East of Sumatra (1953) Poster

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5/10
Mediocre but colorful film about a mining engineer in conflict with the islanders on a Pacific island
ma-cortes11 February 2020
So-so adventure drama set in remote Sumatra , recreated in studios , and hampared by a poor script. At the beginning a striking opening sequence in which Chandler as a ruthlessly efficient tough man who shoots a member of his crew for turning up drunk and risking lives on the site by playing silly games with dynamite . Later on , the crew is packed off to prospect on a far Pacific Island , as Duke (Jeff Chandler) arrives in a island as a manager of a Malayan tin mine . Initially, the natives there are friendly, especially dancer Minyora who proves to be affianced to local ruler King Kiang (Anthony Quinn) . A series of unfortunate incidents changes Kiang's attitude to hostility, and Duke is stranded with his crew, as well as Minyora (Susan Ball , a wonderful woman , who died early at 21 by cancer) , and his old flame Lory (Marilyn Maxwell) who's also engaged to his boss (John Sutton) . Then , things go wrong , and jungle drums naturally start to throb and poisoned darts to fly . At the end takes place a tense climax in a fight with flaming torches and Machetes . For her savage kisses ... he plundered the last forgotten corner of the earth !Are romantic triangles more deadly than poisoned darts?

Drama , oriental adventure , noisy action , intrigue , a triangular romance story , in which a mining engineer goes to a little-known island to open a new mine in the jungle. Budget limitations starts to show in the awful backdrop of jungle , rocks , and matte-paintings , as their plane lands . Pleasantly filmed romantic/adventure drama , all very stiff-upper-lip , here outstanding a pretty good main and support cast. As Jeff Chandler is good as Duke Mullane who tries to open a new mine in the jungle, but the natives turn hostile , except for one gorgeous native girl . Chandler gives stature to the role , providing sincerity and bravura . Chandler was famous , until his early death , for playing Indian chief Cochise , a dignified portrait well shown in : ¨Broken arrow¨ , ¨Battle of Apache Pass¨ and ¨Taza , son of Cochise¨ . Although Chandler also played all kinds of genres , such as : ¨Return to Peyton Place¨(drama) , ¨Flame of Araby¨ (adventure) , ¨Merrill's marauders¨ (wartime , in his last film) , until his early death at 42-year-old .While Anthony Quinn plays as the island's king , a man of honour and some civilisation who has ceded the mineral rights against a promise of medical supplies for his people . Important and prestigious secondary cast such as : John Sutton as the penny-pinching head office , Jay C. Flippen , Scatman Crothers , Eugene Iglesias , Peter Graves and Earl Holliman. Along with the beautiful actress Susan Ball as a lissome dancer who is in the curvaceous shape as a jungle princess disporting herself in a rock pool ; she had a brief career , giving a below-average acting, but it doesn's mind because being gorgeous . The tragic Ball sustained a leg injury that eventually to end her life aged 21 , these ¨East of Sumatra¨, ¨War arrow¨ ,¨Chief Crazy Horse¨ both of them directed by George Sherman , resulted to be his last films .

The motion picture was regularly directed by Budd Boetticher who has since become a cult figure and he was a Western expert . His first Western was in 1949 called The Wolf Hunters, following Cimarron Kid , Bronco buster , Horizons West , Seminole, and Wings of the hawk . In 1956 with 7 Men From Now starts his collaboration with Randolph Scott, along with producer Harry Joe Brown and writer Burt Kennedy , including prestigious titles as Tall T, Decision at sundown, Buchanan rides alone , Ride lonesome, Comanche station , among others. His last Western was in 1969 titled A time for dying with Audie Murphy. Rating 5/10 . The movie will appeal to adventure aficionados and Jeff Chandler fans .
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4/10
Jungle Fever In Indonesia
bkoganbing27 March 2011
East Of Sumatra was one of those potboiler stories that Universal cast Jeff Chandler in while he was under contract there. The story is a romantic pentagon set in the exotic location of an Indonesian jungle with all the men acting with exceedingly high testosterone levels.

John Sutton who is engaged to Marilyn Maxwell without knowing she was once Chandler's girl becomes Chandler's boss on a new job set for one of the thousands of islands in the Indonesian archipelago where the rule of Achmed Sukarno hasn't gotten hold yet. The island is ruled by King Anthony Quinn who has a special girl in Suzan Ball. But Ball is checking out Chandler and the rest of his crew as they start a tin mining operation.

No need to go into all the details, but it all blows up quite nicely with the natives making war against Chandler and his crew with Sutton stupidly bringing Maxwell along into harm's and Jeff's way. It ends in tragedy for one of the five principal cast members.

