The Narrow Corner (1933) User Reviews

Loosening inhibitions

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 15 May 2017]

W. Somerset Maugham certainly loved the South Seas. Like some more of his favorite works, Rain and The Moon And Sixpence, The Narrow Corner is also set in that location.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. has just killed a man in Sydney and is looking to make a fast escape. His father Henry Kolker charters Arthur Hohl's schooner to make for the Dutch East Indies. Hohl is a real bottom feeder who has stomach problems. They pick up Dr. Dudley Digges who is another of those Europeans who has 'gone native'. He's Maugham's presence as a character in the story.

When they finally settle on an island to their liking it's got both the lovely Patricia Ellis and Danish settler Ralph Bellamy there. When Fairbanks arrives it becomes a triangle and it ends in tragedy for one of them.

It seems that a common theme in these Maugham stories that the tropics somehow loosens the inhibitions that civilization puts on us. Definitely the case for the cast of The Narrow Corner.

The Narrow Corner is not as good as the other two Maugham stories I've cited. It has some fine special effects with Fairbanks trying to steer his schooner past a reef barrier during a windy and wavy tide. The high point of the film.

If you're a Maugham fan or fan of any of the cast, I'd try to see this one.

Good, should have been better

[esmondj · 6/10 · 14 April 2022]

For an alleged 'B' movie they sure threw a budget at this, with not one but two storm-at-sea scenes. This should have been a better movie: Doug Jr is ideally cast as Fred Blake, and the other male parts are well cast, even Ralph Bellamy as a Dane once you get used to the idea, and the accent which seems more Norwegian than Danish to me. The main problems are two: (1) the girl is too young and inadequate to the part, and (2) they tried to get too much of the book into a bit over an hour: the entire sequence about the manuscript could have been deleted without loss, and there are a couple of other very entertaining incidents in the book that could have replaced it. Or maybe it should have been made to a 80-90 minute length. This seems to have been a case of Warner Bros. Still not quite knowing what exactly it was doing ... and blaming Doug Jr.

Bellamy and Fairbanks Junior... minor spoiler

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 16 April 2020]

SPOILER..Somerset Maugham, so there will be sadness, heartbreak, death, and destruction somewhere along the way. and there is, right from the start. Fred Blake (Fairbanks Junior) is sent off by Dad to disappear for a while, so clearly he has done something terrible. lots of storms at sea. they end up at some exotic island, where they bump into Louise (Pat Ellis), her father, and of course, Louise's love interest. Thirty-ish Ralph Bellamy is Eric, the dashing boyfriend. and of course, now Blake's competitor. of course there's a showdown between the men, and some twists and turns along the way. what WAS surprising was that although we see Louise and one of the men leave her bedroom (wink wink), he is allowed to sail off into the sunset without recrimination. this one got in just before the film code cracked down on such naughtiness without serious punishment. It's good. it's a little weird when you do the math and see that Pat Ellis was really only about 15 when she made the film. and sadly, died young of cancer. Ellis and Bellamy had only been in hollywood a couple years, but thanks to Dad, Fairbanks had started years ago in the silent films.

Fairbanks Jr. always effective in dramas.

[kartrabo · 29 April 2000]

In his efforts to find interesting roles to play during his contract days at Warner Brothers Pictures Douglas Fairbanks Jr. chose the part of Fred Blake, the troubled repentant hero of W.Somerset Maugham's novel 'The Narrow Corner'. As adapted by Robert Presnell and directed by Alfred E.Green, the story has young Doug,a former playboy pressured by his wealthy father to escape a manslaughter charge in Australia until the heat is off.The young man is spirited away aboard a disreputable schooner captained by an even less reputable skipper who has been paid to keep him distant from the law and further involvement with troublesome females.But,as fate would have it,after surviving a typhoon,the little ship puts in for repairs at an island paradise peopled by Danish settlers. Through the kindness of the inhabitants and particularly by the innocence of lovely Patricia Ellis and the comraderie of Ralph Bellamy,Fairbanks Jr. begins to mature as a responsible adult.However, tragedy lurks just around the corner.

The essential philosophy and moral of novelist Maugham is retained throughout this wonderful film.In great supporting roles are Arthur Hohl as the coarse,vulgar skipper,Reginald Owen as the girl's eccentric father, and Dudley Digges as the world-weary,opium-addicted physician.The film was remade with plot differences a few years later as 'Isle of Fury' with Humphrey Bogart!

This movie was so bad that I could not stop watching!

[john-mcdermott4 · 1/10 · 10 July 2004]

Note: These comments contain SPOILERS!

