"Four Frightened People" was one of Director Cecil B. DeMille's lesser efforts of the 30s a decade that gave us the epic films "The Sign of the Cross" (1932), "Cleopatra" (1934), "The Crusades" (1935) and "Union Pacific" (1939). I didn't like it. It appears to have been an effort by DeMille to display the many talents of his favorite 30s star Claudette Colbert.
It starts out OK with four strangers escaping from a plague infested ship to safety aboard a hi-jacked fishing boat. The four, a prim be-speckled school teacher Judy Jones (Colbert) a Casper Milquetoast husband Arnold Ainger (Herbert Marshall) on his way home, a socialite Mrs. Mordick (Mary Boland) complete with dog in hand and brash braggart reporter Stewart Corder (William Gargan) are forced together in order to survive.
Arriving at an island, the four find that they will have to "run through the jungle" in order to reach safety. They secure the services of an "Englishman", Montague (Leo Carillo) to guide them. As they proceed, they encounter the usual assortment of bugs, snakes, natives et al in their quest. Through it all they manage to get lost and are forced through necessity to reveal their true personalities.
This is where DeMille gets to glamorize Ms. Colbert by having her wear a revealing leopard skin (they are in Malaysia by the way) and ridding her of the old maid glasses and hair-do. Since this was just before the introduction of the Production Code, DeMille was able to include a scene where Colbert (or a body double) is taking a shower sans clothes under a waterfall. DeMille was very good at this sort of thing. He lets the viewer think he is seeing something where in fact he sees nothing.
The character played by Boland is totally ludicrous. She carries her little dog through the trek and even gets to start up a women's lib movement among a tribe of natives. Marshall is just too stuffy to be a convincing lover for Colbert and Gargan's character is just too full of himself for my liking.
DeMille would make better use of Ms. Colbert's talents the same year in his epic "Cleopatra".
It starts out OK with four strangers escaping from a plague infested ship to safety aboard a hi-jacked fishing boat. The four, a prim be-speckled school teacher Judy Jones (Colbert) a Casper Milquetoast husband Arnold Ainger (Herbert Marshall) on his way home, a socialite Mrs. Mordick (Mary Boland) complete with dog in hand and brash braggart reporter Stewart Corder (William Gargan) are forced together in order to survive.
Arriving at an island, the four find that they will have to "run through the jungle" in order to reach safety. They secure the services of an "Englishman", Montague (Leo Carillo) to guide them. As they proceed, they encounter the usual assortment of bugs, snakes, natives et al in their quest. Through it all they manage to get lost and are forced through necessity to reveal their true personalities.
This is where DeMille gets to glamorize Ms. Colbert by having her wear a revealing leopard skin (they are in Malaysia by the way) and ridding her of the old maid glasses and hair-do. Since this was just before the introduction of the Production Code, DeMille was able to include a scene where Colbert (or a body double) is taking a shower sans clothes under a waterfall. DeMille was very good at this sort of thing. He lets the viewer think he is seeing something where in fact he sees nothing.
The character played by Boland is totally ludicrous. She carries her little dog through the trek and even gets to start up a women's lib movement among a tribe of natives. Marshall is just too stuffy to be a convincing lover for Colbert and Gargan's character is just too full of himself for my liking.
DeMille would make better use of Ms. Colbert's talents the same year in his epic "Cleopatra".