The Blue Lagoon

10/1/19491h 41m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ No one to see them... No one to tell them... No one to stand in their way! ~

Overview:

In the Victorian period, two British children survive a shipwreck in the South Pacific. After days afloat, they are marooned on a lush tropical island in the company of kindly old sailor. Together they survive solely on their resourcefulness and the bounty of their remote paradise.

Director:

Frank Launder

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

ship
island
beach
stranded

Cast

Jean Simmons

~ as ~

Emmeline Foster

Donald Houston

~ as ~

Michael Reynolds

Noel Purcell

~ as ~

Paddy Button

James Hayter

~ as ~

Dr Murdock

Cyril Cusack

~ as ~

James Carter

Maurice Denham

~ as ~

Captain

Philip Stainton

~ as ~

Mr. Ansty

Patrick Barr

~ as ~

Mr Bruce

Russell Waters

~ as ~

Craggs

Peter Jones

~ as ~

Michael-child

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 3 year(s) ago
6
Though still infinitely better than the syrupy 1980 remake, this is still a film that time has been pretty brutal to. The premiss is amongst the most natural we can imagine: a young girl and boy are shipwrecked on a tropical island and as they mature, so does their relationship. Partly out of necessity and partly out of choice, the two - "Emmeline" (Jean Simmons) and "Michael" (Donald Houston) effectively become a couple. Aside from Stewart Granger (and maybe Kirk Douglas), I never really saw a man who could match Simmons on screen. She seemed to be able turn her hand to anything, creating a characterisation effortlessly with those piercing eyes and that almost silent movie star demeanour. Here she portrays the epitome of curiosity and naivety, with a soupçon of vulnerability really quite well. Houston, on the other hand, has a charm-free wooden-ness about him that probably made even he realise that he only got the girl because, well, there was nobody else! Their story evolves along fairly predictable lines, with some fun interjections from the always reliable Noel Purcell ("Paddy"), James Hayter ("Murdoch") and Cyril Cusack ("Carter"), with some beautiful Fijian cinematography, and Frank Launder does manage to combine a certain sense of the idyllic and the dangerous well enough too. Sadly, though, a better leading man was needed to balance this narrative and the older it gets the less attractive it becomes to watch.