I could not sleep so I was flipping channels and came across this movie on TCM. Since there was nothing but infomercials on at the time I stuck with this flick. Based on a novel by W.Somerset Maugham, this cinematic version must have put the deceased author into eternal apoplexy. The movie had so much potential but at 70 minutes there is no way for all of the plot scenarios to be adequately developed. That doesn't stop director Alfred E.Green who shoehorns every last one of the events and relationships in even if it results in a laughably underdeveloped storyline.

Yes, there are colorful characters and yes, some are well played. I was also a bit shocked at the liberal and casual approach to sex, drugs and terminal illness for 1933. But no amount of titillation or amusing secondary characters can compensate for the absurd lapses in plot development.

Our hero, an angst-ridden, tortured Fred (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), is running away after killing a man. He hooks up with a crusty captain, played crustily by Arthur Hohl. They end up in the Dutch East Indies where Fairbanks meets the lovely, but extraordinarily vacuous, Louise, (Patricia Ellis), after swimming naked to the island from the storm-damaged boat. Eric (Ralph Bellamy), happens by and the naked Fred, the dopey Eric and the oblivious Louise arrange dinner for that evening. Bellamy and Fairbanks then swim naked back to the boat, navigate through a treacherous channel, and end up at dinner with Louise, her father, her grandfather, an opium-addicted doctor, the Captain and Eric. Fred and Louise are taken with each other which is obvious to everyone, except Eric-the-simple-minded.

Here is where things go haywire. Somehow, in the next 15 minutes or so, Eric reveals he is engaged to Louise, Eric and Fred become extraordinarily intimate friends ("Eric was the best friend that I have ever had!" - Wait a minute, didn't you guys just meet about 12 hours ago?), the sex-obsessed Louise all but forces herself on Fred, Eric discovers a new emotion called jealousy, Louise forgets that she is engaged (if she ever really knew it in the first place), a manuscript is vindictively destroyed (what this has to do with anything is beyond me), there is a murder, a suicide, a resurrection, a boat-theft, a cancer diagnosis and a miraculous discovery of the maritime navigational prowess of the air-headed Louise.

I must read the book to find out what this mess was truly about. I suspect a subtle homo-erotic theme will be introduced that might explain the attraction between Fred and Eric.

This is a must-see film for aficionados of pure film-making debacles. The only thing missing from this movie is about 30-40 additional minutes so that the finished product could have made even a bit of sense.

Well Made Movie Set in the South Seas

[gerrythree · 8/10 · 20 July 2004]

The Narrow Corner has the advantage of having Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as the star and a great supporting cast, including Patricia Ellis, who never looked prettier in any of her other Warner Bros. movies. The movie also has ace director Alfred Green, who shows his stuff near the start of the movie, using rear projections to show a boat going through a storm with really high waves. This is a 1933 movie, and even coming close to showing a boat weathering high waves in a storm showed real technical skill (a skill not matched by the production crew in a later scene when Fairbanks' character navigates a boat through a narrow island reef during another storm). But then Warner Bros. kept a tight rein on budgets, so even with quick edits, Green had problems making some of the later seagoing scenes look passably authentic. Some of the later shots using boat models were just bad. But those first scenes of the boat weathering a storm were done very well for 1933. As to the story about a young man changing as he goes on a forced voyage, the story gave Warner Bros. a chance to use it its repertory company of actors in a South Seas setting. In about 70 minutes, the Depression-era movie audiences then had a chance to see characters with real problems in a distant setting. Darryl Zanuck's quitting as head of production at Warner Bros. in 1933, and the coming of the strict Production Code in 1934, ended any chance that would be more movies like The Narrow Corner. Soon, there would be mostly whitebread, asexual movies coming from Warner Bros., minus the cynicism, single entendres and negative overtones that the Code censored out of Hollywood movies.

Meh....I could see how this film didn't do much to further Junior's career.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 20 May 2017]

According to Turner Classic Movies, following "The Narrow Corner" Warner Brothers dropped Douglas Fairbanks Junior's contract. While he isn't bad in the film, I could understand why. While not a bad film, it is very undistinguished and a bit bland despite its tropical locale.

When the film begins, three rogues are fleeing Australia. You really aren't sure why but the three have various dark secrets and they long for some tropical isle where they can forget their pasts. Fred (Fairbanks) is young and handsome and you wonder why he's with the doctor and sleazy captain of their boat.

The three and their tiny crew arrive at some Dutch-controlled island in the Pacific. There, surprisingly, they find some folks who speak beautiful English--including the cute and very friendly Louise (Patricia Ellis). But Fred is torn...he has fallen hard for Louise but a real nice guy, Eric (Ralph Bellamy) is already in love with her and Fred isn't the type to hurt a friend.

