Enchanted Island (1958) User Reviews

Adventures on the 'island' of Acapulco!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 16 June 2017]

"Enchanted Island" is a decent enough film but the terrible ending...well, that ruins much of the good I'd seen in the picture up until then!

When the story begins, a crew of a 19th century merchant ship has just landed on Nuku Hiva island in the South Pacific. Despite seeming like a great place to chase the pretty native girls (or, perhaps because of it), the jerk-face Captain orders everyone back aboard the ship...they're heading out! Not surprisingly, the crew is angry as they haven't had shore leave in 14 months! In fact, a fight breaks out and two of the men, Abner and Tom (Dana Andrews and Don Dubbins) run into the interior of the island. Despite hearing that the Typee people are savage cannibals, they're treated pretty well up until the two really spoil everything.

The film is based on Herman Melville's first novel and is a modestly entertaining about life among the savages of Acapulco, Mexico where the film was actually made. However, the ending is bad in several ways-- you just have to see it to believe it...and believe me...you WILL hate it as it makes no sense at all. A sad waste because of this.

An adaption of Herman Melville's semi-autobiography "Typee"

[yotsuya · 6/10 · 14 May 2000]

This is an interesting and fun movie. Evidently filmed in the Pacific - the extras appear to be Polynesian. Typical of '50's movies, however, the stars are all white. The use of the native Polynesian language adds an element of realism. The ending is more romantic than Melville's book, but the movie appears to have kept the general feeling of "Typee" from which the story is taken. In all it is movie to enjoy.

Dwan Winds Down

[boblipton · 5/10 · 17 June 2017]

This movie was Alan Dwan's 406th as director. It was also his next to last. It stars a sozzled Dana Andrews as a sailor who has jumped ship on a tropical Island and Jane Powell as the Polynesian princess he falls in love with. She is, of course, the member of a tribe of cannibals.

The script takes Herman Melville's turgid novel about religion masquerading as evil and vice versa, and converts it into a brightly-lit Technicolor adventure story. Like others of Dwan's movies of the period, it combines a lesson about duality -- I'm not sure what the lesson was, but it's clearly there. Blond, slight Don Dubbins offers that contrast.

Mostly it's interesting for the way cinematographer Jorge Stahl manages to light bright greens and blues in a sepia world.

Not what Melville had in mind

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 20 May 2015]

According to her memoir Jane Powell was initially excited about doing Enchanted Island in which she sang not a note, donned a black wig as there were not too many blonds inhabiting the South Seas and spoke in monosyllable Tarzan style dialog. But Jane did not show her acting chops and it turned into a bad location with a disinterested director in Allan Dwan and a leading man in Dana Andrews who was at the height of his alcoholic problems.

Add to that the fact that RKO the producing studio was going out of business and Enchanted Island was sold in a studio fire sale to Warner Brothers. All in all it was a disaster.

I suppose a vacation to Acapulco standing in for the South Seas was worth something to all involved in Enchanted Island. A New Bedford trading ship puts in to a South Sea Island and just as the men are starting to loosen up with the women, Captain Ted DeCorsia who is a true New England puritan abruptly calls a halt to things. That doesn't sit well with two of the crew Dana Andrews and Don Dubbins. They take off for the interior of the island where they run into Jane Powell's tribe reputed to be cannibals.

Just about what you would expect to happen happens in this setting. Dubbins gets homesick for his girl in New Bedford and that starts everything unraveling.

According to Jane Powell the ending was changed so that she would not die. But if the indifferent performances hadn't spoiled the film already, the changed ending certainly did. This film is definitely not what author Herman Melville had in mind when he wrote his novel Typee on which this film is based. Typee incidentally is the name of the tribe Jane belongs to.

The one saving grace of the film is Arthur Shields as the cheerful Mr. Dooley who has gone native as the British would say with gusto. He's populated the island with all kinds of children and they all seem to be girls. But Powell isn't one of his. He attributes her blue eyes to a passing Swede who was her father. I guess RKO couldn't afford contacts for Jane as they were liquidating.

Except for Shields no one comes out of Enchanted Island the film with any kudos. I should also say though that The Four Lads did get a hit record out of the title song.

