Adventure Island (film)

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Adventure Island

| image = Adventureisland1.jpg

| caption = Theatrical poster

| director = Sam Newfield as "Peter Steward"

| producer = William H. Pine
William C. Thomas

| screenplay = Maxwell Shane

| based_on = The Ebb Tide by Robert Louis Stevenson

| starring = Rory Calhoun
Rhonda Fleming
Paul Kelly
John Abbott
Alan Napier

| music = Darrell Calker

| cinematography = Jack Greenhalgh

| editing = Howard A. Smith

| studio = Pine-Thomas Productions

| distributor = Paramount Pictures

| released = {{film date|1947|8|13}}

| runtime = 66 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $250,000-$300,000{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety173-1949-01#page/n404/mode/1up|website=Variety|date=26 January 1949|page=7|title=$750,000-$1,000,000 class held just right by Pine Thomas}}

| gross =

}}

Adventure Island is a 1947 American South Seas action/adventure film shot in Cinecolor and directed by Sam Newfield (using the pseudonym Peter Stewart) for Paramount Pictures' Pine-Thomas Productions. This marked one of the few times in which Newfield worked for a major studio. The film stars Rory Calhoun and Rhonda Fleming.

This film is a remake of the silent film Ebb Tide (1922) and the film Ebb Tide (1937), all based on the 1894 novel of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne.

Plot

{{More plot|date=October 2022}}

Three sailors and a woman roam an island ruled by a deadly tyrant.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Pine-Thomas Productions, which specialized in low-budget action films. However, the budget for this film was larger than that of most Pine-Thomas productions.

Rory Calhoun and Rhoda Fleming were borrowed from David O. Selznick. Filming began in September 1946 on Santa Catalina Island.KELLY AND GLAZER BUY 'HALF CASTE' New York Times 5 Sep 1946: 34. Ninety percent of the film was shot on the island in order to reduce the need for studio space, and the script was rewritten to minimize indoor scenes.{{Cite web|website=Variety|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety163-1946-09#page/n6/mode/1up/search/%22adventure+island%22|date=4 September 1946|page=7|title=Briefs from the lots}}

The owner of the boat used in the film later sued the producers for damaging it.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/variety166-1947-06|title=Variety (June 1947)|date=June 22, 1947|publisher=New York, NY: Variety Publishing Company|via=Internet Archive}}

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic A. H. Weiler compared the film negatively with the 1937 film Ebb Tide: "'Adventure Island' is a dull, incredible and slowly paced fiction of a very venerable school. Paramount's earlier version had the services of Oscar Homolka, Barry Fitzgerald and Ray Milland as well as Technicolor and a professional script. 'Adventure Island' has Cinecolor, which is pleasant, and a script not nearly so pleasant."{{Cite news |last=Weiler |first=A. H. |date=1947-10-20 |title=The Screen in Review |page=29 |work=The New York Times}}

See also

References

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