BIRD OF PARADISE (1932) Delores del Rio & Joel McCrae | Adventure, Drama, Romance | B&W

Bird of Paradise is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic adventure drama film directed by King Vidor and starring Dolores del Río and Joel McCrea. Based on the 1912 play of the same name by Richard Walton Tully, it was released by RKO Radio Pictures.

SYNOPSIS
A native girl falls for a visitor to her island, but she's chosen to be sacrificed to the volcano god.

As a yacht sails into an isolated tropical island chain somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, a large number of islanders in outrigger canoes paddle out to greet it. The islanders dive for trinkets the yacht's crew throws them. A shark arrives, setting off a panic as much with the crew as the islanders. Johnny Baker (Joel McCrea) attempts to catch it hand casting with a large hook, but is yanked overboard when a loop of line attached to the impaled shark cinches around his ankle. Comely native swimmer Luana (Dolores del Río) cuts through the rope with a knife she had earlier been thrown as a trinket, saving his life.

At a welcome banquet that night, Johnny sees young island men ritually carry off young maidens, and seeks to do the same with Luana, but is stopped and castigated by the local chieftain, her father. With brief nudity and underwater swimming scenes, they swiftly fall in love. Later, the yacht moves on, but leaves Johnny on the island for an adventure. He discovers Luana has been promised to another man – a prince on a neighboring island. She is spirited away to this island for the arranged marriage, while Johnny is waylaid. During an elaborate dance sequence, Johnny has made his way to the island in the nick of time, runs into a circle of fire, and rescues her as the natives kneel to the fire. Johnny and Luana then travel to another island where they hope to live out the rest of their lives. He builds her a house with a roof of thatched grass. However, their idyll is smashed when the local volcano on her home island begins to erupt. She confesses to her lover that her sacrifice alone can appease the mountain. Her people take her back. When Johnny goes after her, he is wounded in the shoulder by a spear and tied up. The people decide to sacrifice both of them to the volcano, but on the way, the couple are rescued by Johnny's friends and taken aboard the yacht.

Johnny's wound is tended to, but his friends wonder what will become of the lovers. Luana does not fit into Johnny's world. When Johnny is sleeping, Luana's father demands her back. She goes willingly, believing that only she can save her people by voluntarily throwing herself into the volcano.

CAST & CREW
Dolores del Río as Luana
Joel McCrea as Johnny Baker
John Halliday as Mac
Richard "Skeets" Gallagher as Chester
Bert Roach as Hector
Lon Chaney Jr. (billed as Creighton Chaney)as Thornton
Wade Boteler as Skipper Johnson
Reginald Simpson as O'Fallon

Directed by King Vidor
Screenplay by Wells Root, Wanda Tuchock, Leonard Praskins
Based on The Bird of Paradise 1912 play by Richard Walton Tully
Produced by David O. Selznick, King Vidor
Cinematography Lucien Andriot, Edward Cronjager, Clyde De Vinna
Edited by Archie Marshek
Music by Max Steiner
Production company RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date August 12, 1932
Running time 80 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $752,000
Box office $753,000

NOTES
Director King Vidor, under contract to M-G-M, was loaned to RKO producer David Selznick (son-in-law to Louis B. Mayer) to make the “South Seas” romance. Filmed on location in Hawaii, Vidor and writer Wells Root arrived on the island territory and began shooting background footage without a completed script (Actors McCrea and del Rio were delayed due to engagements on other projects).

The native dance sequences were boom-shot in Hollywood and choreographed by an uncredited Busby Berkeley.

Bird of Paradise was almost the first sound film to utilize a full symphonic score from beginning to end. Producer David O. Selznick and composer Max Steiner had both been experimenting with this idea, while other studios had begun development along similar lines, such the score by Alfred Newman for Samuel Goldwyn's Street Scene. However, it was Steiner who first received screen credit for composition of a score which, other than a few brief pauses during the film, was almost entirely through-composed (from beginning to end).

Bird of Paradise created a scandal after its release owing to a scene which appeared to show Dolores del Río swimming naked. She was, in fact, wearing a flesh-coloured G-string. The film was made before the Production Code was strictly enforced, so brief nudity in American movies was not unknown. Film director Orson Welles said del Río represented the highest erotic ideal with her performance in the film.

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