Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

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.

sol ***SPOILERS*** Crash landing their plane in the far out South Pacific during a bombing run on the Japanese fleet the two surviving pilot and navigator Let. Alec Brook & Let. Joe Moore, Van Johnson & Cameron Mitchell, find themselves low on water and on the verge of dying of dehydration if their not found on time. It's during that time in waiting and hoping to be rescued that Alec goes into this long narrative, coupled with an almost hour long flashback, about this mythical island High Barbaree in the South Pacific that his uncle Thad Vail, Thomas Mitchell, always told him about until it came out of his ears. As luck would have it, and Brooke & Moore needed all the luck they can get, that island is supposed to be in the vicinity where their plane, ironically also named "High Barbaree",crash landed!We get to see the life and times as well as loves of young and later grown up Alex Brooke in a number of flashbacks that mostly take place in his hometown Westview Iowa. it was in Westview that Alec met little Nancy Fraser, June Allyson, whom he planned, at the age of 10,to marry when the two grew up. As it turned Nancy and her parents moved to the state of Montana and Alec soon lost track of her. Now, still in flashback, Alec has become the vice president of an aircraft company and is engaged to the boss' classy and beautiful daughter Diana Case, played by the drop dead gorgeous Marilyn Maxwell, when what seems like out of nowhere Nancy, now a navy nurse, pops back into his life! You can just imagine what major complications that brought into poor, in choosing between Nancy & Diana, Alec's life. Saved by the bell or the attack on Pearl Harbor Alec now in the Navy fighting the Japs, and not sitting behind a desk, seemed to have dropped Diana,what a jerk, and is now free to marry his long lost love Nancy! But as things or fate turned out Nancy dropped him in return and is now engaged to marry this navy man that she met while on duty in Honolulu! So where does the mythical island of High Barbaree fit into all this?****SPOILERS**** Well between all the BS that we and Joe go through listening to Alec story about the mythical island of High Barbaree it did served it's purpose in keeping the two clinging to life in hoping they'd find it up until help finally arrived! It's there in a dream sequence at High Barbaree that Alec, Joe by then had died from thirst and high fever, met this smiling Polynesian Chieftain Tangaror, played by native Hawaiian actor Al Kikume, who guided a shocked as well as happy Alec not only onto the island of mystery but to his hometown of Westview Iowa as well! The very predictable ending which shall remain nameless had all the qualities and trappings of your typical and phony Hollywood feel good happy ending! And it was that ending as well as Alec doing the brainless as well as unthinkable by dumping Diana for Nancy , which was like trading in a RollsRoyce for a Volkswagen, that made to film not all that believable to begin, or end, with.

vincentlynch-moonoi I had the feeling while watching this film that MGM though they had something truly special here. In reality, they have -- at best -- a rather average movie. There were two things about the film I really disliked. The pre-teen main character...well, I have seen far better child actors. But what really sealed this picture for me -- and I mean that in a negative sense -- was the segment with the bicycle ride at the circus, which was so preposterous...well, someone should have said to the director and screen writes -- "Are you nuts?" And then there's the ending...which I won't give away. The ending should have been expanded so that the audience would fully understand what High Barbaree actually was. But suddenly, the movie was simply over.Having said those things, however, I do have to say that this film has some redeeming qualities. There are some very fine segments here, especially back in the home town. But even more impressive is the acting by Van Johnson in the scenes when he is near death...perhaps the finest in his career.I really suggest that those who have a chance watch this film. It's intriguing, despite its faults. Recommended.

alumni72 I remember seeing this movie when I was around 11, one rainy Saturday afternoon, with my father. It's stuck with me all these years (I'm 46 now) and I wish I could see it again! I could be romanticizing it a bit based on memory of days long past, but I remember it well enough to know that it WAS a great movie despite the tricks the years may have played on me. It was indeed an unusual mixture of adventure, romance and fantasy - but what makes it unusual also makes it unique and well worth watching. I know I turned it on originally because of the phrase 'World War II' that I spotted in the TV Guide - but the war really has little bearing on how the story plays out. If you happen to see it advertised on TV, be sure and watch it - I've been waiting for years now, and have only seen it listed once (but sadly I wasn't home at the time and couldn't see it).