Flame of the Islands ** (1955, Yvonne De Carlo, Howard Duff, Zachary Scott, Kurt Kasznar) – Classic Movie Review 12,398

The 1955 film noir Caribbean crime mystery Flame of the Islands stars Yvonne De Carlo as a flaming café singer, who buys a Bahamas gambling casino and hires herself as the main attraction.

Producer-director Edward Ludwig’s Republic Pictures 1955 American film noir crime film Flame of the Islands stars Yvonne De Carlo, Howard Duff, Zachary Scott and Kurt Kasznar.

In this noir-ish Caribbean mystery, flaming Rosalind Dee (Yvonne De Carlo) buys a Bahamas nighterie, where she hires herself as the main attraction, and gets mixed up with Howard Duff, Zachary Scott and Kurt Kasznar, both business-wise and romantically.

This cheap-looking, unpersuasive melodramatic adventure was shot on location in the Bahamas, but has only the exotic stars and the lovely Bahamas views to recommend it (and even they are not at their best in the spectacularly misnamed Trucolor). However, it is also famously kitsch and campy, and a lot of fun to watch on that level.

Dancing De Carlo.

Republic Pictures bought Adele Comandini’s unpublished novel Rebel Island in January 1954 and hired Bruce Manning to write the script.

It is shot by Bud Thackery and scored by Nelson Riddle.

It was released on 4 December 1955 in London and in the US on 6 January 1956.

It runs 90 minutes.

The cast are Yvonne De Carlo as Rosalind Dee, Howard Duff as Doug Duryea, Zachary Scott as Wade Evans, Kurt Kasznar as Cyril Mace, Barbara O’Neil as Charmaine Duryea, James Arness as the Rev Kelly Rand, Frieda Inescort as Evelyn Hammond, Lester Matthews as Gus, Donald Curtis as Johnny, Nick Stewart as Nick, John Pickard as Henchman Parks, Leslie Denison and Peter Adams.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,398

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