Bird of Paradise (1932 film)
Encyclopedia
Bird of Paradise is a 1932 American
film directed by King Vidor
, starring Dolores del Río
, Joel McCrea
, and Richard "Skeets" Gallagher
and released by RKO Radio Pictures.
sails into an island chain
in the South Pacific
, a large number of natives in pontoon boats
sail out to greet them. The natives dive for the trinkets the yacht's crew throws them. A shark arrives, scaring most of the natives away. In an attempt to catch a shark by throwing it bait that has been tied to a harpoon-sized hook, a young man (Joel McCrea
) accidentally steps into a loop that tightens around his ankle. The shark takes the bait, and the rope grows tighter, causing the rope to yank the young man overboard. The daughter of the chief rescues the young man by leaping into the water, swimming down to where the man is. He cannot get his foot loose from the tangle, so she pulls out a knife and cuts the rope, saving his life.
The beautiful Polynesia
n girl named Luana (Dolores del Río
) becomes an irresistible object of desire, and it is not long before they meet in the middle of the night. Swiftly falling in love, they discover she has been promised by her father to another man - a prince on a neighboring island. An arranged wedding
with an elaborate dance sequence then follows, during which the young man appears at the nick of time, runs into a circle of burning fire, rescues her as the natives kneel to the fire, bringing her back to a distant location on another island where they hope to live out the rest of their lives.
He builds her a house with a roof of thatched grass, and as for food, the fruit of the earth, mangos and coconuts, are all within easy reach. Fishing is plentiful, whether by creeping out to rocky outcroppings and using tridents, or swimming down into the local waters to hunt giant turtle
s. It is like paradise. However, their idyll is smashed when the local volcano
begins to erupt. The man discovers that the local custom is to sacrifice a young woman to the volcanic gods. They try to escape but realize that "east is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet."
l film score
. A full musical score was featured in the first all-talking movie, Lights of New York
(1928).
Another noteworthy example is So Long Letty (1929), a comedy starring Charlotte Greenwood
which featured a continuous musical film score from beginning to end and has recently been released on DVD in the Warner Archive Collection. Late in 1930, audiences became tired of the numerous musical films which Hollywood had been turning out and for a period of time (late 1930 to early 1932) musical scores were completely eliminated from films. As films from this latter period have been easier to view many have assumed that the earliest talkies also lacked any musical scoring.
The musical director for Bird of Paradise was Max Steiner
, who would later work on King Kong
(1933) and Gone with the Wind
(1939). The native huts in this film were reused one year later in RKO's King Kong.
was strictly enforced, so nudity in American movies was still fairly common. Orson Welles
said del Río represented the highest erotic ideal with her performance in the film.
Employing an elaborate pantomime, it is Dolores Del Rio's mimicking of a bird in flight, that implies her freedom, whatever it is, is to be strictly construed in terms of a prior obligation, her duty to marry the prince that lives on a neighboring island. After she has apparently escaped a forced wedding, and taken up habitation on a neighboring island that appears to be simple paradise, it appears that they have escaped the dominion of her father, but that is not so. They have kept track of her location. When the mountain god Peli rumbles, she confesses to her lover that she alone can appease the mountain's appetite. The movie closes with her leaving her husband (who has slipped into a deep delirium from a spear wound) so that she can save her people from Peli by voluntarily throwing herself into the volcano's mouth.
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
film directed by King Vidor
King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades...
, starring Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
, Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
, and Richard "Skeets" Gallagher
Richard "Skeets" Gallagher
Richard "Skeets" Gallagher was an American actor.He was educated at Rose Polytechnic Institute and Indiana University. He first studied civil engineering and then to become a lawyer but ended up on the stage...
and released by RKO Radio Pictures.
Plot
As a yachtYacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
sails into an island chain
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
in the South Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, a large number of natives in pontoon boats
Pontoon (boat)
A pontoon is a flotation device with buoyancy sufficient to float itself as well as a heavy load. A pontoon boat is a flattish boat that relies on pontoons to float. Pontoons may be used on boats, rafts, barges, docks, floatplanes or seaplanes. Pontoons may support a platform, creating a raft. A...
sail out to greet them. The natives dive for the trinkets the yacht's crew throws them. A shark arrives, scaring most of the natives away. In an attempt to catch a shark by throwing it bait that has been tied to a harpoon-sized hook, a young man (Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
) accidentally steps into a loop that tightens around his ankle. The shark takes the bait, and the rope grows tighter, causing the rope to yank the young man overboard. The daughter of the chief rescues the young man by leaping into the water, swimming down to where the man is. He cannot get his foot loose from the tangle, so she pulls out a knife and cuts the rope, saving his life.
