The Hurricane **** (1937, Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall, Mary Astor, C Aubrey Smith, Thomas Mitchell, Raymond Massey, John Carradine, Jerome Cowan) – Classic Movie Review 5,741

A wicked French colony Governor (Raymond Massey) and a typhoon strike the Polynesian Island of Manukura hard, in director John Ford’s rousing 1937 South Seas adventure movie The Hurricane, famed for its climactic special effects hurricane.

A wicked recently appointed French colony Governor (Raymond Massey as Eugene De Laage) and a typhoon strike the Polynesian Island of Manukura hard, in director John Ford’s rousing 1937 South Seas adventure movie The Hurricane, based on the novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.

The Hurricane is famed for its climactic special effects hurricane. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning for Best Sound Recording – Thomas T Moulton.

The leads Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall are nice, warm stars as Marama and Terangi, and give likeable performances, though the formidable scene-stealing character actors Raymond Massey, Mary Astor, C Aubrey Smith, Thomas Mitchell and John Carradine way outshine them.

Produced by Samuel Goldwyn, the movie is first rate in all technical departments – Dudley Nichols and Oliver H P Garrett’s screenplay, Bert Glennon’s black and white cinematography, music (Alfred Newman, Oscar nominated for Best Score, and special effects (James Basevi).

Hall plays the first mate on an island-hopping schooner, a native jailed for hitting a white man who has insulted him racially. Lamour plays his wife, the daughter of Chief Mehevi (Al Kikume), who tries to help him, and so does Astor as Massey’s wife, Madame Germaine De Laage.

Then there are the doctor (Oscar nominated Best Supporting Actor Thomas Mitchell as Dr Kersaint doing his drunk act from Stagecoach again), the priest (C Aubrey Smith as Father Paul) and the nasty guard (John Carradine as the Warden). Great though they all are, they are still all upstaged by the climactic hurricane, as thrilling as the earthquake in San Francisco (1936).

The Hurricane also co-stars Jerome Cowan as Captain Nagle, with Mamo Clark as Hitia, Movita Castenada as Arai, Layne Tom Jr as Mako, Kuulei De Clercq as Tita, Spencer Charters and Inez Courtney.

Co-author James Norman Hall is star Jon Hall’s uncle.

Kino Lorber Studio Classics released it on Blu-ray and DVD in November 2015.

Director Jan Troell remade it as Hurricane in 1979, with Jason Robards Jr, Mia Farrow, Trevor Howard, Max von Sydow, Dayton Ka’Ne, Timothy Bottoms and James Keach.

Lamour and Hall re-convened for Aloma of the South Seas (1941).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,741

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