ISLAND IN THE SUN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 950, 25 October 1957, Page 16

ISLAND IN THE SUN

(20th Century-Fox) A Cert, ARRY BELAFONTE, one of the numerous big stars of Jsland in the Sun, has called it "a terrible picture based on a terrible best-selling book," but’ since he also thought Carmen Jones a bit of a stinker ("bootleg Bizet" was the term, I think) perhaps he shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Island in the Sun is nevertheless disappointing-a quite impressive collection of incidental good things which doesn’t make a satisfactory whole. Set in the Caribbean, the film has caused a stir in the’ United States as the first to show a love affair between a Negro and a white woman. The courage of those concerned is no doubt praiseworthy, but in the event it doesn’t take them all that far. Concerned with a number of more or less complex relations between various people, the story’s final effect is bitsy. Still, I would not have liked to miss James Mason, at his surly, neurotic best suspecting his wife of having an affair; and on the coloured side I’ll remember Mr Belafonte joining in a work song, and Dorothy Dandridge catching fire as she dances with a man-a Europeanwho has fallen in love with her. Other people of talent in the piece include Joan Fontaine. There is a considerable number of well-written scenes (the script from Alec Waugh’s novel is by Alfred Hayes), F. A. Young has handled the camera imaginatively, and Robert Rossen’s consistently capable direction preserves for much of the way an atmosphere of tropical heat and tension. SNe ote RID