Bird of Paradise ** (1951, Debra Paget, Louis Jourdan, Jeff Chandler, Everett Sloane, Jack Elam) – Classic Movie Review 8364

Lusty and lovely young couple Louis Jourdan and Debra Paget star in writer-director Delmer Daves’s 1951 romantic adventure Bird of Paradise, a remake of the 1932 Dolores Del Rio movie Bird of Paradise about the Polynesian island princess Kalua (Paget) who, after French seafaring adventurer André Laurence (Jourdan) falls for her, jumps into an erupting volcano to appease the angry gods.

Jeff Chandler plays Paget’s native brother Tenga, Jourdan’s college roommate buddy who accompanies him on the trip back to the island.

This must be the movie that Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) was sending up, though Bird of Paradise is quite funny enough in its own right. The lavish 20th Century Fox production, in the prettiest Technicolor shot by Winton C Hoch against picture-postcard Hawaii backdrops, just seems to make it all even more preposterous, though possibly even more amusing.

Daves’s screenplay is based on the play by Richard Walton Tully.

Also in the cast are Maurice Schwartz, Everett Sloane, Jack Elam, Prince Lei Lani [Prince Leilani], Otto Waldis, Alfred Zeisler, Mary Ann Ventura, David K Bray and Sam Monsarrat.

Far from being a Polynesian island princess. Paget was born Debralee Griffin on 19 August 1933 in Denver, Colorado. She retired from the screen after marrying a Chinese millionaire in 1962, oil executive Louis K’ung, but they divorced in 1980. She became a born again Christian and came out of retirement to host a religious show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. She lives a quiet life in Texas.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8364

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