Nice catchy musical theme, above average special effects during earthquake scene. Story familiar.
Two beautiful sisters (Turner and Reed) belong to the richest family on St. Pierre. Turner is materialistic, manipulative, and Donna Reed is warm and pure. They're both interested in the young and handsome Richard Hart but he comes from a lower class. Turner doesn't care about that. She can kick him around until he becomes rich. Reed just plain doesn't care.
Now, no story like this can get by for very long without periodic tragedies, preferably equidistant from one another in the plot line. Bingo. We meet three elderly people. I reckoned only one of them to be toast, but no. In an excess of misery, all three give up the ghost. There's another death, the lovable and outspoken Captain O'Hara, of the clipper Green Dolphin, but his demise is saved for much later and is mentioned in passing, an amuse-bouche of a death.
The hero, Hart, is not exactly flawless. He gets in trouble and flees the Chanel Islands to exotic New Zealand. If Hart is lower class, the Maoris we see are even lower. They fall into two types: the compliant, hard working lumberjacks and the nasty tribe from the north who are probably cannibals, never having enjoyed the benefits of the enlightenment that comes with civilization, like Christianity and slavery. Hart joins the lumber company of the buckskin-clad Van Heflin, also a refugee from St. Pierre, who has loved Turner from afar since childhood. We feel his pain.
Hart write a letter from New Zealand to Donna Reed, confessing his love and asking her to join him in marriage and live in the boondocks. But, inebriated, he addresses the letter to Turner instead of Reed, driving Reed to a nunnery perched on a hill that looks like Mount St. Michel.
Turner, of course, joins him and, in Hart's absence, must give birth while their primitive hut is shaking and falling down around her. Births are never easy in these kinds of movies. Fortunately, Van Heflin is in attendance and asks Turner to trust him because he knows what he's doing. He never claims that he "don't know nothing about birthing babies."
Well, why go on with it. It fits a formula. It's a sprawling drama of mixed loves and adventures in an exotic setting. As in a Russian novel, everybody seems to marry the wrong person. It induces a Niagara of tears. I cried like a baby and found myself sobbing, "Let it end; let it END." It finally ended. It must have, because when I woke up it was over. I vaguely remember seeing it as a child and found the earthquake thrilling. I still do.
Two beautiful sisters (Turner and Reed) belong to the richest family on St. Pierre. Turner is materialistic, manipulative, and Donna Reed is warm and pure. They're both interested in the young and handsome Richard Hart but he comes from a lower class. Turner doesn't care about that. She can kick him around until he becomes rich. Reed just plain doesn't care.
Now, no story like this can get by for very long without periodic tragedies, preferably equidistant from one another in the plot line. Bingo. We meet three elderly people. I reckoned only one of them to be toast, but no. In an excess of misery, all three give up the ghost. There's another death, the lovable and outspoken Captain O'Hara, of the clipper Green Dolphin, but his demise is saved for much later and is mentioned in passing, an amuse-bouche of a death.
The hero, Hart, is not exactly flawless. He gets in trouble and flees the Chanel Islands to exotic New Zealand. If Hart is lower class, the Maoris we see are even lower. They fall into two types: the compliant, hard working lumberjacks and the nasty tribe from the north who are probably cannibals, never having enjoyed the benefits of the enlightenment that comes with civilization, like Christianity and slavery. Hart joins the lumber company of the buckskin-clad Van Heflin, also a refugee from St. Pierre, who has loved Turner from afar since childhood. We feel his pain.
Hart write a letter from New Zealand to Donna Reed, confessing his love and asking her to join him in marriage and live in the boondocks. But, inebriated, he addresses the letter to Turner instead of Reed, driving Reed to a nunnery perched on a hill that looks like Mount St. Michel.
Turner, of course, joins him and, in Hart's absence, must give birth while their primitive hut is shaking and falling down around her. Births are never easy in these kinds of movies. Fortunately, Van Heflin is in attendance and asks Turner to trust him because he knows what he's doing. He never claims that he "don't know nothing about birthing babies."
Well, why go on with it. It fits a formula. It's a sprawling drama of mixed loves and adventures in an exotic setting. As in a Russian novel, everybody seems to marry the wrong person. It induces a Niagara of tears. I cried like a baby and found myself sobbing, "Let it end; let it END." It finally ended. It must have, because when I woke up it was over. I vaguely remember seeing it as a child and found the earthquake thrilling. I still do.