This is another John Huston title which has been a staple on Italian TV for years but which I'd never caught till now thankfully, in its original English language version via Fox's R1 DVD edition. In essence, it is somewhat similar to the same director's THE African QUEEN (1951) occurring a war later and in the Pacific rather than the Congo; the two leading characters are also virtually identical: an illiterate but rugged man-of-action and a religious woman (in this case, a nun as opposed to a missionary).
The two leads, Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, are very well matched and, in fact, they were teamed again in THE SUNDOWNERS (1960) and THE GRASS IS GREENER (1960) plus one other time, much later, for a TV movie. Kerr who, of course had previously portrayed a nun in The Archers' breathtakingly beautiful BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) was Oscar-nominated for her performance here (as were Huston and John Lee Mahin for their screenplay), but Mitchum's contribution is just as excellent and vital to the success of the film especially one which, for the most part, involves just these two characters!
The narrative finds the two individually stranded on an island but, after living there for a while, they decide to make the dangerous trip by raft to nearby Fiji; before they can leave, however, the island is overrun with the Japanese forces and the couple are forced to hide in a cave for the duration, with Mitchum occasionally emerging to pilfer the enemy's food supplies. Combining action, adventure, comedy, drama and suspense, the end result is generally compelling, enjoyable, good-looking, even touching: marine Mitchum, whose past includes spells in an orphanage and a juvenile reformatory, can't understand how a beautiful woman could waste her life away by voluntarily joining a religious order, especially isolated the way they are and, at one point, drunkenly berates her for it which leads to the nun falling seriously ill when his outspokenness drives her into the pouring rain for the night!
The two leads, Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, are very well matched and, in fact, they were teamed again in THE SUNDOWNERS (1960) and THE GRASS IS GREENER (1960) plus one other time, much later, for a TV movie. Kerr who, of course had previously portrayed a nun in The Archers' breathtakingly beautiful BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) was Oscar-nominated for her performance here (as were Huston and John Lee Mahin for their screenplay), but Mitchum's contribution is just as excellent and vital to the success of the film especially one which, for the most part, involves just these two characters!
The narrative finds the two individually stranded on an island but, after living there for a while, they decide to make the dangerous trip by raft to nearby Fiji; before they can leave, however, the island is overrun with the Japanese forces and the couple are forced to hide in a cave for the duration, with Mitchum occasionally emerging to pilfer the enemy's food supplies. Combining action, adventure, comedy, drama and suspense, the end result is generally compelling, enjoyable, good-looking, even touching: marine Mitchum, whose past includes spells in an orphanage and a juvenile reformatory, can't understand how a beautiful woman could waste her life away by voluntarily joining a religious order, especially isolated the way they are and, at one point, drunkenly berates her for it which leads to the nun falling seriously ill when his outspokenness drives her into the pouring rain for the night!