Lost Lagoon (1957) User Reviews

It's Better in the Bahamas

[boblipton · 7/10 · 1 May 2009]

Charlie Walker is a hard-working guy with a lot of responsibilities. But when he is washed overboard in a storm and washes up in the Bahamas, he realizes he hates his old life and disappears to a new life as a hotel manager with pretty, young Liz Moore. As they fall in love and the hotel becomes successful, life seems idyllic until the past intrudes.

The script is well done, the visuals are fine -- although there are a few more obvious set shots than I would like, and most of the performances are a little too one-note. Leila Barry as Liz Moore is monotonous in her line readings, Peter Donat is overwrought as her ex-fiancé, Janes Harley plays the wife in a hair-do and manner reminiscent of the Bride of Frankenstein and whichever fellow plays the insurance investigator gives an over-the-top performance of Shatnerian proportions. Mr. Lynn, however, gives such a fine performance, full of melancholy gravity, that he makes this a better-than-average effort.

The script is credited to Mr. Lynn and director John Rawlins, the latter of whom apparently is a better screenwriter than director. Still, it looks like it paid for a nice working vacation for the crew.

Find Your Own "Lost Lagoon"

[JLRMovieReviews · 7/10 · 20 May 2009]

Jeffrey Lynn is a family man who goes to ask for financial help from his brother-in-law, because he can't make his insurance premiums. His brother-in-law (who's a big jerk) throws it in his face that he's given him money before, that it took him two years to pay back. But, they just happen to be fishing on his brother-in-law's boat off the coast of Miami, when a storm comes up unexpectedly. Fast forward, everyone but Jeffrey Lynn makes it to the mainland. He drifts off to a small island (a part of the Bahamas,) along with some of his brother-in-law's money that he picked up, after it had fallen out of his brother-in-law's pocket getting off the boat. As you can see, this movie wastes no time in setting the stage. Of course, he meets a young lady. Using the money, they go into business together, all the time saying they won't fall in love. But a guy, a girl, an island. You get the picture. This is better than you might think, helped by Jeffrey Lynn's earnest performance, creating someone you might know and can really empathize with. This is the kind of movie you remember where you were when you saw it and look back on it with fondness. This has come out as a DVR, too, and TCM occasionally shows it. But any way you find it, it's quite a treasure. It'll make you feel like you're on vacation, too, and you won't want to leave either.

Mixed Bag of Romance and Stale Melodrama

[jfrentzen-942-204211 · 6/10 · 5 August 2019]

Made around the time when Calypso music was very popular, LOST LAGOON is a mixed bag of Caribbean romance and melodrama. Jeffrey Lynn plays a 40-something lawyer who is harried by the demands of an opportunistic wife and weighed down by financial problems, who is presumably lost at sea in a hurricane and seizes upon the chance to live a less hectic existence when shipwrecked on a small island near Bermuda. He is nursed back to health by the small island's population, including a lonely spinster (well played by Leila Barry). Unfortunately, the man's life insurance policy requires proof of death, which introduces a snooping insurance adjuster character (Peter Donat) looking for that proof. The authentic island and music atmosphere is countered by improbable dialog that deprives the story of the conviction it might have had.

small time exotic adventure with some intrigue

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 1 May 2009]

Spoilers ** Another one that Turner Classic hardly ever shows... as of May 2009, only 6 ratings votes. Lost Lagoon stars Jeffrey Lynn as Charlie Walker, who went to law school, but never made it big. We are told in the first three minutes that his insurance policy will lapse if he doesn't come up with money soon, and he tries to borrow it from his fishing buddy Millard (Roger Clark). Suddenly a storm whips up, and they have to abandon ship.... the next scene is Millard sharing the grief of Charlie's loss with Charlie's wife Bernadine (Jane Hartley). But is Charlie really dead ? He washes up on an island, and spends a couple days there before heading home.... and when he finally gets home, he realizes he might be more useful playing dead and letting his wife collect the insurance money....so he heads back to run a resort with Elizabeth (Leila Barry, in her one and only film) who had found him when he washed up on shore. Lynn is listed as one of the writers, along with director John Rawlins. Looks like this was the last thing Rawlins ever directed, even though he was only 56, and would live another 40 years. Some fun music by Herb Smith and his Coral Islanders. Peter Donat, Robert Donat's nephew, is David Burnham. Lost Lagoon is a small-time, exotic island adventure, with some amount of intrigue, but its not a primo, five-star performance. Some bigger names might have made a stronger film.

