Nonureva Really Surprised!

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

JohnHowardReid Director: JACK CONWAY. Screenplay: Anne Morrison Chapin, Whitfield Cook, Cyril Hume. Based on the 1945 novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Photography: Sidney Wagner. Film editor: Conrad A. Nervig. Music: Herbert Stothart. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Gabriel Scognamillo. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis, Ralph S. Hurst. Costume supervisor: Irene. Special effects: A. Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newcombe. Technical adviser: Lieutenant John B. Muir, Jr. Assistant director: George Rheim. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Everett Riskin.Copyright 6 March 1947 by Loew's Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at the Capitol, supporting Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, plus Jean Carroll, The Pitchmen and Lathrop & Lee: 5 June 1947. U.S. release: May 1947. U.K. release: 23 June 1947. Australian release: 22 May 1947. 8,294 feet. 92 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Adrift in the Pacific during WW2, the survivor of a downed aircraft tries to keep his companion's spirits up by telling him the story of his life.COMMENT: A perennial Friday flick, "High Barbaree" was still being booked for midweek double bills in the early 1960s. The reason for its remarkable longevity wasn't due to any entertainment merits in the movie itself. Universally judged to be a very mediocre show, "High Barbaree" had the box-office strength of June Allyson and Van Johnson (two of MGM's most popular stars), plus its intriguing premise and catchy title, plus its basis in a novel by "The Mutiny on the Bounty" team, Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall — plus a great trailer. All of these pluses drew the patrons in. And if they left the theater a bit unsatisfied, they had only themselves to blame for expecting too much from a Friday feature.In actual fact the script is just awful. Full of sickening sentiment and hogwash philosophy! The acting of the principals is likewise below par. Johnson especially tends to out-stay his welcome. And even normally steady character players like Thomas Mitchell don't shine so brightly.Maybe director Jack Conway can carry the blame. Not only is the acting ragged, but compositions appear haphazard, angles don't match, and lighting changes abruptly. My guess is that Conway and Wagner didn't start the film at all but were brought in halfway through to try to clean up someone else's mess. Whatever, the direction is mostly inept, the photography jarringly inconsistent.Nonetheless, despite their surrounding seas of trouble, some scenes do have a certain appeal: The water-tower. The circus bicycle. The tornado. These sequences, and a few others, are genuinely moving. But all that stuff on the ocean waves with Cameron Mitchell — a boring actor if ever there was one — is strictly for poverty lane.

MartinHafer This is one of the stranger plots I've seen in a film in some time. Now I am not saying it's bad--just odd. My advice is stick with it--as the film progresses, it gets better--even if the 'High Barbaree' concept is bizarre and unnecessary."High Barbaree" begins during WWII. Van Johnson is the pilot of a Catalina seaplane. During a mission bombing an enemy sub (a pretty typical sort of thing for this slow plane), it gets the sub--but the sub gets the plane. Johnson and one other crew member survive the attack but the plane ditches in the ocean and the engines are shot. Their only hope is to be picked up or find land before they die from lack of food and water. During the interim, Johnson talks to his wounded comrade--telling him his life story as well as stories about his uncle (Thomas Mitchell) and his fictional land of Barbaree (this name, by the way, is taken from a sea chantey). He also talks about his love for his childhood sweetheart (June Allison).As I said above, the island of High Barbaree was totally unnecessary to the plot in my opinion. However, the love story between Allison and Johnson was very nice, as they both had a nice boy and girl next door look. These parts of the film were quite romantic as well. All in all, the film is a bit flawed but well worth seeing. Thank goodness MGM changed the original ending--it sounds absolutely dreadful (see the IMDb trivia for more on this).

telegonus Van Johnson and June Allyson head a talented cast in this enchantingly dotty romantic fantasy about true love in peace and war. The romance begins when they're children, and the childhood scenes have some charmingly surreal moments, such as when the two run away to join the circus. Someone must have been reading Freud in his spare time when making this one. There are enough symbols, phallic and otherwise, to fill a fair-sized textbook. Director Jack Conway did an admirable job on the film, with beautifully composed shots which at times recall the best silent pictures. He had flair for investing what are, on the surface, mundane images,--a water tower, a tropical island--with a subliminal power rare in a Hollywood movie. Since much of the story is related in flashback, there's a slight but unmistakable distortion involved in what unfolds on the screen that makes the movie feel at times like a dream. There are strange, abrupt transitions,--a storm comes seemingly out of nowhere--that make the movie resonate in one's memory years after one has seen it. Corny as hell, this is in many respects a remarkable film.

esteban1747 This film is good to see because you may follow some logics of the development of two children, a boy (Van Johnson) and a girl (June Allyson), but to me this is doubtful to happen. You may love a girl living together in the same site and house, but as a sister, to have other feelings seem to me difficult and strange. However, the film can be seen and it is certainly nice. Van Johnson acts as the eternal US navy officer, so many films and he is acting in one way or another as a military, while Allyson is as usual tender and nice. Good acting as usual from an underrated wonderful supporting actor as Thomas Mitchell.