Red Morning (1934) User Reviews

A Simple Story Of Treachery In The South Seas

[atlasmb · 6/10 · 16 October 2014]

"Red Morning" is the story of a ship's captain and his daughter, who are betrayed and left to die by crew members who plan to submit a fraudulent cargo insurance claim.

The two survive the scuttling of the ship and seek refuge on a nearby island where the natives are dangerous.

Hungarian actress Steffi Duna plays the part of the daughter, Kara, with a combination of strength and sensitivity. At times--due to her voice and speech patterns--she reminds me of Greta Garbo.

The film has a simple plot that is not so engaging, but the film is a curiosity, especially in the way the director uses stock footage of natives, sometimes in the background. Some scenes are reminiscent of the Tarzan series of films. The sound quality is not the best. Steffi Duna is the best part of the film.

Moviegoer's Delight

[boblipton · 6/10 · 18 October 2014]

This is a very pleasant little programmer from RKO, before that meant an episode in a slick series or a noir. Although the story is nothing amazing, you get to see some performers who rarely got a chance to strut their stuff, but who spent most of their careers as dependable stock company members.

In particular, Mitchell Lewis: I just checked his IMDb page, so I know I've seen him dozens, perhaps hundreds of times. Yet, even when he was credited, he rarely was memorable. He was just someone who played the role in support of the star or because a body was needed in that spot. Here, co-starring with Steffi Duna, he puts on a decent Hungarian accent to match hers.

Miss Duna is also very good, with big eyes and a sweet personality. The time for exotic leads was passing, however, pushed out with the enforcement of the Code and its all-American simplicity. Miss Duna would continue to work for another half dozen years as an all-purpose ethnic with dancing thrown in. Usually she was cast as a Mexican or Spaniard. Then she married Dennis O'Keefe and retired.

okay south sea adventure.

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 16 October 2014]

*** SPOILERS *** Wow, not even five votes for this one yet, as of today. Must be new to Turner Classics. Red Morning stars "Kara" (Stefi Duna) and "John" (Regis Toomey) as young lovers. He wants to get married, but she goes off on the ship with her father, the captain, and wants to wait until she returns to marry. Mutineers take over, and then the adventure begins. Kara and the skipper land on the Marlow Islands, inhabited by natives. The natives all have matching hair-dos, even the same length and color. Kara conveniently speaks some language that the natives understand, but the natives are superstitious, and blame the new-comers for their bad luck. Good stuff happens, bad stuff happens, and Kara makes friends with Mayo, the native. The bad guy here is "Hawker", played by Raymond Hatton. This was a 66 minute shortie from RKO... okay acting, pretty cheesy sets. Even cheesier script. The best part of this was the music, which was quite appropriate at all times. No location info shown on IMDb, and much of it looked like backdrops. Directed by Wallace Fox, who had started in silents, and directed TV series the last couple years in the biz. Story originally written by Gouverneur Morris, who had written many exotic, south sea scripts. Fun to watch, but not real believable. Probably would have been pretty exotic and thrilling to all the folks who didn't travel very far back in the day.

Pretty cute adventure yarn

[searchanddestroy-1 · 5 February 2012]

A RKO film directed by the prolific Wallace Fox, who made only grade B pictures. I am surprised that no one has commented it yet. It was aired on TCM, I don't understand. So, I go for it.

Actually, it's not a real drama story, but rather an adventure tale. Some crooks decide to waste a cargo ship in order to get money from the insurance. But they fail in their attempt, without knowing it, and the real leads of the film - who were aboard the ship - escape with it and take refuge in a little Pacific Island, among the natives. But the bad guys realize that they missed in their purpose and come back to get rid of the ship once and for all.

Many efficient action sequences, even some stock shots with natives, and a very good time waster.