Linkshoch
Wonderful Movie
TrueHello
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Blueghost
For a film from the late 1930s it's not a bad film. The technological limitations for special effects and cost of shooting on stage verse on location are apparent, but the story is fairly compelling enough.A band of assorted individuals with various pasts and agendas take flight aboard a "flying boat", and find themselves challenged in a new environment.The film by today's standards may seem somewhat racist in regards to one Asian character, but is more or less a product of its time, and the character in question is noble to a fault, and in fact key to helping the rest of the characters.Marion Martin shows that her acting chops weren't quite there yet (and she had yet to engage in an exercise regime), Bruce Cabot of King Kong fame shows his range, and a number of other well known actors of the time do well to bring to life the characters in this film.Again, the shortcomings are the technical aspects, Martin's lack of theatrical training, and money. Otherwise it's a solid B-performer that'll help whittle away a lazy Sunday afternoon.If you need a classic film on your TV or computer, you could do worse, but you could also do better. Either way, give it a shot and see what you think.Not a great film, but nor a bad film.Give it a shot.
bkoganbing
This film Sinners In Paradise was an interesting find. It's a combination of The Lost Horrizon, Stagecoach, The Admirable Crichton with a bit of Gilligan's Island thrown in. An interesting mix of people are passengers on a sea plane bound for China which crashes in the Pacific and the surviving passengers plus a steward from the crew are tossed into the sea. They make it to a tropical island where John Boles and his servant Willie Fung have set up house. He's not a very hospitable host and forces these people to work for their keep. Some of them like Senator Gene Lockhart and heiress Charlotte Wynters are not used to manual labor. In this new society that is forming on the island they're at the bottom of the pecking order and resent it.The rest of the survivors include steward Don Barry from the crew, recent divorcée Madge Evans bound for China to serve as a missionary, mob hit man Bruce Cabot, working class girl brassy Marion Martin, widow Nana Bryant looking to join her son in Shanghai, and a pair of munitions manufacturers Milburn Stone and Morgan Conway looking to make some money off the various wars going in China. It's quite an interesting group of castaways here on Boles' Island.The iconoclastic Boles is a man of mystery. Their host has good and sufficient reason for not wanting to return to civilization. In point of fact those who want to get back the most are the ones that civilization could do without.Lockhart is the most interesting character of the bunch. He can't figure out why a natural born 'leader' and man of the people isn't just handed responsibility to lead the castaways. He's not a great advertisement for our political leadership.James Whale directed this film and it was a reunion of sorts with Boles who was in the cast of his most acclaimed work, the original Frankenstein. Although by now Whale was directing B films and Sinners In Paradise is definitely in that category, it's still an interesting piece of work and worthy of more than one look.
mfnmbessert-224-279128
I really want to like 'Sinners In Paradise' more than I actually did, just because the premise is so big, so juicy, it could be so much more than it is, and because what James Whale actually left us with feels like just a teaser of what he could have done. The film could easily have been twice as long as it is, and even to those who viewed it in 1938, it probably came off as very entertaining and thrilling at times, but some were probably left feeling disappointed, as the idea is really half-baked.Part 'Lord Of The Flies', part 'Gilligan's Island', I was wishing that 'Sinners In Paradise' would be just more... sinister the entire time. I kept hoping for these people to die off Agatha Christie murder mystery style, and I waited and waited for it to happen. But it never did. Alas, there are quite a few enjoyable characters here, but certain characters are just pure filler, and its a shame that their characters weren't more well developed, because there is certainly the time for it. Madge Evans and John Boles are basically pretty forgettable as our leads, and they are overshadowed by more likable characters like Gene Lockhart and Willie Fung.All in all, 'Sinners In Paradise' comes off as an enjoyable, watchable film, from the man who brought us 'Frankenstein' in 1931, but it feels like Whale was just looking more to have fun with making this film, rather than having it be a serious endeavor. I hope this film makes it to the screen again one day, perhaps as a remake, but more in the vein of films like 'Identity' instead of 'Six Days, Seven Nights'.SINNERS IN PARADISE -----7/10.
GManfred
Sinners in Paradise was next up in my DVD set.Featuring an intriguing cast and the inimitable James Whale as director, I thought it might be worth a good look.But no. This Adventure/Morality Play gets off to a good start,but quickly bogs down into a clichéd potboiler which is neither compelling or suspenseful. The Disparate-Characters-Stranded-on-a-Desert-Island fizzles out almost as soon as they hit the island. Comic relief is forced and unfunny and all characters are painted in extremely broad strokes.The best part of the film is the interesting cast which is comprised of B and lesser A actors. Madge Evans is lovely and John Boles is dashing and manly. Gene Lockhart and Bruce Cabot might have deleted this one from their film credits, as it does them no credit.I guess it fills out the boxed set but it wasn't worth the trouble.