Clarion Cay, Black Rum, and Calypso Magic

[howdymax · 7/10 · 1 May 2009]

I never thought much about Jeffrey Lynn the actor. In fact, thinking back, I can only remember him in one obscure movie called: "Strange Bargain" with Richard Gaines. But this movie changed my opinion of him. He plays Charlie Walker, a loser lawyer who can't even pay his life insurance premiums. His wife takes him for granted, and his obnoxious brother in law pushes him around. A total schlub. As fate would have it, he gets caught in a storm during a fishing trip and ends up on an isolated island in the Bahamas, where he meets an enchanting girl who lives alone with a couple of servants. She owns a rundown shack and fishing pier, is about to lose it all. Charlie sees a chance to start a new life and decides move in and help her turn it into an island paradise. From here on it gets predictable, at least until the end. The scenery is breathtaking - even in black and white. The story is familiar but sweet. But the main reason I decided to comment on this movie was the odd confluence of circumstances I noticed. Jeffrey Lynn is listed as one of the writers and contributed additional dialogue. I wondered what his interest was in this movie. Leila Barry plays the love interest, but this was her only movie. I don't get it. She is a natural and her acting style was intriguing in an amateurish way. She leaves you wanting more. I'm not that much of a softy, but anybody with a heart, after watching this movie, would wish for a happy ending. I wish I could give you one. I wanted to finish this movie up feeling a warm glow. Instead I came away feeling a strange ambivalence.

Goodbye Charlie

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 20 November 2022]

One of schlockmeister Milton Subotsky's earliest credits as a writer coincided with director John Rawlins' cinematic swan song on this quickie distributed by United Artists with a plot that rather resemble's 'Last Holiday'. Former fresh-faced thirties leading man Jeffrey Lynn looks frightfully middle-aged with a moustache gets very innocently involved with an innocent young maiden to the accompaniment of calypso music.

It's all rather twee and nearly everyone behaves with fifties propriety, and it's too bad the budget didn't run to colour. Also of interest is the presence of eighties soap opera regular Peter Donat looking shockingly young.

The "Saga" of Charlie Walker

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 8 May 2009]

(Some Spoilers) With him being lost at sea Charlie Walker, Jeffery Lynn, ended up on this out of the way island in the far flung Bahamas. It's there that Charlie was nursed back to health, on lots of sleep and coconut milk, by the island's owner pretty and caring Liz Moore played by Leila Barry in her only film role.

With Charlie being declared lost at sea and thus deceased his wife Bernadine, Jane Hartley, back in Miami tried to collect on a $100,000.00 life insurance policy she had on him. It's when insurance investigator Mr.Barkin, Don Gibson, found Charlie Walker, using the name Charlie Wilson, on the island that things started to get real interesting. Running the island's tourist resort "The Lost Lagoon" Charlie had it made for a while in no one knowing who he really is: The lost at sea Charlie Walker.

Now not only is Charlie facing insurance fraud but may well have to be reunited with his battle ax of a wife Bernadine who'll find out that he's been cheating on her! That's by Charlie being shacked up with the younger and far prettier Liz Moore! Feeling that life is no longer worth living Charlie tried to do himself in by drowning himself in the Atlantic Ocean. It's then that Charlie's friend local native Hurbert, Stanley Seymour, risks his life saving Charlie from killing himself. That with poor old Hurbert, after Charlie belted him, almost ending up drowning himself!

In the end Charlie finds that a life of running away from his problems, his wife Bernadine, is far worse then not facing them. As for Liz she's reunited with her former fiancée David Burnham, Peter Donat,who left her at the altar on her wedding day. David not only left Liz but took off with her life saving of almost $3,000.00! It was Charlie's great sacrifice in going back to his wife that made it possible for both Liz & David to get back together. An event that seemed utterly ridicules as well as unbelievable just 24 hours earlier!

Stinks.