The tropical location was Catalina Island and despite looking warm and lush, apparently it was rather cold...and the ending must have left Fairbanks and Ellis soaking wet and freezing. Overall, not a bad film but one with many lulls and not enough to recommend you rush to see it....more a time-passer than anything else.

Wonderful forgotten little adventure/drama with fun eccentric characters!

[larry41onEbay · 8/10 · 6 July 2004]

Again the underrated Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. shines in this story of a son trying to escape from his father's shadow… sounds like life imitating art. SPOILERS: Fairbanks has to take it on the lamb and boards a ship going to the East Indies. He hooks up with some suspicious characters including curmudgeonly Arthur Hohl as Capt. Nichols who drinks to relieve his stomach cancer and an opium addicted doctor played with relish by Dudley Diggs. A sea storms tosses our trio onto an island cultured by scholarly Reginald Owen, his too-beautiful daughter Patricia Ellis and her fiancé Ralph Bellamy. Fairbanks both befriends Bellamy and romances Ellis. The pepper seasoning the stew includes William V. Mong as Owen's jealous father who wrecks his son's multiyear research project just for laughs and argues with Capt. Nichols over who is in the most pain - because he has dyspepsia! Other character greats in the cast include Sidney Toler (before Charlie Chan), Asian actor Willie Fong and Henry Kolker.

Doug Takes a Dip

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 14 September 2011]

In Sydney, Australia, bear-drinking captain Arthur Hohl (as Nichols) is hired by likewise burping Sidney Toler (as Ryan) to take handsome Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (as Fred Blake) on an extended South Pacific Ocean voyage. Harboring some dark secret, Mr. Fairbanks must lay low for approximately a year. They pick up opium-addicted doctor Dudley Digges (as Saunders) before setting sail. After a storm, Fairbanks takes off all his clothes and swims to an island where he meets pretty Patricia Ellis (as Louise Frith). They fall in love, but she is promised to reliable Ralph Bellamy (as Eric Whittenson). The romance is strained and the otherwise interesting W. Somerset Maugham characters come across as hysterical.

**** The Narrow Corner (7/8/33) Alfred E. Green ~ Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Patricia Ellis, Ralph Bellamy, Dudley Digges

Troubled people finding their edge of a troubled world.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 31 March 2014]

For wanted killer Douglas Fairbanks Jr., the only way out for him is escape, and that escape means going into hiding aboard a cargo boat heading towards that narrow corner. In what seems to be an abridged version of Somerset Maugham's story, he finds solace on a Dutch island with a beautiful girl (Patricia Ellis) he can't resist, a new best friend (Ralph Bellamy) who happens to be engaged to her, and a philosophy spouting doctor (Dudley Digges) he turns to in times of desperate struggles.

There's also an amoral captain (Arthur Hohl), an embittered old man (William V. Mong) who resents his dreamer of a son-in-law (Reginald Owen), the doctor's loyal servant (Willie Fung, less effeminate than usual) and a string of black crew members on Hohl's ship who wear nothing but a towel wrapped around them and are totally loyal to their boss while all of the white characters seem to be totally embittered by their own complacency in this narrow corner. "The most valuable lesson I've learned is to regret nothing", Digges says while offering the spiritually starved Fairbanks advice. "Life is short, nature is hostile, and man is ridiculous". Fairbanks also learns lessons about the bravery and life-craving attitude of his otherwise ruthless captain, the meaning of brotherhood, and the power with coping with one's past and surviving it.

Everybody here seems to have an agenda, inner turmoil, or both. The aging father-in-law takes great pleasure in destroying his hated son-in- law's manuscript, while Ellis has no qualms about innocently betraying Bellamy in order to be with Fairbanks. The acting, particularly Digges and Bellamy's, is exceptional, and even with dozens of philosophical quotes (some of which remain appropriate to this day, others rather trite), the film moves quickly. But somehow, it moves way too fast, and for once, I have to say I wanted to see more detail, not less. This could have been a masterpiece had there been more exposition and less editing.

Lethargic

[gbill-74877 · 4/10 · 11 October 2020]

Unevenness of pace and the lack of any real pizzazz in the script keep this pre-Code effort from being engaging, despite its short run time (just 69 minutes). The film is lethargic in its setup, and eventually we see the main character's backstory in a diagonal split-screen flashback, but not until about the 45 minutes point. He's killed a man, and is now trying to keep out of sight by being taken out into the South Sea by a dyspeptic skipper, that is, until a storm takes him to an island. There he meets a young woman, her suitor, and a cantankerous old man. The film eventually rushes at breakneck speed through melodramatic events that stem from a love triangle and a couple of other subplots, but the weak setup hinders their impact. Pretty Patricia Ellis and shirtless (and at one point nekkid) Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. try to boost the sagging story and they have their moments I suppose, but it's not enough. Very forgettable.