Boring and badly shot

[JohnSeal · 3/10 · 17 May 2004]

This odd adventure film, set in the tropics and probably shot in Hawaii, stars the horrendously miscast Dana Andrews as a lawless sailor who falls in love with an island maiden, essayed here by whiter than white Jane Powell in an equally turgid performance. I can't comment on the faithfulness of the adaptation, as I haven't read Melville's novel Typee, but Enchanted Island looks cheap (regardless of the colourful locales), is poorly acted, and is thoroughly dull. Even Jorge Stahl's colour cinematography looks like it was shot on leftover stock or 'ends'. A less than satisfactory late career move by director Allan Dwan, Enchanted Island is only for extremely loyal Andrews completists.

Typee Typo (Miscast Island)

[TheFearmakers · 4/10 · 21 July 2022]

In the 1940's, minimalist Dana Andrews seemed like a real person in movies surrounded by actors... but by the mid-to-late 1950's he sometimes looked like a hired stock actor completely misplaced, especially for the Hermann Melville adaptation of Typee titled ENCHANTED ISLAND...

Where he and equally miscast Don Dubbins are two sailors from a late 19th Century ship (captained by a grouchy Ted de Corsia) that lands on the titular South Pacific location, and they aren't allowed to have fun with the loose native girls...

And for 90-minutes Andrews helps an injured Dubbins, too weak to even cross a small creek, into a jungle setting where the rest of the programmer's highlighted by Dana's far too easy male-fantasy courtship with Jane Powell as a gorgeous, blue-eyed native whose leader, Friedrich von Ledebur, may or may not be a cannibal...

Yet this matters very little since the ISLAND is too limited for an adventure; young dopey Dubbins splits too soon for a buddy-action flick; the couple has meager chemistry for a genuine romance; and with natives so friendly there's hardly any suspense, making Powell's scantily-clad garb and the pulp-novel-cover aesthetic the only ENCHANTING aspects on board.

south sea adventure - dana andrews

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 15 June 2017]

Jane Powell and Dana Andrews star in this exotic, south seas story by Herman Melville. Sailor Aber Bedford falls for island beauty "Fayaway". Mean whaler captain Vangs tells the men they have only ONE hour ashore. There's a cheesy fight scene on the beach, when two of the sailors decide to stay on the island, but that's the beginning of the trouble. One of them has an infection from a knife wound, and they have stumbled into the cannibal part of the island. Don Dubbins is "Tom", the wing man. I think part of the charm of this film is that not many people were traveling in the 1940s and 1950s, so seeing a film about "south sea adventures" was extra fun. The story itself is okay. But why would sailors WANT to stay in the village where they could be killed by the natives? They had numerous chances to leave. Run-of-the-mill love story. Boy meets native girl. Boy falls for native. Can this work out, or will their traditions get in the way? Directed by Allan Dwan... he only directed one more film after this one. Pretty good film, mostly for the island adventure theme.

death throes

[SnoopyStyle · 3/10 · 2 December 2020]

It's Nukuheva 1842 in the South Seas. The crew of a passing ship is collecting supplies. Their demanding captain refuses to give the men shore leave with the beautiful island girls. Abner (Dana Andrews) and Tom (Don Dubbins) decide to jump ship and head for their imagined paradise.

This is a B-movie and it's a rather boring one. It's more important as one of the last few production by RKO before its bankruptcy. It's a fitting movie to show the decline of the once great studio. It's got great palm trees in the Acapulco adjacent locations. That's the best part of the movie.

Jane Powell in an exotic setting

[Dunham16 · 6/10 · 15 June 2017]

There was a time in the Hollywood past when major film actresses bound to studio contracts had to play roles exotic women in wigs and dark makeup. Hedy Lamarr was one of the first. In this film Jane Powell is an exotic native girl who is the interest of Dana Andrews once jumping to avoid persecution willing to settle an in an exotic land to merely escape free world punishment. Although widely buzzed as an exotic island of cannibals the people are merely afraid once their identity is discovered armed European men will conquer them and destroy their family life and culture. The construct of cannibalism in the film is escapees ruin their chance of freedom and even survival and must be killed as their security measure. The person who is eaten is not done so for ritual or for sustenance but because as an escapee likely to blow their cover and destroy them they must hide all evidence of his body once they murder him.

