Those who look at movies of the 1930's and 40's as horrifying examples of racist un- politically correct cinema are trying to remove the fun that these often innocent stories are trying to tell. Nobody is pretending that these characters are representative of what Pacific Islanders were like, ever, and you have to go into these with a grain of sand. Add on Technicolor queen Maria Montez, scantily clad Jon Hall and the over enthusiastic Sabu, and the recipe is there for a colorful adventure that takes ridiculous situations and makes them twice as silly with over the top performances and outlandish dialog.
Montez is a tropical island queen who falls in love with white shark hunter Jon Hall, dealing also with hidden gold and the very sinister Thomas Gomez and a jealous suitor (Turhan Bey). For Charlie Chan like wisdom, there's Sidney Toler spouting words of wisdom, making you wonder if he's in cahoots with Gomez or on the side of the good guys. With constant damp hair, muscular chest exposed and the enthusiasm of innocent youth, Sabu is adorable.
The color photography, campy atmosphere and overall sweetness of many of its characters (Montez's heavyset handmaiden, who ironically is also Sabu's mother pretending to be queen) makes this an above average time filler. Of course, there's the obligatory dance number, and if you look very carefully, you'll see a very young and sexy James Mitchell in dark make-up as one of the dancers, long before he danced on Broadway and was "Oklahoma's" dream Curly (and years before he became the nefarious Palmer Cortlandt on "All My Children"). This might not be in the same league as "Cobra Woman", but it's awfully close.
Montez is a tropical island queen who falls in love with white shark hunter Jon Hall, dealing also with hidden gold and the very sinister Thomas Gomez and a jealous suitor (Turhan Bey). For Charlie Chan like wisdom, there's Sidney Toler spouting words of wisdom, making you wonder if he's in cahoots with Gomez or on the side of the good guys. With constant damp hair, muscular chest exposed and the enthusiasm of innocent youth, Sabu is adorable.
The color photography, campy atmosphere and overall sweetness of many of its characters (Montez's heavyset handmaiden, who ironically is also Sabu's mother pretending to be queen) makes this an above average time filler. Of course, there's the obligatory dance number, and if you look very carefully, you'll see a very young and sexy James Mitchell in dark make-up as one of the dancers, long before he danced on Broadway and was "Oklahoma's" dream Curly (and years before he became the nefarious Palmer Cortlandt on "All My Children"). This might not be in the same league as "Cobra Woman", but it's awfully close.