"Enchanted Island" is a decent enough film but the terrible ending...well, that ruins much of the good I'd seen in the picture up until then! When the story begins, a crew of a 19th century merchant ship has just landed on Nuku Hiva island in the South Pacific. Despite seeming like a great place to chase the pretty native girls (or, perhaps because of it), the jerk-face Captain orders everyone back aboard the ship...they're heading out! Not surprisingly, the crew is angry as they haven't had shore leave in 14 months! In fact, a fight breaks out and two of the men, Abner and Tom (Dana Andrews and Don Dubbins) run into the interior of the island. Despite hearing that the Typee people are savage cannibals, they're treated pretty well up until the two really spoil everything.The film is based on Herman Melville's first novel and is a modestly entertaining about life among the savages of Acapulco, Mexico where the film was actually made. However, the ending is bad in several ways-- you just have to see it to believe it...and believe me...you WILL hate it as it makes no sense at all. A sad waste because of this.

There was a time in the Hollywood past when major film actresses bound to studio contracts had to play roles exotic women in wigs and dark makeup. Hedy Lamarr was one of the first. In this film Jane Powell is an exotic native girl who is the interest of Dana Andrews once jumping to avoid persecution willing to settle an in an exotic land to merely escape free world punishment. Although widely buzzed as an exotic island of cannibals the people are merely afraid once their identity is discovered armed European men will conquer them and destroy their family life and culture. The construct of cannibalism in the film is escapees ruin their chance of freedom and even survival and must be killed as their security measure. The person who is eaten is not done so for ritual or for sustenance but because as an escapee likely to blow their cover and destroy them they must hide all evidence of his body once they murder him.

Jane Powell is a native chick who meets up with fathead Dana Andrews.For 90 minutes everybody runs around through the jungle thicket trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The indigenous peoples are on the loose, a ship captain wants to get underway, Jane is mauled by Dana, and the audience is slapping themselves to stay awake.Remake of an entirely different film called 'Typee' (an Indian tribe). Not much to recommend. The island warriors are terrible shots and the movie was made too early to have Jane flash her coconuts, not that she would.......... maybe she would now, but she's 87 years old. What guy would want to see that? Well, I would, but then I'm a horny mother-- well, never mind.

According to her memoir Jane Powell was initially excited about doing Enchanted Island in which she sang not a note, donned a black wig as there were not too many blonds inhabiting the South Seas and spoke in monosyllable Tarzan style dialog. But Jane did not show her acting chops and it turned into a bad location with a disinterested director in Allan Dwan and a leading man in Dana Andrews who was at the height of his alcoholic problems.Add to that the fact that RKO the producing studio was going out of business and Enchanted Island was sold in a studio fire sale to Warner Brothers. All in all it was a disaster.I suppose a vacation to Acapulco standing in for the South Seas was worth something to all involved in Enchanted Island. A New Bedford trading ship puts in to a South Sea Island and just as the men are starting to loosen up with the women, Captain Ted DeCorsia who is a true New England puritan abruptly calls a halt to things. That doesn't sit well with two of the crew Dana Andrews and Don Dubbins. They take off for the interior of the island where they run into Jane Powell's tribe reputed to be cannibals.Just about what you would expect to happen happens in this setting. Dubbins gets homesick for his girl in New Bedford and that starts everything unraveling. According to Jane Powell the ending was changed so that she would not die. But if the indifferent performances hadn't spoiled the film already, the changed ending certainly did. This film is definitely not what author Herman Melville had in mind when he wrote his novel Typee on which this film is based. Typee incidentally is the name of the tribe Jane belongs to.The one saving grace of the film is Arthur Shields as the cheerful Mr. Dooley who has gone native as the British would say with gusto. He's populated the island with all kinds of children and they all seem to be girls. But Powell isn't one of his. He attributes her blue eyes to a passing Swede who was her father. I guess RKO couldn't afford contacts for Jane as they were liquidating.Except for Shields no one comes out of Enchanted Island the film with any kudos. I should also say though that The Four Lads did get a hit record out of the title song.