BIRD OF PARADISE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 460, 18 February 1933, Page 7

BIRD OF PARADISE

■ 1 FILMED IN EXOTIC j CHARM OF HAWAII. I j MONDAY, AT THE GRAND. J "Bird of Paradise," which opens on Monday at the Grand Theatre, is perI haps on e of the best known p'lays i ever produced. The pathetic romance | 0f Luana, a child of nature who falls | j hopelessly in love with a white man, I I iand as hopelessly sacrifices her love, I | required a setting in sympathy with | S the sublime character of her heroism. | That there could be no other setj ting than Hawaii was easily apparent j to David 0. Sleznick, executive vicej! president in eharge of all RKO productions. Thus the production wheels. | were set in motion. King Yidor, a. j master of subleties and poetic screen 1 phrasing, was engaged to direct_ and I the campany made the long sea jour1 I ney to Hoaolulu.

|| If there had been any douhts as to 1 the wisdom of this expensive expedi- | tion, they were quickly dkpelled. The | natural beauties of Hawaii, with its | waving palms, its placid, moonlight | nights, its verdant, lush valleys, its beauti|ul seascape and rugged coast l[ line were a deligbt to Yidor's eyes. Bj There he set up his cameras under 1 the direction of Clyde De Vinna, who photographcd "Trader Horn," | Despite the handicaps of seasonal rains, the work of filming this screen play of Richard Walton Tully's stage masterpiece progressed. _ Where the play was neces?arily static hecause of the theatre's limitation, the film, immeasurahly broadened the scope of the story. The barbaric beauty of the primitive Hawaiian mating dance was caught in all its wild esoteric sp'lendour. Amid a circlet of flames, Miss Del Rio undulates in the ominous

| Sceue for "Doomed Battalsln,"

I night— a pathetic pawn of eustom, p waiting for some man to brave tlie 1 fire and carry her off. I I Joel McCrea rescues hei— braves 1 the menacing circlet of fire— and car1 j ries her off to a deserted, neighbouiI | ing island, frce from the dreaded I j tabus of her people, ^m^^ed 1 I to love the white god who captuied 1 ! her Then the theme of Bird of Pa I radise" weave., its tacvitabla de«to5N P T uana's people wish to sacnfice he 1 to Pele', the volcano, for having broken k the tabu against mating with a ^whi e. 1 Luana is torn between love for I Johnny (Joel McCrea) and and tbe 1 primitive teri'or or sorcery, and m tbe I end makes a magnificent sacnfice that k is a classic in the annals of drama. I in production, "Bird of Paradise | is tremendous in scope._ No money | j was pinched to make it a realist c i I saga of romance. In this; respect it § i is interesting to note that the com- | pany hired an entire village of HaI wiian primitives — all its occupants, I men, women babies, goats and clogs I for the spectacular mating dance scene# 1' While in Honolulu tbe company was | treated royally. The_ Chamber of Ps Commerce co-operated in finding loII cations, even going to the trouble Y |I daily transporting the film crew to I its working place. o Miss Del Rio was I feted every night, and was treated II with the most profound respect. Every moraing flowers were sent to hei by 1 mysterious well-wishers. The fans trooped behind her as they would i troop behind an American star in any | American city. '