User Reviews

This one presents the Joseph Conrad "Victory" as an early sound vehicle for Nancy Carrol. That's already twisting the plot, though she does manage the right note in between soiled flower and self respect. The characters come missing any back stories (no beware of pity here) which does get through the plot in an hour but makes it less involving.

A "Where there ain't no ten commandments and a man can raise a thirst" caption (from the lyrics of "Road to Mandalay") takes us into sustained tracking across Warner Oland's Surabaya hell hole bar with our heroine looking worse for wear while singing with Evelyn Selbie's all girl orchestra. Selbie's husband Clarence Wilson is putting moves on Nancy so the orchestra leader tells her to go be nice to the customers.

Richard Arlen shows up alone in his freshly laundered whites and gets token dialogue about "I was always a failure at living with people." Even this defeats his attempts at delivering it with conviction. Dick gets along with Nancy but has the wrong idea when he overhears her telling Wilson to wait for her in her room, not knowing that Oland has set himself up next door with equally lecherous intent and she's foisting them off on one another.

Without any delay Wilson is dead at the foot of the stairs and the sinister trio of Gustrave Von Seyfertitz, George Kotsonaros and Francis McDonald are standing over the body.

To escape, Nancy stows away on the Arlen yacht and arrives at his home ("You're sort of an Island King") where he offers to bank role her passage back to the 'States but, before there's any time for will they or won't they, Oland has told the bad hats that Dick has a fortune in gold and McDonald with a knife strapped to his leg has his passion inflamed by the description of Nancy. Perpetual swarthy bit player McDonald manages the just right amount of flamboyant over take acting honors.

They show up at the island home "We were passing in our sloop and saw your light" and there's brief action where Willy Fung (the Asians are billed below the white performers) figures prominently.

The talented cast and crew wrestling with inexperience of sound manage to make some of the qualities of the Conrad original visible. This one is a kind of wobbly Readers Digest version but still worth a look. It was simultaneously filmed in five languages and slots in between the 1920 Maurice Tourneur-Jack Holt version and the 1940 John Cromwell- Fredric March one.

It's also Wellman's third or fourth sound film, an advance on his 1929 Richard Arlen boxing film MAN I LOVE that I once forked out the cost of a sixteen Millimeter print on and an interesting comparison with the director's other sweaty tropics movie, the 1931 SAFE in HELL - more bamboo curtains and islander music. The finish is rough with some awkward edits but it's interesting to see Wellman coming to terms with the new form - long trackings, sound leading fade ins, Fung tending two new graves on the beach.

Nancy Carroll (,Alma) is a forgotten actress. Why? She followed Clara Bow ( aka "The It Gir") at Paramount. She is also a native New Yorker and is a redhead ( like Clara) and even looks a bit like her ( although Clara is hotter). Nancy is the primary reason to watch Dangerous Paradise ( although the villains are worth watching ( especially Warner Oland's Schomberg)). Nancy is treated badly throughout the movie by everyone ( not just by Schomberg). This includes being misunderstood by the man she loves Heyst ( Richard Arlen) who believes the worst about her. Arlen's problem is he lives as a hermit on an Island because he got burned by a woman before and he is a coward who is afraid to live ( Nancy accused him of it and he admitted it). It takes until the end of the movie and a battle against Oland and another bad guy to finally wake up. Do they get together? Yes! Spoilers ahead: At the very end, Nancy is leaving but he tells her, we got through this ( near death) so we can get through anything and he is leaving with her.... So they can get married and as Nancy said: "Return to Paradise." The problem with Dangerous Paradise is too much talking and not enough action ( shocking because it is Directed by William Wellman who excels at action ( Wings and The Public Enemy to name two examples)). I can say the best scenes are the ones with Nancy (especially when dealing with Oland), and except for Arlen's fight not a single scene without Nancy is worth watching. Speaking of watching, I saw this on OK. RU which is the best site for hard to find movies ( although they do not have the Gary Cooper version of The Spoilers my most want to see film). Anyway I give Dangerous Paradise 6/10 stars slightly above average. Mostly for Nancy Carroll.

The lovely Nancy Carroll bore such a close resemblance to fellow Paramount contract player Clara Bow that even with the attempts of casting her as long suffering and fragile while Bow took on the more floozy parts, she came off as a frightened waif. Here, she's on a tropical island with pretty much the scum of the earth. Meeting recluse Richard Arlen, she badgers him to visit his island, all the while fighting to prevent hotel owner Warner Boland and employee Clarence Wilson from taking advantage of her and resulting in violence and unjustified accusations towards her. This is up there with a dozen other "Island of Lost Souls" style movies where actors like Carroll, Bow, Tallulah Bankhead, Ruth Chatterton and Helen Twelvetrees would play the misunderstood shady dame. At just under an hour, this is static and pretty lifeless, although rising star Carroll does on occasion jerking this to life. Otherwise, it's really forgettable.