Polynesian movie, The Hurricane

Thought someone might be interested....1937 movie "The Hurricane"
is scheduled tonight on TCM....looks like it was filmed in the South
Pacific...might even be some tikis :)
http://www.tcm.com

It's an amazing movie, shot by John Ford and filled with dream-like South Seas imagery. It's a spooky, haunting film. Come to think of it, I don't know if there's a single Tiki in it, but its got everything else and Dorothy Lamour is really hot here.

They shot the Hurricane sequence by opening up like 50,000 gallons of water and dumping it on dozens of extras to make it look like they were drowning, which won them a special FX Oscar but basically that's all they did - dumped 50,000 gallons of water on dozens of extras and almost drowned them.

Hey Conga, enjoy!

That film IS a classic of Polynesian pop cinema, based on a story by the authors of "Mutiny on the Bounty", who actor Jon Hal was related to. It inspired several Pre-Tiki nightspots, like this one on Catalina, which was used as one of the locations for the film (just like the first "Mutiny" film version, which spawned "Christian's Hut" there):

...and one in San Francisco (matchbook, anybody?)

KailuaGeoff had this to say about it:

"As for Jon Hall's movies, I have the Hurricane, Aloma of the South Seas, The Tuttles of Tahiti (based on another story by Nordoff and Hall) and South of Pago-Pago....the Hurricane was released a few years ago as an excellent DVD, but it doesn't appear to be available anymore and the price of used copies has been sky high on ebay.....The Hurricane is Hall's best film by far and I really like South of Pago-Pago."
KG

Here is his whole post, with more info, showing how the film, through Jon Hall, ties into Frances Langford and her "Outrigger" Restaurant in Floriida:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=13970&forum=2

WHY do some images show up in small thumb nail size in some posts lately? That is just one stage better than blue question marks!

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-06-22 07:21 ]

Just found this one in my matchbook folder, I like how the Wahine is nude even in greatest peril:

I wonder if Pat O'Brians Hurricane cocktail was inspired by that movie, too. But it is said that the name came from the Hurricane lamp shaped glasses...and then, there was never a lack of Hurricanes in New Orleans , I guess.

And on the musical side of things, "Moon of Manakoora" debuted in this film, sung by Dorothy Lamour. It, of course, became a Hawaiian and Exotica standard.

That film is magical indeed! It's even got a great villain in it. A sadistic prison warden played by John Carradine. Thanks for the heads up Conga, I caught the first part (which I'd never seen).

Jon Hall & John Carradine teamed up again in the South Seas (with Peter Lorre too) in Hell Ship Mutiny. Hall probably played in more South Seas movies than any other actor ...

On The Isle Of Samoa
Cobra Woman
White Savage
Hurricane
Hell Ship Mutiny
Aloma Of The South Seas
Forbidden Island (with Martin Denny)
Ramar Of The Jungle (Ok so that was Africa) TV
Knight Of The South Seas (TV pilot.....not picked up...darn it)

His Father was also an actor that guested on a couple of episodes of Hawaiian Eye!

I hope the movie is better than the trailer.

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/23941/Hurricane/trailers

Someone forgot to give the"real"Villain his due. Raymond Massey was a total d-ck!

I saw the remake with Mia Farrow in 79, I think. As I remember, it sucked. But that was 30 years ago, and I was just a kid..

Cheers!

Rick