the man's great fear. It turns out that Wicey and his father helped Sanderson hide on the island after the doctor saved Wicey from death after being bitten by a moray eel .

Warren is now obsessed with the idea of ​​bringing Sanderson back to the mainland to take on his defense. Clay is convinced, however, that Ram is not interested in doing justice to the doctor, but only in reaping glory for himself. Tensions grow between the so different people, including Warren's concussions and obsessions that Clay and Leslie are having an affair, the heat and lack of food contribute. After Wicey and Lowe find the propeller, they hide it from Ram to prevent it from forcing Sanderson to come with it. Clay, who has loved Leslie since he was in college with Warren, tries to convince the beautiful young woman to go with him, but she refuses. Even when Sanderson explains to her that Warren is schizophrenic , she sticks to her opinion. Ram finds the propeller but can't do anything with it because Wicey removed and buried the engine's distributor cap. Since Lowe has caught a sea bass, everyone meets to eat, except Ram, who is busy trying to repair the boat.

Later that evening, Wicey hangs the fish's head over the hiding place of the distributor cap to pull the protection of a giant alligator that lives on the island onto it. This endeavor, however, ends extremely tragically, as the completely confused Ram begins to dig there and is killed by the alligator. While Lowe, Wicey, Clay and Leslie return to the mainland the next day, Sanderson also says goodbye to the island.

production

Production notes

The shooting lasted from August 13th to the end of August 1941, some repeats were shot in early September 1941. The underwater scenes in the film were filmed in Silver Springs, Florida . The prologue appears in the film: “In 1513 Juan Ponce de León was looking for the mythical fountain of youth in Florida. Today he would be a wise old sailor and choose a bowl of fish soup. Our story is about the countless Florida Keys , of which Mercy Island is one, as well as the strangely distant clans of Conks, where the fish swim in the shimmering water and the strangers who charter the boats never end. "

Adele Palmer was responsible for the cloakroom in the film.

background

Press photos for the film identified Ross Allen, a well-known wrestler and alligator trainer, as a technical consultant. He helped select locations in Florida and oversaw the scenes in which alligators appeared. Theodore Pratt's book, which served as the template for the script, was bought by Republic Pictures for $ 17,500, according to Variety and the Los Angeles Times . Originally John Wayne was supposed to play a role in the film.

publication

The film premiered in the United States on October 10, 1941. In Portugal it was published on April 3, 1944 under the title A Ilha do Ódio .

Award

Cy Feuer and Walter Scharf were nominated for an Oscar with the film at the Academy Awards in 1942 in the category “Best Film Music in a Drama” , but this was awarded to Bernard Herrmann and the fantasy film Der Teufel und Daniel Webster (The Devil and Daniel Webster resp. All That Money Can Buy) went.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mercy Island (1941) Screenplay Info at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)
  2. ↑ Mercy Island (1941) Original Print Information at TCM (English)
  3. ↑ a b Mercy Island (1941) at TCM (English)
  4. ↑ The 14th Academy Awards | 1942 at oscars.org (English)