Outcast of the Islands (1952)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Carol Reed

Writers:

Joseph Conrad (novel)
William Fairchild (writer)

Release Date:

11 July 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Adventure

Tagline:

UNTAMED! UNASHAMED! MERCILESS!

Plot Keywords:

Cannibal | Indigenous | Island | Outcast | Based On Novel

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards.

Cast

Ralph Richardson	...	Captain Tom Lingard
Trevor Howard	...	Peter Willems
Robert Morley	...	Elmer Almayer
Wendy Hiller	...	Mrs. Almayer
Kerima	...	Aissa
George Coulouris	...	Babalatchi
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Vinck (as Wilfred Hyde White)
Frederick Valk	...	Hudig
Betty Ann Davies	...	Mrs. Williams
Dharma Emmanuel	...	Ali
Peter Illing	...	Alagappan
A.V. Bramble	...	Badavi
Annabel Morley	...	Nina Almayer
James Kenney	...	Ramsey
Marne Maitland	...	Mate

Also Known As:

Verdammte der Inseln, Der (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Aissa - ruskea viettelys (Finland) [fi]
Avventuriero della Malesia, L' (Italy) [it]
Desterrado de las islas (Spain) [es]
Fredlös på öarna (Sweden) [sv]
Fredløs på øerne (Denmark) [da]

Runtime:

102 min | USA:93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

London Film Productions

Powerful, but misses the point of the novel

This exciting film is well-worth watching. It is visually rich, and the acting is consistently surprising, even from such known quantities as George Coulouris and Wilfred Hyde-White. Trevor Howard shows great emotional flexibility, a quality we don't necessarily associate with him, and Robert Morley twinkles a good deal less than usual. Whether Sir Ralph Richardson looks good throwing a punch is something you'll have to decide for yourself.

However, the camera falls in love with picturesque young boys diving into water, which delays, over-ornaments and distracts from Conrad's austere story-telling.

More importantly, two of the female characters, Mrs. Almayer and Mrs. Willems, are turned from native women into transplanted Englishwomen, leaving Aissa the only native girl involved.

This has the effect of turning the movie into a tract on the horrors of miscegenation, when Conrad's novel is clearly focused on Peter Willems' double betrayal of Tom Lingard. Willems' taking up with a native woman is treated by the film as unique, instead of the usual thing in these climes. It is shown as embodying Willems' personal moral decline, which the book would regard as nonsense.

So if you can find the film, by all means watch it and enjoy its many virtues, but the movie has less to do with one of the great novels then it pretends to.

P.S. TCM now has this film in its library!