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Wednesday, March 30, 2022

HERO'S ISLAND (1962)


Did James Mason need quick cash in 1962?*  How else explain a year of LOLITA for Stanley Kubrick*; four tv gigs (including an ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR); a comic nonentity (TIARA TAHITI); an uncredited bit in ESCAPE FROM ZAHRAIN; and this unclassifiable oddity.  Co-produced with self-described ‘writer-dramatist’ Leslie Stevens, who cast talent-challenged wife Kate Manx as leading lady, the film might be one of the crappy piratical swashbucklers Mason is briefly seen filming in the 1954 version of A STAR IS BORN, but with immeasurably worse production values . . . and Steven’s DIY/Ed Wood filmmaking chops.  Yet pro support from Neville Brand, Rip Torn, Harry Dean Stanton & Warren Oates.; top-tier composer Dominic Frontiere; even Ted McCord (soon to wrap his career with THE SOUND OF MUSIC) lensing.  A tall tale of 17th century adventure for a clan of recently freed indentured servants (and kids) hoping for a fresh start on a deserted island paradise . . . only it’s not so deserted.  A scurvy gang of cutthroats got there first, and only James Mason, a mysterious stranger washed ashore, seems ready to fight.  And why not, he’s a battle-tested pirate on the run from a death sentence.  There’s a certain fascination to filmmaking this confidently inept.  What keeps a Leslie Stevens going?  Whatever it was, not enough for wife Manx who committed suicide at 34 soon after they divorced.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Maybe so.  Divorce from Pamela Mason (the two quite the famous Hollywood couple) finalized in ‘64.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT:  *Mason an outstanding Humbert Humbert in LOLITA.  OR: See Mason use a deserted island to set up a libel suit in the overly genteel comedy A TOUCH OF LARCENY/’60.  (Look for an outstandingly funny bit when he cries out for help.)

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