- Actors: Dolores del Rio, Joel McCrea, John Halliday, Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher, Bert Roach
- Directors: King Vidor
- Writers: Leonard Praskins, Richard Walton Tully, Wanda Tuchock, Wells Root
- Producers: King Vidor, David O. Selznick
- Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: All Regions
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 2
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Troma/Conveyor
- Release Date: May 28 2008
- Run Time: 80 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00002E20F
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exotic And Erotic.,
By Chip Kaufmann (Asheville, N.C. United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bird Of Paradise/Lady Refu (DVD-R)
BIRD OF PARADISE is one of those films that remained unseen for years thanks to its pre-code nudity and the fact that a lame 1951 remake made sure that it sat on the shelf. A few years ago VCI Home Entertainment in conjunction with the Roan Group issued a restored version on VHS. This is now on DVD coupled with a 1931 film THE LADY REFUSES. BIRD was David O. Selznick's biggest production to date. He had just headed up RKO Radio Pictures and was looking for something to follow up on the success of MGM's TRADER HORN and TARZAN THE APE MAN. What he decided on was a reworking of F. W. Murnau and Robert Flaherty's adventure/documentary TABU about an ill-fated South Sea Island romance. This gave him the perfect opportunity to showcase the Mexican actress Delores Del Rio who had already been in films for a few years. This was her breakthrough vehicle which led to her role in FLYING DOWN TO RIO the following year. Joel McCrea, fresh from THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, was the male lead. The film was shot on location in Hawaii at a cost of over a million dollars but managed to turn a profit thanks to Del Rio's nude swimming scene which is still pretty erotic even after 70 years. The rest of the film is quite good as the story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl is made fresh by the Hawaian locales. Del Rio is simply marvelous as the native girl caught between tradtion and her love for Joel McCrea. McCrea is a creditable hero but his best roles were still to come. Look for Lon Chaney Jr in a bit part as a sailor billed under his original name Creighton Chaney. King Vidor, one of the great American directors, keeps the film moving along primarily through visuals with dialogue kept to a minimum. He is aided immeasurably by Max Steiner's music score which is a trial run for KING KONG. Sexy, violent, and very exotic, BIRD OF PARADISE is a classic example of the pre-code films which were made between 1930 and 1934 when the Production Code was rigidly enforced. Censorship of mainstream American movies would last until 1968.
3.0 out of 5 stars
An Ordinary B-Movie with an Exotic Look,
This review is from: Bird of Paradise (DVD)
Bird of Paradise with Delores del Rio is one of those Saturday afternon B-movies that excited me when I was a boy but now looks hackneyed and a bit silly. Shot in Hawaii, the locations are breathtaking but the acting is wooden and the plot a cliche with a wholly predictable narrative. The savages are neither noble nor believable. The personalities of the white explorers have been culled directly from Tarzan. Delores del Rio was a true beauty but her acting talent is woefully suspect. Still, if you want to waste an afternoon, this little bauble is O.K. and a perfect example of a genre that inspired later films like Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Strange, engrossing,
By
This review is from: Bird Of Paradise/Lady Refu (DVD-R)
Strange and amateurish in many regards, yet fascinating and engrossing in its own way, this David O. Selznick production is the original "Bird of Paradise" -- not the 1950s remake starring Debra Paget and Louis Jourdan, which will make for an interesting comparison if it's ever released on DVD. The stars of this one, Joel McCrea and Delores Del Rio, make quite a strange pair. Joel seems like a hayseed just off farm (his dialogue is peppered with "huhs?" and "whats?" as he seeks to communicate with the mysterious island beauty, Delores). As for Dolores, she seems to belong in a different, and probably more interesting, movie than this one. And even her fabled nude swim scene is pretty tame and unimpressive. The movie was filmed on location in 1930s Hawaii. Although the focus always seems a bit off, the scenery is still beautiful -- and a good reminder of what Hawaii must have been like before "they paved paradise and put up a pink hotel (the Sheraton Waikiki by the way)." There's also quite a bit of underwater photography, which is pretty impressive given that this movie was filmed approximately 70 years ago. Cheap and fun, this "Bird" is worth looking into if you're interested in old movies, and if you'd like to see what David Selznick was up to just a few short years before filming his masterpiece, "Gone with the Wind."
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