The beautiful Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
n girl named Luana (Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
) becomes an irresistible object of desire, and it is not long before they meet in the middle of the night. Swiftly falling in love, they discover she has been promised by her father to another man - a prince on a neighboring island. An arranged wedding
Wedding
A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
with an elaborate dance sequence then follows, during which the young man appears at the nick of time, runs into a circle of burning fire, rescues her as the natives kneel to the fire, bringing her back to a distant location on another island where they hope to live out the rest of their lives.
He builds her a house with a roof of thatched grass, and as for food, the fruit of the earth, mangos and coconuts, are all within easy reach. Fishing is plentiful, whether by creeping out to rocky outcroppings and using tridents, or swimming down into the local waters to hunt giant turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
s. It is like paradise. However, their idyll is smashed when the local volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
begins to erupt. The man discovers that the local custom is to sacrifice a young woman to the volcanic gods. They try to escape but realize that "east is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet."
Cast (in credits order)
- Dolores del RioDolores del RíoDolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
as Luana - Joel McCreaJoel McCreaJoel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
as Johnny Baker - John HallidayJohn HallidayJohn Halliday was an American actor of stage and screen, who often played suave aristocrats and foreigners....
as Mac - Richard "Skeets" GallagherRichard "Skeets" GallagherRichard "Skeets" Gallagher was an American actor.He was educated at Rose Polytechnic Institute and Indiana University. He first studied civil engineering and then to become a lawyer but ended up on the stage...
as Chester - Bert RoachBert RoachBert Roach was an American film actor. He appeared in 327 films between 1914 and 1951.He was born in Washington, D.C., and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:* Fatty's Magic Pants...
as Hector - Lon Chaney Jr. as Thornton
- Wade BotelerWade BotelerWade Boteler was an American film actor. He appeared in over 430 films between 1919 and 1943.He was born in Santa Ana, California, and died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack.-Selected filmography:...
as Skipper Johnson - Arnold Gray as Walker
- Reginald Simpson as O'Fallon
- Napoleon Pukui as The King
- Agostino Borgato as Medicine Man
- Sofia Ortega as Mahumahu
Production
In the past, due to the unavailability of many early sound films, this film was erroneously believed to have been one of the first talkies to have an orchestraOrchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
. A full musical score was featured in the first all-talking movie, Lights of New York
Lights of New York (1928 film)
Lights of New York was the first all-talking feature film, released by Warner Brothers and directed by Bryan Foy. The film, which cost only $23,000 to produce, grossed over $1,000,000. It was also the first film to define the crime genre...
(1928).
Another noteworthy example is So Long Letty (1929), a comedy starring Charlotte Greenwood
Charlotte Greenwood
Frances Charlotte Greenwood was an American actress and dancer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Greenwood started in vaudeville, and eventually starred on Broadway, movies and radio. Standing around six feet tall, she was best known for her long legs and high kicks...
which featured a continuous musical film score from beginning to end and has recently been released on DVD in the Warner Archive Collection. Late in 1930, audiences became tired of the numerous musical films which Hollywood had been turning out and for a period of time (late 1930 to early 1932) musical scores were completely eliminated from films. As films from this latter period have been easier to view many have assumed that the earliest talkies also lacked any musical scoring.
The musical director for Bird of Paradise was Max Steiner
Max Steiner
Max Steiner was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as...
, who would later work on King Kong
King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
(1933) and Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
(1939). The native huts in this film were reused one year later in RKO's King Kong.
Curiosities
Bird of Paradise created a scandal when released due to a scene featuring Dolores del Río swimming naked. This film was made before the Production CodeProduction Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
was strictly enforced, so nudity in American movies was still fairly common. Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
said del Río represented the highest erotic ideal with her performance in the film.
Employing an elaborate pantomime, it is Dolores Del Rio's mimicking of a bird in flight, that implies her freedom, whatever it is, is to be strictly construed in terms of a prior obligation, her duty to marry the prince that lives on a neighboring island. After she has apparently escaped a forced wedding, and taken up habitation on a neighboring island that appears to be simple paradise, it appears that they have escaped the dominion of her father, but that is not so. They have kept track of her location. When the mountain god Peli rumbles, she confesses to her lover that she alone can appease the mountain's appetite. The movie closes with her leaving her husband (who has slipped into a deep delirium from a spear wound) so that she can save her people from Peli by voluntarily throwing herself into the volcano's mouth.