Island of Lost Men *** (1939, Anna May Wong, J Carrol Naish, Anthony Quinn, Broderick Crawford, Eric Blore, Ernest Truex) – Classic Movie Review 10,746

Director Kurt Neumann’s 1939 black and white crime thriller film Island of Lost Men is a stock adventure yarn in which oriental daughter cabaret singer Kim Ling (Anna May Wong) discovers that her absconded Chinese general dad General Ahn Ling (Richard Loo) is in the power of gunrunning bad guy Gregory Prin (J Carrol Naish).

The evil half-caste Prin relies for much of his dirty work on his right-hand man Chang Tai (Anthony Quinn), who turns out to be working undercover. The catalyst is the sweaty Tex Ballister (Broderick Crawford), an American adventurer-crook who puts the heat on Naish and reveals Quinn’s real allegiance.

There is a gutsy production, director Neumann goes to it with a will, and the players are very fine, giving attractive, idiosyncratic performances, even if they do not have too much of a script to work on.

The three stars Anna May Wong, Anthony Quinn and J Carrol Naish also made King of Chinatown together that year.

It is a happily much altered remake of White Woman (1933), with Carole Lombard, Charles Laughton and Charles Bickford.

Also in the cast are Eric Blore, Ernest Truex, Rudolf Forster, William Haade, Richard Loo, Philip Ahn, Torben Meyer and George Melford.

Island of Lost Men is directed by Kurt Neumann, runs 63 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by William R Lipman and Horace McCoy, based on the play Hangman’s Whip by Norman Reilly Raine and Frank Butler, is shot in black and white by Karl Struss, is produced by William LeBaron (executive producer) and Eugene J Zukor, and is scored by Victor Young, John Leipold and Boris Morros (musical director), with Art Direction by Hans Dreier and Franz Bachelin.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,746

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