[ringsindiamonds · 1/10 · 17 June 2013]

I'm in pain trying to find something decent to say about this movie. OK, here is one good comment: the plot is a good one. Anyone can grow older and look back at the time of youth and feel some sort of longing. But most people do the best they can with their lives without making drastic changes like this main character does. Other than that, the entire movie is directed and acted extremely poorly. I do want to respect the opinions of the other critics here. But in all honesty, this is as bad as it gets. All the acting is extremely bad. And it's no wonder the guy wants to leave his wife. She looks and acts like a corpse. I have to agree with another reviewer's comment about her -- she really does look like the bride of Frankenstein and that is no stretch of the imagination. The only half way enjoyable part is possibly when the locals are singing and playing instruments. Other than that, it caused me great distress to watch this movie to the bitter end. Best line of movie was at the end when the main character pushes his brother in law over the side of the boat and into the ocean. But I'm afraid you'll have to suffer through the entire movie like I did to hear what that line is.

Desert Island Dorks

[kalbimassey · 4/10 · 3 January 2024]

'Lost Lagoon' is a movie inextricably trapped in its own identity crisis. The quirky, sometimes banal calypso interludes: LIGHT COMEDY. The narrative, of an unhappily married middle aged man (Jeffrey Lynn) 'lost' at sea, clambering ashore on a remote island, having swallowed most of the ocean and finding love with a much younger woman (Leila Barry): FANTASY. The unwelcome arrival of a former boyfriend: LOVE TRIANGLE. The even more unwelcome arrival of the wife: er.... LOVE QUADRANGLE. A most unwelcome visit by the no stone left unturned, dog with a bone, insurance investigator: DRAMA.

'Lagoon' strives to be all of the above, but succeeds in being none of them. Curiously unfocused, unsatisfactorily flaccid and unconvincingly acted, it's little more than a featherweight ball of fluff. Somewhere along the way, 'Lost Lagoon' has lost its marbles.

A rather strange but enjoyable low-budget bit of escapism.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 30 January 2013]

missing English accent on Leila Barry and missing accents on Bahamians mostly no-name actors (though Lynn appeared in quite a few films) small island in Bahamas Bermuda Studio Production

"Lost Lagoon" is a very low-budget film that still is very much worth seeing. Sure, it's got a few faults--but it also does amazingly well for what it is. Think about it--this is the only production by Bermuda Studio Production and the leading lady never appeared in another show or movie according to IMDb--yet it is very satisfying to watch.

The film begins with Charlie (Jeffery Lynn) approaching his brother-in-law for a loan to pay off his insurance premium. But instead of just giving him the money, the brother-in-law takes him aboard his fishing boat and they head out to sea from Miami. He does give him the money--but soon after, a huge storm hits and Charlie is washed overboard. He is assumed dead but actually washes up on an obscure island in the Bahamas (and there are LOTS of obscure little islands there). Here he is nursed back to health by a nice young lady, Elizabeth (Leila Barry). Eventually, he catches a ride back to Miami and when he returns home, no one realizes he's returned...and he starts to wonder why he returned! So, he quickly returns to the island and decides to continue letting everyone think he's dead and live out his life with Elizabeth. But, of course, there's a lot more to the story.

Perhaps this story appealed more to me because I am middle-aged and because I have recently been to the Bahamas. All I know is that although I am very happy, I could see how such a situation could be very tempting for a vaguely disaffected man. It makes for a compelling story and moral quandary. It also happens to be well made and interesting throughout. Because of the tiny budget and how effective the film is, I'm scoring this one an 8. It is currently available for streaming live through Netflix--otherwise I doubt if you'll be able to find such a small film.

A Low-budget Gem.

[mrcrane-01119 · 10/10 · 23 November 2023]

"Lost Lagoon" is a must watch for fans of offbeat movies!

There are no evil people, just good people cast into very unusual situations. The movie reveals how they handle these unusual circumstances.

Interestingly, Leila Barry, who radiantly plays the love interest, is never seen again in another movie. She presents a strong screen presence that is coveted by producers.

Calypso/Reggae fans will appreciate the considerable music interludes as the Bahamian employees of the resort act as a greek chorus explaining the fate of their employers in their music.

I highly recommend this movie for 79 minutes of fine entertainment.

Surprisingly well-made tale

[KayMack23 · 9/10 · 6 January 2020]

Very "Mid-Century" for those who love all things mid-cent, this should be the icon film of that era, truly. From the title and summary you may imagine this to be an escapist picture - that it is not. Whomever budgeted this film wisely went with a great director, editor instead of placing the money on the talent - using actors that are not top billers. Very watchable stuff, with plot that is not only believable, but fraught with real-life dilemmas and moral questions. Ending delightful, although unexpected!

