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Return To Paradise

1953, Movie, NR, 100 mins

Return To Paradise: Review

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A yawnable South Seas love story that's only fair, despite yeoman work by Cooper. Haynes made her debut in the film, but her acting career was soon bypassed for behind-the-scenes work: she became a network TV executive, then a TV producer. It's the late 1920s, and Cooper is a soldier of fortune meandering through the Polynesian islands. He lands on a small atoll which is run by Jones, a fire-and-brimstone missionary not unlike Walter Huston in RAIN. Jones has gone crazy from the heat and humidity and rules the natives with an iron fist and a Bible. He has several underlings who make sure that the natives obey his rules which include full attendance and no dozing while he preaches. Cooper's appearance gives the natives hope as he refuses to knuckle under to Jones' dictates. Meanwhile, Cooper falls in love with Haynes, a local beauty, over the objections of Jones who wants to keep the island as his own territory. The natives eventually rise up against Jones, and he grumbles but allows them to return to the easygoing life. Haynes has a child and dies, and Cooper sails off in search of more adventure. Years pass, WW II is raging and Cooper returns to Paradise to find that he has a fullgrown daughter, MacDonald, who wants him to stay on and fight the Japanese. Cooper's performance was professional but the production was lackluster and spent more time developing the greenery than the characters. Many Samoans were recruited to play roles, the largest of which was given to MacDonald, a part-Polynesian. The title song was written by Tiomkin and sung by Kitty White, and it became a hit. Several native dances are seen but only serve as time-wasters to fill out the script. The situations are cliches that have been seen often since the first film was made about the subject. leave a comment
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