The film is based on a Louis L'Amour story which since he wrote westerns may have begun as that and Budd Boetticher directed East of Sumatra. Both these guys should have stuck to the American west.
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5/10
There are flames on this island.
mark.waltz28 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Whether its the heat that Jeff Chandler lets off or the poison darts, this is quite an intense island adventure complete with sarong wearing half caste young girl (Suzane Bal), an evil island king (Anthony Quinn) and unruly natives with poisoned darts. No Dorothy Lamour or Maria Montez in sight, this starts off on the mainland where Chandler proves himself tough enough to stand up to pretty much anything. That gives his boss (John Sutton) the confidence to put him on a job in the south seas where he finds more than he bargained for. Unintentional flirting with the south seas beauty makes King Quinn mighty jealous, and this leads to a war between Quinn, his natives and Chandler and his crew, which includes his newly arrived boss and his horny girlfriend (Marilyn Maxwell), adding more fuel to this fiery rectangle.

Hokey but enjoyable, the sexuality of this film is quite intense, with Chandler and Quinn equally seductive, even if Quinn is obviously ruthless in his determination. Maxwell is your typical blonde B girl, not at all faithful to boyfriend Sutton, something dealt with surprisingly at the end. It's inconsequential fluff, but all the more entertaining for the way it draws you in even when silly and camp. A young Scatman Crothers stands out as one of the crew. The presence of one slang using native adds stereotypical humor, amusing but fortunately not overplayed. I am curious about the troubled worker in the opening scene who uses a steam shovel to toss heavy debris on the workers below, cut out of the story and not given much explanation other than "he's at it again."
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Early 50s potboiler
artzau29 January 2003
Jeff Chandler always impressed me as having two expressions: one, as one overdue for a visit to the toilet and the other, relief at just having been. This film, which is thin on story, is another tough guy going to tame the wild elements, story. Chandler is at his hammy best, Marilyn Maxwell is always a delight to look at and Tony Quinn plays a Malay chief. This is not the most entertaining film you'll encounter on the late show but it has some pleasant moments about a time when tough guys could wrest fortunes out of the jungle without a worry in the world about pollution, colonial exploitation or globalization, and just making sure, they get the girl.
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2/10
Just another boring '50s flick
HotToastyRag22 May 2018
It's confession time here on Hot Toasty Rag: When I rented this movie, I misread the title and thought it was called East of Sinatra. Needless to say, I was very excited-and very surprised when there was absolutely no mention of Ol' Blue Eyes throughout the entire movie!

The real plot follows Jeff Chandler to a Malaysian mine as he deals with the natives, who are pretty tame for the most past, two women throwing themselves at him, and a king who's more than willing to cooperate and be his friend. In other words, East of Sumatra is a pretty boring movie. Anthony Quinn plays King Kiang-feel free to roll your eyes as he adds another ethnicity to his roster-and while he extends his arm in friendship, the fly in the ointment is his girlfriend Suzan Ball, who for some reason is more interested in Jeff Chandler than Tony. I know, feel free to roll your eyes again.

Unless you like really cheesy, boring 1950s movies that randomly take place in the jungle in a vain attempt to recapture the thrill of Red Dust, you probably won't like this movie. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how disappointed I was.
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3/10
Roasted Turkey - East of Sumatra
arthur_tafero13 December 2021
Jeff Chandler plays a nincompoop who screws up everything in sight for his company. He makes believe he is John Wayne with a 14 inch strap-on. We are supposed to believe some skanky middle-aged blond is going to out-seduce a really hot imitation-islander as well. But wait, there is more baloney in this film to swallow than a German deli. As you might know, there is no smoking on construction sites for obvious reasons (like the boxes of dynamite maybe?). This turkey ignores all that stuff for a cheap Hollywood tradeoff to build what is supposed to be a ridiculous plot. Anthony Quinn is supposed to be Tonganese. I am more Tonganese than he is. These are easily the worst roles in the careers of all these fine actors, and probably the worst film they have ever been in as well.
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Engaging little adventure yarn, from western guys
searchanddestroy-125 February 2024
Western specialists wrote and directed this NON western movie; I speak of Budd Boetticher behind the camera and Louis L'Amour for the story. It is not a western but it could be in the pace and characters depiction, symphony. It is tough, efficient, fast paced, and offering a Jeff Candler in great shape, facing Anthony Quinn, for the first and only time in his career. Yes, good adventure film that proves Boetticher was not only good in westerns. Not big surprises though. So, don't get too much excited, just sit, have a good drink and enjoy. Excellent production design. Very rare gem, strangely, even unavailable on DVD. I took it from a French channel in the eighties.
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