The Tuttles of Tahiti

Last updated
The Tuttles of Tahiti
The Tuttles of Tahiti FilmPoster.jpeg
theatrical poster
Directed by Charles Vidor
Written byLewis Meltzer
Robert Carson
James Hilton (adaptation)
Based onnovel: No More Gas by
James Norman Hall
Charles Nordhoff
Produced by Sol Lesser
Starring Charles Laughton
Cinematography Nicholas Musuraca
Edited by Frederic Knudtson
Music by Roy Webb
Production
company
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • May 1, 1942 (1942-05-01)(U.S.)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$847,000 [1]

The Tuttles of Tahiti is a 1942 American adventure comedy romance film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Charles Laughton and Jon Hall. It was based on the novel No More Gas by James Norman Hall and Charles Nordhoff.

Contents

Plot

When merchant sailor Chester Tuttle (Jon Hall) returns home to Tahiti after several years away, his family, headed by Jonas Tuttle (Charles Laughton), welcomes him with open arms. The Tuttles are a happy-go-lucky bunch who give little thought to the future and do as little work as necessary. Jonas often gets loans, which he never gets around to paying back, from Dr. Blondin (Victor Francen). Chester has brought with him a fighting rooster for Jonas's cockfight with the more industrious and prosperous Emily (Florence Bates).

Shrewd businessman Jensen (Curt Bois) persuades the doctor to transfer Jonas's debt to him. Jonas is so sure that Chester's rooster will win that he willingly signs a mortgage for the rundown family mansion and bets everything on the outcome. However, the bird turns out be a coward and flees the ring without a fight.

Chester notices that Emily's daughter Tamara (Peggy Drake) has grown into a beautiful young woman, but the young lovers realize that Emily will never sanction Tamara's marriage to a penniless wastrel.

To raise the mortgage payment, Chester, his brothers and nephew go fishing on their boat. When a storm comes up, they are presumed lost. However, not only are they safe, they find an abandoned ship. They bring it in, and under salvage laws, they are now its owners. Jensen buys it and its cargo for 400,000 francs, an enormous sum.

Ignoring Emily's advice to invest the money, Jonas deposits it in a joint checking account, withdraws just enough to pay back Dr. Blondin, and gives checkbooks to everyone in the family. With their new wealth, Chester is able to marry Tamara. However, creditors descend on Jonas, and the spendthrift Tuttles soon spend the rest of their money very quickly.

When Jensen comes to collect the mortgage, Jonas cannot find the money he had saved for Blondin, and Jensen takes possession of the mansion. While chasing Chester's rooster, he finds the misplaced money and triumphantly gives it to Blondin, saving the Tuttle home. In the end, Blondin gives Jonas a new loan to buy gas for the fishing boat.

Cast

Reception

The film recorded a loss of $170,000. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Laughton</span> British-American actor and director (1899–1962)

Charles Laughton was a British-American actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future wife Elsa Lanchester, with whom he lived and worked until his death.

<i>Sister Kenny</i> 1946 American movie

Sister Kenny is a 1946 American biographical film about Sister Elizabeth Kenny, an Australian bush nurse, who fought to help people who suffered from polio, despite opposition from the medical establishment. The film stars Rosalind Russell, Alexander Knox, and Philip Merivale.

<i>The Blue Veil</i> (1951 film) 1951 American drama film

The Blue Veil is a 1951 American historical drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Jane Wyman, Charles Laughton and Joan Blondell. It tells the story of a woman who spends her life caring for other people’s children, beginning just after World War I. The title refers to the headdresses once worn by governesses and nannies, colored blue to distinguish them from the white veils worn by medical nurses. The screenplay by Norman Corwin is based on a story by François Campaux, adapted for the French-language film Le Voile Bleu in 1942.

<i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> (1939 film) 1939 film by William Dieterle

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American romantic drama film starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara. Directed by William Dieterle and produced by Pandro S. Berman, the film is based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Drake (actor)</span> American actor

Charles Drake was an American actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Hall (actor)</span> American actor (1915–1979)

Jon Hall was an American film actor known for playing a variety of adventurous roles, as in 1937's The Hurricane, and later when contracted to Universal Pictures, including Invisible Agent and The Invisible Man's Revenge and six movies he made with Maria Montez. He was also known to 1950s fans as the creator and star of the Ramar of the Jungle television series which ran from 1952 to 1954. Hall directed and starred in two 1960s sci-fi films in his later years, The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966).

