OVP: The Hurricane (1937)

Film: The Hurricane (1937)

Stars: Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall, Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, Thomas Mitchell, Raymond Massey, John Carradine

Director: John Ford

Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (Best Supporting Actor-Thomas Mitchell, Best Sound Recording*, Best Score)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Turner Classic Movies could play a John Ford film every single day and no one would bat an eye.  More than Hitchcock, more than Kazan, more than even Capra, his films encapsulate what that channel is championing: great stars, great stories, and grand-scale epic filmmaking.  Ford’s filmography, spanning over 100 films long, is a daunting task for any movie-going completist, and I was both surprised and not at all shocked (if one can be both things) to learn that The Hurricane, a mostly forgotten film from 1937, was one of Ford’s many, many pictures.

(Spoilers, right ahead!) The film tells the story of Terangi (Hall), a Tahitian sailor who is about marry Marama, the daughter of the chief of the small island of Maukura (Lamour).  Hall, though white in appearance (this was the 1930’s, and casting white actors as people of color was very much in vogue), suffers from discrimination due to his Tahitian heritage, and eventually is arrested for punching a white man who baited him with a racist comment.  Terangi cannot handle being imprisoned and away from his beloved, and pulls a Jean Valjean and breaks out of jail.  He constantly gets caught, however, and is eventually sentenced to sixteen years.  All the while the governor of Terangi’s home island (Massey) refuses to have Terangi brought home to finish his sentence, and unrest rules the island.

Of course, being that this is a Ford picture, Terangi finally breaks free, and in the process, accidentally kills a guard (an act punishable by death).  He flees to his home island and is in hiding for a short while.  Before the governor is able to try Terangi for the murder, however, a storm reaches the island that throws everything into chaos.  The island is destroyed and eventually Terangi, his wife, and their daughter flee from the island into the ocean.

The movie, released in 1937, was made during the first great period of the all-star disaster film, with a supporting cast that includes Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, Thomas Mitchell, Raymond Massey, and John Carradine.  This genre would become a major box office draw in the 1970’s, but in fact had an earlier heyday with films like In Old Chicago, San Francisco, and The Stars Look Down.  This was my first encounter with the 1930’s-brand of disaster films (I’ve seen some of the bigger ones from the 1970’s), and I will say that it suffers a bit in comparison.

My biggest problem with The Hurricane was the chief cast.  Hall and Lamour are both very beautiful, but they don’t have a lot of character growth or substance.  Hall makes Terangi too simplistic, like he’s channeling Johnny Weismuller’s popular Tarzan character rather than a man who has had human contact his entire life.  Lamour breathes little life into her Marama as well, oftentimes just trying to strike a dramatic face and say something ominous while waiting for her man.

The supporting cast is of little consequence as well.  Despite starring a host of reliable character actors, no one stands out, including Thomas Mitchell, who received an Academy Award nomination for this film.  Mitchell who made a career out of playing a doctor (as well as Scarlett O’Hara’s father) was considerably better with stronger material in his two 1939 classics, Gone with the Wind and Stagecoach.  Here he is playing a similar style character, but appears far more on autopilot, and this nomination comes as a bit of a surprise.

The thing to recommend The Hurricane, however, is that great title sequence.  The movie received Oscar nominations for Score and Sound Recording (winning the latter), but had there been a Visual Effects category at the time, it’s hard to fathom this not winning.  The fact that the oceans of water, the falling buildings and the dangerous trees were managed without the assistance of computer effects is nothing short of spectacular.  While I cannot quite get to my “you should see it” three-star rating with this movie, if you can catch the title sequence on YouTube or a fortuitous channel-surfing, I recommend sticking around.

Those are my thoughts on The Hurricane-what are yours?  If you haven’t seen it, what do you think of Lamour, Hall, and Mitchell?  Do you think that Mitchell (the first Triple Crown of Acting Winner) is an underrated performer?  Share in the comments!