Steffi_P There was a certain kind of picture in the "pre-code" era, in which the licentiousness of the times would throw up any kind of strange fantasy. In the most significant period of sexual liberation before the 1960s, and still in an era where plucking a bride from a primitive culture did not seem a bit dodgy, a picture like Bird of Paradise could exist. A yarn like this would be the stuff of corny B-flicks a few decades later, but back in 1932 it was acceptable A-feature material.So what we have here is a rather odd dichotomy. A daft storyline, yet one pulled off with panache. The producer and director is King Vidor, one of the most uniquely talented filmmakers of all time, and what's more he appears to have taken Bird of Paradise very seriously. His camera set-ups give an almost documentary feel to the proceedings. He doesn't force us in with point-of-view shots, or make us coldly objective, but often has us peeping over shoulders or from behind props, like an extra amid the action. This not only gives us the feeling of being there, it is also incredibly vivid and dynamic. He directs with a mixture of realism (most of the extras were genuine Polynesians) and bizarre stylisation, culminating in rituals which become macabre and frenzied riots.Bird of Paradise also includes a couple of "before they were famous" curios. Those wild tribal dances are choreographed by Busby Berkeley. His stark, abstract formations are already evident, and nicely suit the feel of this picture. Then there is music by Max Steiner, composing what happens to be one of the earliest examples of an orchestral backing score in a talking picture. Steiner's score is a little awkward in its mixing, but melodically it is fine, establishing themes for different characters, setting tones, matching action but never once threatening to upstage the images. Berkeley and Steiner would soon take up residence at Warner Brothers, and the rest would be history. Oh, and there's one more curio, in that you several times clearly hear the Hawaiian word "wiki", nearly seventy years before anyone thought of joining it to "pedia".The cast of Bird of Paradise are a rather odd bunch, but it doesn't seem to matter. The ship's crew members are filled out with a number of comedy supporting players, like 'Skeets' Gallagher and Bert Roach. They make the onboard scenes a little more interesting, but their appearances are fleeting and their performances muted enough that they never threaten to overbalance the picture or make it too farcical. Lead man Joel McCrea was a competent rather than an exceptional actor, but he has the ideal physique and manner for the character. Importantly he is also a generous player, who never attempts to steal the scene. And finally we have Dolores del Rio, of course looking far more Hispanic than Polynesian, but nevertheless convincing as a native woman, and certainly vivacious.In spite of, or perhaps because of the talkies being firmly established and no longer stilted, Bird of Paradise seems more than anything like a silent picture. It does not make do without dialogue, but what dialogue there is tends to be superfluous, the images speaking eloquently enough. In other words, you could have released it as a silent, and not needed many title cards. With its mystical, exotic tone we do not really need to hear the actors rabbiting on to retain a sense of naturalism. And yes, it does contain many moments that are somewhat laughable (such as Joel McCrea riding a turtle like it was a surfboard), but thanks to its inventive direction, spot-on casting, and professional production it manages, against all odds, to salvage some dignity.

