Arnold Ainger (Herbert Marshall, who lost a leg during World War I yet became one of the biggest leading men of Hollywood; he was also the star of the radio drama The Man Called X), Mrs. Mardick (Mary Boland, The Women), Stewart Corder (William Gargan, who played radio and TV detective Martin Kane) and Judy Jones (Claudette Colbert, It Happened One Night) have escaped their bubonic plague-infested ship and ended up on a jungle island populated with primitive natives and wild beasts.
The print ad for this had great copy: “Once…ladies and gentleman…the last remnants of civilization slipped from them with their tattered clothes…Now they were male and female battling the jungle for life…each other for love!”
This is a movie that doesn’t get mentioned in the films of Cecil B. DeMille all that often. This movie looks great, despite being shot on location in Hawaii. Also, while Colbert used a stand-in wearing a flesh-colored bodysuit for the waterfall scene, she was nearly nude in other moments. This was, of course, before the Hayes Code.
The new Kino Lorber blu ray release of this movie features audio commentary by Nick Pinkerton and the original trailer.
