Island in the Sun (film)
Island in the Sun is a 1957 De Luxe in CinemaScope drama film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Robert Rossen. It features an ensemble cast including James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, Stephen Boyd, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, and Basil Sydney. The film is about race relations and interracial romance set in the fictitious island of Santa Marta. Barbados and Grenada were selected as the sites for the movie based on the 1955 novel by Alec Waugh. The film was controversial at the time of its release for its portrayal of an interracial romance.
Plot
The film follows several characters, black, white and mixed race, and their relationships. It also chronicles the social inequality between the British who colonized the island and the native population. Maxwell Fleury is a white plantation owner's son who suffers from an inferiority complex and makes rash decisions to prove his worth. He is tormented by jealousy of his wife Sylvia, and he is envious of his younger sister Jocelyn, who is being courted by the Oxford-bound Euan Templeton, a war hero visiting the governor of the island, his father Lord Templeton.David Boyeur, a young black man emerging as a powerful politician, represents the common people and is seen by some as a threat to the white ruling class. Mavis Norman, a woman from the elite white class, strikes up a romantic interest in Boyeur and much of the story explores the tension between these two.
There is also an interracial romance between Margot Seaton, a mixed-race drugstore clerk, and Denis Archer, aide to the governor.
Maxwell believes that Hilary Carson is having an affair with his wife. He strangles Carson during a quarrel, then tries to make it look like a robbery. Colonel Whittingham, the head of police, investigates the murder.
A journalist named Bradshaw writes an exposé revealing that Maxwell's grandmother was part black. Maxwell has decided to run for the legislature, but is jeered by the crowd, then insults everyone there.
Jocelyn learns she is pregnant, but does not wish to burden Euan with a child of mixed race. Her mother reveals that Jocelyn's father was actually a white man, the result of an undisclosed affair. She and Euan board a plane to England, as do Margot and Denis, to begin new lives.
Maxwell, a broken man, contemplates suicide, then decides to go to Whittingham to confess. Mavis wishes to marry Boyeur and begin a new life of her own, but he decides the needs of the island and his people must come first.
Characters
- James Mason as Maxwell Fleury, the family's son, who is a successful, but hot-tempered plantation owner.
- Harry Belafonte as David Boyeur, a black politician representing the common people, who falls in love with Mavis Norman.
- Joan Fontaine as Mavis Norman, an upper class white woman, who is a member of the richest family on the island and wants to marry David Boyeur.
- Joan Collins as Jocelyn Fleury, the alluring sister of Maxwell, who is the romancer of Euan Templeton.
- Dorothy Dandridge as Margot Seaton, the beautiful Indian drug store clerk, who is pursued by governor-aide Denis Archer.
- Michael Rennie as Hilary Carson, a retired war hero, who is assumed to be having an affair with Sylvia Fleury.
- Patricia Owens as Sylvia Fleury, the wife of Maxwell, who Maxwell assumes is having an affair with Hilary Carson.
- John Justin as Denis Archer, the governor's aide, and the romancer of Margot Seaton.
- Stephen Boyd as Euan Templeton, the governor's young son, who is also courting Jocelyn Fleury.
- Diana Wynyard as Mrs. Fleury, the mother of Maxwell and Jocelyn, who is hiding things from her children.
- Basil Sydney as Julian Fleury, the husband of Mrs. Fleury and father of Maxwell and Jocelyn, who also is hiding things.
- John Williams as Colonel Whittingham, the head of police, who investigates Hilary Carson's murder.
- Ronald Squire as Governor Templeton, the governor of the island, and Euan's father.
- Hartley Power as Bradshaw, an American journalist visiting Santa Marta.
Production
Original Novel
The novel was published in January 1956. The New York Times called it an "absorbing good reading and a considerable achievement in its own right." The Los Angeles Times called it "strong, suspenseful." The book sold over 900,000 copies.Development
purchased screen rights to the novel for 20th Century Fox in May 1955, prior to publication. However by that stage it had already been accepted for serialization and was the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest Guild choice. Waugh received $140,000 for the rights.Zanuck said he was attracted to the novel because it contained multiple stories. "I like multiple stories," he said. "Either a story should concentrate on two people or it should for me at least have a number of people dramatically integrated. I don't mean the Grand Hotel type of story but people whose lives and emotions - the drama of the story - are knit together."
Zanuck said there were fourteen major parts, "and six of them it would be difficult to say who was the most important."
Zanuck also liked the fact the book had "a novel and attractive background" which would suit filming in color and CinemaScope. And he said the novel tackled miscegenation.
"Our picture is highly controversial, but then I've made controversial pictures before," said Zanuck, who had made Grapes of Wrath, Gentleman's Agreement and Pinky. "I don't know whether I'll ever be able to show the film in the south and it may be objected to in other areas but I am taking my chances because I believe this great story... If a picture has real significance and genuine theme and purpose, my contention is that it can be made no matter how controversial."
Zanuck said "it is not basically a picture about the color problem but it would not be possible to make a film about the West Indies without dealing with the color question. It is the essence of the life of the place."
In July 1955 Alfred Hayes was signed to do the script.
Zanuck eventually left Fox to return to producing. As part of his agreement with Fox, he took the rights to Island in the Sun. It was going to be the second of three films he was going to produce, the first being The Sun Also Rises and the third being The Secret Crimes of Josef Stalin. In the end Island would be made before Sun Also Rises and the Stalin project was never filmed.
In July 1956 Robert Rossen was hired to direct. Zanuck said Rossen's "reputation was largely made on offbeat, unorthodox subjects - which this is - and I had confidence, which for a producer is absolutely essential, that he was the man."
Casting
This was Dorothy Dandridge's "comeback" movie, as she hadn't made a film since 1954's Carmen Jones, in which she played the lead. In 1955, she had been offered supporting roles in The King and I and The Lieutenant Wore Skirts but Otto Preminger, her lover and Carmen Jones' director, advised her to turn down the roles. This was Dandridge's first film role in three years: She was billed third, but appeared in only a supporting role.Many of the lead actors were under contract to Fox, including Joan Collins, Michael Rennie, John Justin and Stephen Boyd.
Zanuck said in October 1956 "Ridding myself of the obligation of conducting a large film establishment like 20th Century Fox hasn't meant any cessation of work. I have seldom done as much travelling as I expect to do in the next few weeks and that's because we are really trying to make this picture really come alive as a big tropical island exploit."
Shooting
Filming started 15 October in the West Indies. The film was shot on location in Barbados and Grenada then in late November the unit shifted to London for studio work. The budget was $3 million.Reception
As a result of playing interracial love scenes with Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine received poison pen mail, including some purported threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Fontaine turned the letters over to the FBI.The film received mixed reviews and its interracial themes meant it found initial difficulty in being booked in theaters in the Southern United States. The film also received protests prior to its opening in the North in St Paul-Minneapolis.
Zanuck had previously said he would pay the fines of any theatre owners fined for showing the film.
Box Office
Premiering in June 1957, Island in the Sun was a major box office success, opening at number one in the country with a first week gross of almost $500,000 in the 16 cities that Variety reported. The film earned $5,550,000 worldwide, and finished as the sixth highest-grossing film of 1957.It was the 8th most popular movie in Britain of that year.