Return to Paradise

5.9
Date

1953-07-19

Country

US

Runtime

1.67h

Genre

Drama

Overview

An American drifter comes to a remote Polynesian island controlled by a Puritanical missionary and turns the social life of the island upside-down.

Cast

Gary Cooper
Mr. Morgan
Barry Jones
Pastor Corbett
Roberta Haynes
Maeva
Moira Walker
Turia
John Hudson
Captain Harry Faber

Wallpaper

Poster

Not Found

Review

By CinemaSerf

Barry Jones's "Pastor Corbett" rules a tiny Pacific island with a godly rod of iron until the unwelcome arrival of American "Morgan" (Gary Cooper). He's distinctly non-conformist and has no intention of observing the sabbath and the rest of preacher's regime. The latter man's resistance to the government soon elicits support from the put-upon islanders and soon a coup, of sorts, ensues. Once the new order has been established, a form of peace breaks out until WWII arrives on their patch and they find themselves hosting the crew of a shot-down American plane of soon they all want to be shot, pretty quickly! Initially, the clashes of personalities between Cooper and Jones are quite effective, but that quickly falls away and we are left with a rather unremarkable romantic drama that I felt rather dragged, especially the will they/won't they courting scenes between Cooper and Roberta Haynes's "Maeva". If character redemption is your thing, then maybe you'll get a bit more from this - but for me, what made it interesting at the start is allowed to peter out far too swiftly. Some nice island photography of Samoa, though.


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