<i>Night of the Demon</i> 1957 British horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur

Night of the Demon is a 1957 British horror film, produced by Hal E. Chester and Frank Bevis, directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis. It is adapted from the M. R. James story "Casting the Runes".

<i>Mutiny on the Bounty</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by Frank Lloyd

Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1935 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer drama film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, based on the 1932 Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall novel Mutiny on the Bounty.

<i>The Spanish Main</i> 1945 film by Frank Borzage

The Spanish Main is a 1945 American adventure film starring Paul Henreid, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak and Binnie Barnes, and directed by Frank Borzage. It was RKO's first all-Technicolor film since Becky Sharp ten years before.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curt Bois</span> German actor (1901–1991)

Curt Bois was a German actor with a career spanning over 80 years. He is best remembered for his performances as the pickpocket in Casablanca (1942) and the poet Homer in Wings of Desire (1987).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Francen</span> Belgian actor (1888–1977)

Victor Francen was a Belgian-born actor with a long career in French cinema and in Hollywood.

<i>A Womans Secret</i> 1949 film by Nicholas Ray

A Woman's Secret is a 1949 film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Maureen O'Hara, Gloria Grahame and Melvyn Douglas. The film was based on the novel Mortgage on Life by Vicki Baum.

Peggy Drake, was an Austrian born American film and television actress. She primarily appeared in B-movies of the 1940s.

<i>The Little Foxes</i> (film) 1941 film by William Wyler

The Little Foxes is a 1941 American drama film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Lillian Hellman is based on her 1939 play The Little Foxes. Hellman's ex-husband Arthur Kober, Dorothy Parker and her husband Alan Campbell contributed additional scenes and dialogue.

<i>Millie</i> (film) 1931 film

Millie (1931) is a pre-Code drama film directed by John Francis Dillon from a screenplay by Charles Kenyon and Ralph Morgan, based on a novel of the same name by Donald Henderson Clarke. The film was an independent production by Charles R. Rogers, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, after their acquisition of Pathé Exchange. It stars Helen Twelvetrees in one of her best roles, with a supporting cast that includes Lilyan Tashman, James Hall, Joan Blondell, John Halliday and Anita Louise.

<i>The Embezzler</i> (1954 film) 1954 film

The Embezzler is a 1954 British crime film directed by John Gilling, and starring Charles Victor, Zena Marshall and Cyril Chamberlain. It was made as a second feature shot at Twickenham Studios and on location around London. The film's sets were designed by the art director C. Wilfred Arnold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RKO Pictures</span> American film production and distribution company

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., commonly called RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company that was one of the "Big Five" major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum.

<i>The Falcon in Hollywood</i> 1944 film by Gordon Douglas

The Falcon in Hollywood is a 1944 crime film directed by Gordon Douglas and stars Tom Conway in his recurring role as a suave amateur sleuth, supported by Barbara Hale and Veda Ann Borg. The film was the 10th of 16 in Falcon detective series.

<i>Beau Bandit</i> 1930 film directed by Lambert Hillyer

Beau Bandit is a 1930 American Pre-Code Western film, directed by Lambert Hillyer, from a screenplay by Wallace Smith, based on his short story, "Strictly Business" which appeared in the April 1929 edition of Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan. The film starred Rod La Rocque, Mitchell Lewis, Doris Kenyon, and Walter Long. The story is based loosely on the legend of Robin Hood.

<i>The Judge Steps Out</i> 1949 film by Boris Ingster

The Judge Steps Out is a 1948 American comedy film directed by Boris Ingster and written by Ingster and Alexander Knox. The film stars Knox and Ann Sothern, along with George Tobias, Sharyn Moffett, Florence Bates, Frieda Inescort and Myrna Dell. The film was completed in March 1947, but its American release was held up until June 2, 1949, by RKO Pictures. The film was retitled Indian Summer in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

References

  1. Richard Jewell & Vernon Harbin, The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. p171
  2. Richard B. Jewell, RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan Is Born , University of California 2012 p 252