Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Robert J. Maxwell An entertaining tale of Tyrone Power, cheated out of his birthright by the villainous George Sanders. Power becomes Sanders' ward, and Sanders beats and humiliates him. Power assaults him -- a grave offense, a commoner knocking a rich aristocrat around -- and barely escapes hanging by stowing aboard a sailing ship that brings him to a Polynesian island like Tahiti. There he meets the delicious Gene Tierney in a flowery two-piece sarong. Who could resist? When he's collected enough pearls to ransom a king, he returns to England, hires a lawyer who deposes Sanders, and assumes his rightful place as lord of the manor. Sanders is now a commoner himself, though still capable of a sly trick or two in his attempt to continue in the life style to which he's become accustomed. There is a brutal fist fight. Sanders fights dirty. All villains fight dirty in these scuffles. But Power wins, gives the manor to the servants and to his kindly grandfather. Then he takes off again, trading the corruption of civilization for the simple life among the noble savages, the sheltering palms, not to mention the sheltering arms of Gene Tierney. Jean-Jacques Rousseau can be heard faintly, applauding from just off camera.It's one of those tales we don't see much anymore, based on a sprawling, epic, now-forgotten novel. Nobody seems to have patience enough to read these long tales of adventure and romance. Maybe James Michener was the last of the breed.Tyrone Power is a passable adventurer, Twentieth-Century Fox's answer to Warner's Errol Flynn. He's aided considerably by Alfred Newman's heroic score, Twentieth-Century Fox's answer to Warner's Eric Wolfgang Korngold. Gene Tierney had little range as an actress, even though, as here, she was forced to be a sexy and naive native girl or, elsewhere, a dumb and hungry redneck. She's out of her depth. She needs to be in sleek clothes in New York, as she was in "Laura" and "Leave Her To Heaven." Best performance award goes to -- envelope, please -- yes, George Sanders as Sir Arthur Blake, snooty and sadistic aristocrat. He's never been a better cad. Oh, to see him sit at court, while Tyrone Power is humiliated and about to be sent to the gallows, and Sanders lolls back in his seat, looking down his nose like William F. Buckley, and rolling his eyes heavenward. The guy was great.

rsternesq There are some films that can be described very well using words. This one cannot. It must be seen and even more than that, experienced. It offers a bit of Dickens, a bit of Dumas and certainly is built upon one old fashioned cliché after another but all that truly doesn't matter one whit. This film, all in all, taken as a whole, is like a wonderful painting or even more enjoyable dream. It is touched with sadness because, apart from the plot, we know that there is sadness ahead for all of the principal actors but even so, what a pleasure in seeing those faces and hearing those voices is gained with every viewing. One final thing, thank you Mr. Pratt for redeeming the reputation of lawyers everywhere.

Jay Harris Yes the film Son of Fury --story of Benjamin Drake has always been one of my favourite films since I first saw it at age 14 in 1942I always liked adventure films where our hero starts off as a young lad, grows up under adverse conditions, has romances,runs away from a tyrannical uncle, Finds romance & wealth on a tropical Island paradise, goes home, vanquishes the uncle & returns to the tropic island & his lady love.That is basically the story line of this movie, John Cromwell directed this from the screenplay by Philip Dunne (both have extensive famous credits to there names.) This was adapted form the novel Benjamin Blake by famous(at that time) novelist Edison Marshall..Darryl F Zanuck produced this film himself (he ran & owned the studio 20 th. Century Fox). He cast this with some of the finest talent available. The STAR Tyrone Power (he was bigger than Brad Pitt,Johnny Depp & George Clooney at that time. Roddy McDowell (billed as Master Roddy McDowell) played him as a 12 year old.The beautiful Gene Tierney (one film away from her STARRING roles) was the island girl he falls in love with. George Sanders was the tyrannical Uncle & he was mean & cruel,. The ill-fated Frances Farmer (in her last major role) is the uncles spoiled daughter.John Carradine (he was making films for about 8 yrs already) plays sailor who befriends our hero. There are many others in this film who you may recognize, they all are first rate.The movie is in Black & white,although when first released there were some scenes in techicolour.This is a first rate film for the entire family.ratings ***1/2 9out of 4) 92 points (out of 100)IMDB 9 (out of 100NOTE; when i first saw this I am sure it got a higher rating, this one is more accurate

MartinHafer This is a pretty entertaining film that works pretty well due to decent writing and an excellent villain in the form of George Sanders. The film begins with a young boy being forcibly taken from his loving grandfather and the boy is made a stable boy for a rich baronet. It seems that this rich guy (Sanders) is actually the kid's uncle but instead of being kind, he treats the kid like dirt. The reasons are because the uncle wants to keep the family fortune for himself AND because something about his dead brother and his wife bother him so intensely that he wants to make their child's life hell. The boy is played by Roddy McDowell, but after the first 15 minutes or so, he is "Hollywood aged" and is played by Tyrone Power. Power is very good in the film, but a few macho scenes didn't seem all that plausible--especially after seeing his rather scrawny frame once he took his shirt off part-way through the film.Well, Power cannot stay at the manor to take the abuse forever, especially since the uncle seems intent on eventually killing him--beating him savagely and making up a story that Power attacked and tried to kill him! So, he runs off to sea and meets up with a friend, John Carradine --in one of his non-crazy or monster roles. Together they plan to jump ship, make their fortunes and return to England. Well, all this DOESN'T go exactly as planned and Power meets a beautiful native girl played pretty convincingly by Gene Tierney. What happens next I really don't want to divulge--it would spoil the film's many surprises. However, the film does have many twists and surprises--especially at the end and enough that it elevates this film above the norm and makes it very watchable--nearly earning it a score of 8.