Hurricane Smith | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Directed by | Jerry Hopper |
Screenplay by | Frank Gruber |
Based on | the novel Hurricane Williams by Gordon Ray Young |
Produced by | Nat Holt |
Starring | Yvonne de Carlo John Ireland James Craig Forrest Tucker Lyle Bettger Richard Arlen |
Cinematography | Ray Rennahan |
Edited by | Frank Bracht |
Music by | Paul Sawtell |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | Nat Holt Productions |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,175,000 (US rentals) [1] |
Hurricane Smith is a 1952 American adventure film directed by Jerry Hopper and starring Yvonne de Carlo, John Ireland, James Craig, Forrest Tucker, Lyle Bettger and Richard Arlen.
The film is set at an undetermined date but presumably is intended to be in the later 19th century. Costumes vary from 18th century to 1950s. The ship is typical of the early 18th century but with a typical late 19th century name. The frequent discussion of "blackbirding" would place the timeframe in the second half of the 19th century.
Captain Raikes of the ship "The Southern Cross" arrives on an island in the South Pacific Ocean to capture slaves. He rows ashore with his first mate Brown and other crew members, unaware the island is inhabited by three white adventurers who have been stranded there: Hurricane Smith, Dan O'Hara and Brundage.
Smith, O'Hara and Brundage sneak on board "The Southern Cross", overwhelm the remaining crew, and takes over the boat. He sails it to Australia. On the way Smith explains he has buried half a million dollars in Dakaru before being unfairly arrested for piracy. He persuades O'Hara and Brundage to become his partners in retrieving it.
In Australia, the three men rename their ship "The Lady Betty" try to raise money to track down the treasure. They are approached by Eric Gorvahlsen, a scientist who wants to hire a ship. Raikes and Brown arrive in Australia so Hurricane, Dan and Brundage take them prisoner on "The Lady Betty".
Gorvahlsen goes on board the ship with his companions, Dr. Whitmore and Whitmore's half-Polynesian daughter Luana, who is also Gorvahlsen's lover. Gorvahlsen is actually planning to capture Hurricane's treasure on Dakaru. He has never seen Hurricane Smith and suspects that Dan O'Hara is he (the real Hurricane pretends to be "Jim Tyler").
Gorvahlsen tells Luana to find out information about Dan/O'Hara from Hurricane/Tyler. Luana and the real Hurricane fall in love with each other and she admits to having doubts about the scheme.
Raikes and Brown have been released from the brig. They start a knife fight with Brundage and another sailor Clobb, which results in Raikes being sent back to the brig.
Luana falls in the water and Hurricane rescues her from a shark. During this, Brundage accidentally calls Hurricane by his real name and Gorvahlsen notices. He orders Luana to drug Hurricane with gin but she warns him instead. Hurricane swims to the island of Dakaru to prepare the natives for the attack.
Gorvahlsen orders Dan to anchor the ship off Dakaru. Brown then persuades Gorvahlsen to join forces with him and order Dan to release Raikes. Dan then leaves for the island to warn Hurricane.
Hurricane sneaks back on board the boat by which time Brown has caused the crew to be unsettled. Hurricane is thrown in the brig and Clobb kills a sailor. Gorvahlsen takes over the ship, and Clobb encourages the rest of the crew to arm themselves. Gorvahlsen tells the crew about the gold and convinces them to help him claim it.
In Dakaru, Hurricane is forced to lead Gorvahlsen, Brown and Raikes to where the gold has been buried. They dig up the treasure but then Dan leads the natives to attack. Dr. Whitmore spears Gorvahlsen to death and Brundage kills Clobb in a knife fight. Hurricane and Luana are united. [2]
The film was based on a 1922 novel Hurricane Williams by Gordon Ray Young. [3] The character had appeared in a number of stories by Young including Wild Blood (1921) and The Vengeance of Hurricane Williams (1926). [4]
In 1951 producer Nat Holt announced he had bought screen rights to the novel and had hired Frank Gruber, one of his regular screenwriters, to adapt it. Edmond O'Brien had just starred in Silver City for Holt (also written by Gruber) and he was mentioned as a possible star. [5]
In August 1951 Holt announced Paulette Goddard would star with Sterling Hayden as a possible co star. [6] [7] However Paramount had a backlog of films at the time and filming was pushed back to the following year. [8]
Eventually the leads were played by Yvonne de Carlo, who had just made Silver City with Holt, and John Ireland. Forrest Tucker and Richard Arlen also played lead roles. James Craig was borrowed from MGM to play the villain. [9] Australian actor Murray Matheson, who had been in Botany Bay, had a small role. [10]
Filming began 11 February 1952. The film featured Kanaka Islanders as extras who had to be "blackened up" by the make up man because the filmmakers felt they were not dark enough. [11]
"A great deal of muscular action occurs exactly as you'd expect it," wrote the New York Times . [12]
Margaret Yvonne Middleton, known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Hollywood film star in the 1940s and 1950s, made several recordings, and later acted on television and stage.
