evening1 An unusual film in that it highlights a romance based on a longstanding friendship.The performances of Van Johnson and June Allyson are OK but I didn't understand how Nancy and Uncle Thad could have come upon Alec's downed plane in the middle of nowhere when the aircraft's signaling system had been torpedoed. This film is indeed powerful as we watch the only two survivors of the shoot-down dispose of a deceased crew and try to stay alive on a cup of water and hopes of reaching an idyllic isle. However, it didn't make sense that a shot-down plane would float that way on the water. Wouldn't it have sunk to the ocean floor? Despite these incongruities, as this movie edged toward its conclusion, I found myself wondering whether a 1947 American-made film might actually allow the good guy to expire. Then his perky girlfriend appears out of nowhere? A very puerile and unlikely denouement...

Cory Love, innocence, and purity cast into a world gone mad. An eternal tale. Brilliant. Fortuitous in its timing. Simple and uncluttered. I happened upon this film while home during my freshman year in high school. Seems like an eternity ago. Have not seen it since. Not for want of trying but maybe some things are just not meant to be. I cannot find this film anywhere. 46 years old now and with plenty of scars of my own from this world of ours, I seem to recall the film at the oddest times. And in the heat of battle I'm not exactly sure it had me ducking or charging. But it always had me smiling. Frankly I'm not one to judge any film. Certainly High Barbaree tells of the greatest story one can tell. This particular film just seems to tell it unforgettably.

alumni72 I remember seeing this movie when I was around 11, one rainy Saturday afternoon, with my father. It's stuck with me all these years (I'm 46 now) and I wish I could see it again! I could be romanticizing it a bit based on memory of days long past, but I remember it well enough to know that it WAS a great movie despite the tricks the years may have played on me. It was indeed an unusual mixture of adventure, romance and fantasy - but what makes it unusual also makes it unique and well worth watching. I know I turned it on originally because of the phrase 'World War II' that I spotted in the TV Guide - but the war really has little bearing on how the story plays out. If you happen to see it advertised on TV, be sure and watch it - I've been waiting for years now, and have only seen it listed once (but sadly I wasn't home at the time and couldn't see it).

skallisjr I haven't seen this for decades, but I do remember it. The pilot, reminiscing to his shipmate, while downed on a tropical island, goes on and on about his past experiences, including his dream since childhood about an island paradise called High Barbaree.On and on he goes, as one reviewer observed, slowly boring his companion to death. And the theme and throughout his ramblings, the subject of High Barbaree recurs.SPOILER FOLLOWS: Toward the end of the film, a Polynesian native appears, and offers him entry to High Barbaree, but he realizes that he shouldn't go there then. Not if he wants to keep on living. For High Barbaree _is_ Paradise (as in Heaven).It's a very slow film, but there have been far worse.