carvalheiro "Bird of paradise" (1932) directed by King Vidor represents an anthropological islet in his extensive cinematographer kind of a tree is a tree free speech about species, yet in a second class civilization for South sea adventure. Whose main characters of a sailor and a local flower power, before its female expansion isn't enough for the intriguing father from the clan. This is old green valley in present times, but with an enchantment that for us is still with an accented galvanization for marriage between cultures and how being careful with prejudice, trade and palms like in the time of Cook travel, linked with affection for the nature and brigandage. The geography of this well populated island it is the main fortified part of this exotic story and the plot works with a sense of orientation from the main characters. Being pursued by a group of natives at the orders of the chief, whilst the other small group is composed by the adventurer, the lover girl - daughter of the chief - and their supporters. This is why this movie is astonishingly new for the age it must have now since the time that it was made, as almost like a special one artisan's outfit of the patronized conception of the innovative studios production. Even the eroticism of some scenes with the naked shoulders of the girl, it were very unusual and as fresh current of open air from the concealed forests of the island, near the sands of the shores with palms and beaches, as rarely we could see at the time of mingled forced marriages. Well, Vidor put the finger on the incomprehension and gives us some speed and strength, as dramatic lightening for communication between peoples before electrification, when things were still for the worst after the debacle of illusions. One of the scenes that touch me is when the communication is difficult, because the separate languages and for explaining how it works on a given plan it was by signs, like pictorial symbols at the age of caverns and tattoos, what get feelings between inhabitants and the maritime foreigner in spite of a potential love affair, that took the island in fire and tears, if the good mind and presence of spirit facing differences was not in the right place, as it were by the story among main characters, such in this scene of transition. This is the kind of narrative that shows us the boundaries of forced integration and it seems, even now, the immense complex problem that at the time was the idea of a savage with bow and arrow pointed to a civilized man, half naked on the ground in a warrior ritual, with a local tribe crying against the intrusion of this human kind in their closed rules. Perturbing the primitive life there without any ceremony and knowing nothing about why he was caught, in his own trap of curiosity and observation of that recurred society of consumption, where flesh it was good enough for its smell on the fire by night, as sacrifice calming the volcano eruption, watched from not far away over the night during this cannibalistic ritual, simulating an exchange in such a disconnected mentalities. Director King Vidor makes it by generosity of a new dramatic standing, for showing here boundaries in the spirit of hunters. When things are reversed on the habitat of such a melodic structure, about the childhood of common humanity, in a talkie movie that roars well with choreography of such a dance with naked feet, learning the virtues of housing above water.

bkoganbing This was a scandalous picture for 1932, an interracial romance with a nude Dolores Del Rio. Bird of Paradise has Del Rio as the daughter of the chief of a South Sea Island where a schooner lands that has Joel McCrea in the crew. McCrea has left the Depression ridden USA behind and now wants to stay on the island. He's decided to see if all the stories are true about the hedonistic natives. What he doesn't bargain for is falling for Del Rio. But she being the daughter of the head guy is spoken for. Nevertheless they elope in a manner of speaking and start kanoodling on another island. You can see why this film was such a big hit that year. With so many young men out of work, who wouldn't want to take off to the South Seas as Joel McCrea did? I say young men because women for the most part were not considered part of the work force.I think the problem later on with this film after the Code came in was not the alleged nudity, you can't tell in any event. Both McCrea and Del Rio spend a lot of time in various stages of undress. Nor is it the interracial romance, Dorothy Lamour later carried on with a lot of anglo visitors in the South Seas with the Code in place. I think the real problem is that the film in its way respects the animist traditions of the native religion. They worship the volcano on that island and no missionaries are around to tell them different. After 1935 you would NEVER see Del Rio making ready to throw herself in the volcano to save her man and his friends. And this is in fact accepted. I'm sure Joel must have wished the missionaries had been there and had converted the natives.Bird of Paradise is dated, but still moderately entertaining.

laursene Bird of Paradise must have been made to cash in on the success of Tabu, as well as the appetite the first of Weismuller's Tarzan movies stirred up for all things jungle (see Joel Macrea in a loincloth, swinging from tree to tree!). It's just as full of the era's embarrassing casual racism, in both dialog and the characterization of South Sea Island "natives." But King Vidor was the director, and together with his crew put together a beautiful visual piece that includes one fabulously erotic sequence. Toward the end [POSSIBLE SPOILER] Macrea's sailor is lying sick back in the ship's cabin. The chieftain's daughter (Del Rio) comes in and revives him by cupping her hands in water and letting it run into his mouth. In a VERY closeup shot, observe the quietly passionate expression on Del Rio's face. Just as he revives, she leaves the cabin to meet her fate.Hollywood wouldn't dare to infuse this much eroticism into an interracial relationship again for many years. Of course, the story here is pretty hackneyed: the "native" maiden's doomed discovery of love and her own otherness in the presence of the white man. But movies are about sight and sound, and such cliches become compelling when outstanding filmmakers are at work. In retrospect, it's easy to see why Del Rio fell out of favor after the Code came in: The Code was as much about race as about sex, and Del Rio's mere presence as a (light) brown-skinned woman in such a scenario was just too dubious, no matter how well-clothed she might be. Henceforth, we would get Dorothy Lamour in a sarong instead of the actress who Orson Welles called the most beautiful in the world. Back to Mexico she went.