Robert "Bobby" Cletus Driscoll was an American actor who performed on film and television from 1943 to 1960. He starred in some of the Walt Disney Studios' best-known live-action pictures of that period: Song of the South (1946), So Dear to My Heart (1949), and Treasure Island (1950), as well as RKO's The Window (1949). He served as the animation model and provided the voice for the title role in Peter Pan (1953). He received an Academy Juvenile Award for outstanding performances in So Dear to My Heart and The Window.
John Gregson, born as Harold Thomas Gregson, was an English actor of stage, television and film, with 40 credited film roles. He was best known for his crime drama and comedy roles.
John Lawrence Russell was an American film and television actor, most noted for his starring role as Marshal Dan Troop in the ABC western television series Lawman from 1958 to 1962 and his lead role as international adventurer Tim Kelly in the syndicated TV series Soldiers of Fortune from 1955 to 1957.
Charles John "Tim" Holt III was an American actor. He was a popular Western star during the 1940s and early 1950s, appearing in forty-six B westerns released by RKO Pictures.
The Captain's Paradise is a 1953 British comedy film produced and directed by Anthony Kimmins, and starring Alec Guinness, Yvonne De Carlo and Celia Johnson. Guinness plays the captain of a passenger ship that travels regularly between Gibraltar and Spanish Morocco. De Carlo plays his Moroccan wife and Johnson plays his British wife. The film begins at just before the end of the story, which is then told in a series of flashbacks.
Emile Meyer was an American actor, usually known for tough, aggressive, authoritative characters in Hollywood films from the 1950s era, mostly in Westerns or thrillers.
Against All Flags is a 1952 American pirate film directed by George Sherman, with uncredited assist from Douglas Sirk. It features Errol Flynn as Lt. Brian Hawke, Maureen O'Hara as Prudence "Spitfire" Stevens, and Anthony Quinn as Roc Brasiliano. The film is set in 1700, on the coast of Madagascar.
The Sea Chase is a 1955 World War II drama film starring John Wayne and Lana Turner, and featuring David Farrar, Lyle Bettger, and Tab Hunter. It was directed by John Farrow from a screenplay by James Warner Bellah and John Twist based on the novel of the same name by Andrew Geer. The plot is a nautical cat and mouse adventure, with Wayne determined to get his freighter home to Germany during the opening months of World War II, chased relentlessly across the Pacific then Atlantic oceans by the Australian and then British navies.
Pine-Thomas Productions was a prolific B-picture unit of Paramount Pictures from 1940–1957, producing 81 films. Co-producers William H. Pine and William C. Thomas were known as the "Dollar Bills" because none of their economically made films ever lost money. "We don't want to make million dollar pictures," they said. "We just want to make a million dollars."
The Master of Ballantrae is a 1953 British Technicolor adventure film starring Errol Flynn and Roger Livesey. It is a loose and highly truncated adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson 1889 novel of the same name. In eighteenth century Scotland, two sons of a laird clash over the family estate and a lady.
Hotel Sahara is a 1951 British war comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Yvonne De Carlo, Peter Ustinov and David Tomlinson. It was produced and co-written by George Hambley Brown.
Tomahawk is a 1951 American Western film directed by George Sherman and starring Van Heflin and Yvonne De Carlo. The film is loosely based on events that took place in Wyoming in 1866 to 1868 around Fort Phil Kearny on the Bozeman Trail such as the Fetterman Fight and Wagon Box Fight. In the UK, the film was released as The Battle of Powder River.
Kangaroo is a 1952 American Western film directed by Lewis Milestone. It was the first Technicolor film filmed on location in Australia. Milestone called it "an underrated picture."
Silver City is a 1951 American Western film directed by Byron Haskin and starring Edmond O'Brien, Yvonne De Carlo, and Barry Fitzgerald.
Caribbean Gold is a 1952 American historical pirate adventure film directed by Edward Ludwig and starring John Payne, Arlene Dahl and Cedric Hardwicke. It was produced by Pine-Thomas Productions for distribution by Paramount Pictures and was based on the novel Carib Gold by Ellery Clark. The film's sets were designed by the art director Hal Pereira. It is also known by the alternative title Caribbean.
Gunplay is a 1951 American western film directed by Lesley Selander. It stars Tim Holt and Joan Dixon. It reunited Holt and Dixon from Law of the Badlands. The film was originally called Gun Notches. Filming took place in late 1950.
This is the complete filmography of actress Yvonne De Carlo.
The Vanquished is a 1953 American Western film directed by Edward Ludwig, written by Lewis R. Foster, Winston Miller and Frank L. Moss, and starring John Payne, Jan Sterling, Coleen Gray, Lyle Bettger, Willard Parker, Roy Gordon and John Dierkes. It was released on June 3, 1953, by Paramount Pictures.
Hurricane Island is a 1951 American Supercinecolor adventure film directed by Lew Landers and starring Jon Hall.