** Spoiler Stuff Ahead**: The ending confirms the character of Charlie - our castaway in the picture, who reverts back to his good old self- instead of choosing the fantasy world concoction. And you know what? the wife LOVES him- despite his shortcomings, despite his unfaithfulness- and he goes back to her in the end- an actual good ending - for those who are of the persuasion to "do the right thing, even if it costs you".. You might cheer and laugh out loud at the "Jerk Overboard!" in the last few minutes of the film - but you will sneer at the corny "one long, last look" Charlie and his young fling give to each other from afar - for that I took one star rating away.

Make your mind up time.

[plan99 · 8/10 · 19 December 2023]

There were difficult decisions to be made by a few characters in this film were the correct ones made? No!

Mrs Walker was very odd looking like she had far too much botox or something but this was possibly deliberate to give her a strong contrast to the delightful Liz.

An interesting plot but do I wish that it had been in colour.

Worth watching as the situation has applied to countless couples over the years and will continue to do so. Stay with a young dolly bird or go back to a wife the same age as himself?

There were further complications of course so the decision was not straight forward..

Lost Lagoon is a Lost, Laidback Treasure

[TheFearmakers · 8/10 · 8 January 2019]

Of the three World War I returning veterans in Raoul Walsh's prohibition-era gangster classic THE ROARING TWENTIES, two roared like lions while one purred like a kitten...

The latter being Jeffrey Lynn, who played the third banana that James Cagney liked (even after snaking his dame) and Humphrey Bogart despised: Of course these two became huge stars and eventually legends while Lynn remained a lanky, sophisticated character-actor who never reached genuine leading man status...

Though decades later he'd make an attempt in a very low-budget, Bahamas set, Calypso-exploitation romance melodrama centering on an unhappily married middle-aged father of two, Lynn's Charlie Walker, and for the record: Neither Bogart or Cagney had a calypso song named after and sung about any of their characters: one of a small handful of natives on a small Bahamas island provides a sporadic Roman Chorus, just in case we get lost within the extremely simple plot...

That we're quickly thrown into as Lynn's Charlie takes a boat ride with his cynical brother-in-law when a big storm hits... Charlie grabs a wad of cash as the boat's about to crunch beneath the superimposed tempest waves. And although wearing a life jacket, he doesn't get to the life raft in time. Meanwhile, all three (including a crewman) survive...

But what matters is the not-so-deserted island Charlie gets washed up on, and especially who's on it. And you might wonder why the young and gorgeous Leila Barry didn't appear in any other films: or anything else for that matter. She's a good enough actress with a sleek and natural dream girl/girl-next-door quality, and LOST LAGOON is a middle-aged man's fantasy. Not just for Charlie, but the target audience: When she gives him a back rub, you can almost feel it...

As a matter of fact, the entire picture... while no classic and without even a cult following to back up its almost deafening obscurity... has a palpable vibe throughout: the island's as real as the couple's chemistry that, while seemingly remote, safe and sublime, has enough obstacles to provide a little suspense and a few twists so LAGOON doesn't feel like what it actually is deep down: an hour-long short story, or what this kind of vehicle's actually called, a programmer... as well as a guilty pleasure...

Which doesn't always refer to a bad film someone feels guilty about liking. Co-written by Lynn, who resembles an awkward and floppy-footed David Niven, LAGOON delivers in deliberately light entertainment. Especially the second half, flowing beyond a somewhat clunky, far-fetched setup when Charlie gets a second wind after his already uncaring family thinks he's dead. And with the company he's got, who needs anyone else?

Leila Barry's docile yet independent character, Elizabeth Moore, who wound up on the island after her semi-rich grandfather died, or something, has more going on than a backstory of being screwed over by an ex-boyfriend back in England...

Enter an 11th hour square-jawed Peter Donat, showing up right when our hero has fallen head-over-heels in love, which is mutual but not equal. And since the plot was headed into Harlequin paperback territory, it's good that her beau and his wife (and brother-in-law along with an insurance investigator) show up. Bad timing for him is great for us: Making LOST LAGOON the opposite of a missed opportunity as it mostly avoids the guilty and revels in lightweight, time-filling, intentionally soap operatic, May-December romantic pleasure.