Powell deserved better in final starring film role

[Nate-48 · 2/10 · 1 December 2020]

You can sometimes judge an actor or actress by how well they carry themselves in a poor film. That is the case here with Jane Powell. Aside from being so stunning, she is full of charm with some great acting qualities. She should have been a huge star in the 1950's but Hollywood made so many bad movies during this period of transition into the television age. Not only were there so few good movies made but the number of good roles for women were even harder to find. I was circumspect as to how Powell might perform in one of these natives meet the white man type of movies but she singlehandedly pulled it off and made it worth watching. Most of the film is unbearable aside from a few nice shots. The screenplay is ludicrous. That is hard to do because this about one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

An enjoyable "B" picture and sadly Jane Powell's last film

[RogerMooreTheBestBond · 8/10 · 12 May 2009]

This film stars Dana Andrews, Don Dubbins and Jane Powell who is made up to be an island girl. Dana and Don are part of a ship where the captain is an ogre. They leave him when they stop on an island. They end up finding a tribe of people. Jane Powell catches Dana'a eye early on. Jane still looks gorgeous under all the island girl makeup she is wearing. Jane learns English thru Dana and they eventually fall in love. Dana even saves the tribe leaders life when another tribe attacks. His friend wants to leave, but there is no chance to leave while Dana is in love with Jane. Don ends up leaving on his own and Dana tells Jane he loves her. Dana finds out the killed Don because they thought he would bring back trouble. Dana breaks a taboo and is also sentenced to death. He and Jane see Dana's ship and they take a boat to try to escape. Dana gets on the ship and Jane paddles away. He goes after her as the tribe catches them. The head tribe man cannot kill them, but one of the other spears Jane in the back. Dana comes to her and paddles to the ship with her in his lap. I cannot tell you if she died or not. It's not that clear. The captain makes a statement about not marrying a couple in twenty years and that a married man makes a docile hand. That makes me think Jane survived. I could be wrong, but I choose to believe she lived. If she did, I give the film an 8 out of 10. If not, it gets a 6 because I hate sad endings. The film is never boring and quite interesting to watch.

Watch For Powell

[januszlvii · 6/10 · 2 December 2020]

Jane Powell (Fayaway) is the reason to watch this film, she is beautiful. It is about two sailors Ab ( Dana Andrews) and Tom ( Dubbins) who end up with cannibals. Spoilers ahead. Ab is the lucky one: He gets to be with Fayaway, while Tom gets eaten. This becomes a problem for Tom because he too is sentenced to death because he saw a cannibal ritual. The only hope for Ab and Fayaway is to escape to civilization in the ship captained by Vangs ( Ted De Corsia). It is interesting that both Vangs who is a cruel man and the cannibal leader Mehevi both are all for Ab and Faraway to marry. Why is that? It is obvious even to hard men, that their love is so strong they belong together. At the end, Mehevi wants to throw a spear at them but cannot. Instead another tribesman throws his spear and wounds her, but Mahevi kills him instead. Vangs then says "I have not had a wedding on my ship in over 20 years, because a married man is a docile man." That is indeed a strong hint that yes she will survive and they will live happily ever after. I give the movie 6/10 stars. Slightly above average and worth watching mostly for Jane Powell. .

enchanted island

[mossgrymk · 4/10 · 23 August 2022]

"Mutiny On The Bounty" with an enema. Wonder if being in ghastly crap like this drove Dana Andrews to drink or if the bottle steered him to the movie steerage, so to speak? Probably the later, but oh my god what a long, depressing end to a great acting career! Almost Kay Francis-like, huh? And as long as we're on the general subject of artistic declension how about this film's director, Alan Dwan, one of Hollywood's better dream meisters, whose attitude toward the female Polynesians in this, his penultimate, film resembles that of a drunken Shriner at a Luau? Give it a C minus.

PS...Has Hollywood ever done right by Melville? Can't think of any examples off the top of my head. I mean "Billy Budd" was embalmed Oscar bait and Huston's "Moby Dick" was just a botched job all around.

Demented Island

[Matthew_Capitano · 3/10 · 20 October 2016]

Jane Powell is a native chick who meets up with fathead Dana Andrews.

For 90 minutes everybody runs around through the jungle thicket trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The indigenous peoples are on the loose, a ship captain wants to get underway, Jane is mauled by Dana, and the audience is slapping themselves to stay awake.

Remake of an entirely different film called 'Typee' (an Indian tribe). Not much to recommend. The island warriors are terrible shots and the movie was made too early to have Jane flash her coconuts, not that she would.....

..... maybe she would now, but she's 87 years old. What guy would want to see that? Well, I would, but then I'm a horny mother-- well, never mind.

Matthew Capitano says it all!!!!

[steelblue55 · 2/10 · 18 December 2018]

Matthew Capitano, a salute to you for the funniest review I have read in a long time. If anyone has not watched this and is in doubt, the review is also accurate.....

Maybe do this as a drinking game and do shots every time someone says "Fayaway" and you've got something.....