'Tondelayo' - sort of rolls off the tongue doesn't it? This was the picture that changed Hedy Lamarr's image from a chaste, unattainable ideal into a seductive temptress. I didn't quite know what to make of her when she first appeared on screen, her cocoa-butter smeared countenance almost made her look like a caricature, and those big, white eyes, whoa - they had that hypnotic, mesmerizing quality that viewers of the day only needed to take one look at and they'd have to do some acclimatizing of their own. Very sexy though, you have to admit.
Poor old Langford (Richard Carlson), he didn't know what he was in for. Put in charge of his own rubber plantation, he loses sixty percent of the crop in just five months. You could understand why his boss Witzel (Walter Pidgeon) would be miffed, but that didn't seem to be the crux of their problem. Langford should have taken the old curmudgeon's advice not to manny-palaver with the ladies, it only got him into the deep end of the pool with Tondelayo. But come on, how could anyone help it when she wiggled that seductive body and made with the sexy accent. You'd need nerves of steel to disregard an advance like that.
Langford managed for a time, but there's just so far good judgment could go with the intrepid adventurer. How could he when Tondeleyo challenges him with "Awyla, no want to palaver?". I'd palaver in a heartbeat myself. Still, it came across as a bit of a shock to hear Lamarr's character ask her new husband to beat her up once in a while just to keep the marriage interesting. You know, so the making up part would be all the sweeter. Boy, they sure took this thing into soft porn territory in more ways than one, even with the Motion Picture Production Code in effect. Gee, I wonder how they managed to rationalize this one.
Well look, it's not high drama but it sure is entertaining. Nice support here from that guy behind the curtain in "The Wizard of Oz", Frank Morgan, as the inebriated doctor. Obviously, Witzel knew what he was talking about right from the start when he told Langford to beware, but gee, did he have to stuff that poison juna down Todelayo's throat? That just wasn't very gentlemanly.
Poor old Langford (Richard Carlson), he didn't know what he was in for. Put in charge of his own rubber plantation, he loses sixty percent of the crop in just five months. You could understand why his boss Witzel (Walter Pidgeon) would be miffed, but that didn't seem to be the crux of their problem. Langford should have taken the old curmudgeon's advice not to manny-palaver with the ladies, it only got him into the deep end of the pool with Tondelayo. But come on, how could anyone help it when she wiggled that seductive body and made with the sexy accent. You'd need nerves of steel to disregard an advance like that.
Langford managed for a time, but there's just so far good judgment could go with the intrepid adventurer. How could he when Tondeleyo challenges him with "Awyla, no want to palaver?". I'd palaver in a heartbeat myself. Still, it came across as a bit of a shock to hear Lamarr's character ask her new husband to beat her up once in a while just to keep the marriage interesting. You know, so the making up part would be all the sweeter. Boy, they sure took this thing into soft porn territory in more ways than one, even with the Motion Picture Production Code in effect. Gee, I wonder how they managed to rationalize this one.
Well look, it's not high drama but it sure is entertaining. Nice support here from that guy behind the curtain in "The Wizard of Oz", Frank Morgan, as the inebriated doctor. Obviously, Witzel knew what he was talking about right from the start when he told Langford to beware, but gee, did he have to stuff that poison juna down Todelayo's throat? That just wasn't very gentlemanly.