This is a gorgeous film to look at, and like the previous decade's "San Francisco", is best remembered for a powerful earthquake sequence. But the soap opera storyline has got to be seen to be believed, and it all surrounds the children of former lovers Frank Morgan and Gladys Cooper, reunited years later as neighbors, he a widower with a grown son and she married (to Edmund Gwenn) with two daughters. The two girls both fall in love with the son (Richard Hart), a brooding young man who thanks to Gwenn becomes an officer in the Imperial Navy and an accidental deserter thanks apparently to some rice wine given to him by a Eurasian girl he meets while in China. Now a drunk like his father, he settles in New Zealand, and sends a letter to his love, accidentally putting in her sister's name. When she shows up ready for marriage, he feels guilty and goes through with it, causing a situation he will have to face years later when the sisters are reunited.This is almost a "Gone With the Wind" of the south of the equator as two completely different women, one willful (Lana Turner), the other sweet (Donna Reed, seeming very much like Olivia de Havilland) love the same man and go through tons of heartache. Reed is ready to do what her mother once almost did, jump off a cliff, but the Mother Superior (Dame May Witty) who once prevented Cooper from doing the same thing steps in once again, giving Reed a book that will change her life. In New Zealand, a pregnant Turner goes through one of the wildest on-screen earthquakes, later deals with her husband's partner (Van Heflin) who obviously loves her, and stands tall through a rebellion by native New Zealanders who are not about to be ruled by the British.Everybody does their best to help this film rise above it silly over-the-top story, which will keep your attention because of its delightful attention to detail. The earthquake itself is one of the boldest sequences ever in film, and the flood that follows devastating, especially considering recent events with tidal waves and tsunamis which have caused world devastation. Still, there is a feeling of too much of a good thing as it strives too hard to cover too much territory, pretty much a retread of "The Rains Came" which ironically was remade by Turner as "The Rains of Ranchipur".

Simply marvelous picture with Richard Hart writing down the wrong name of two sisters. As a result, he is literally forced to marry the one who showed up.This film had about everything. A superlative cast with the likes of Lana Turner, Donna Reed, Frank Morgan, Dame May Witty, Gladys Cooper, Edmund Gwenn and Van Heflin.Gwenn acts and looks as he did as Mr. Bonnyfeather in the memorable 1936 film "Anthony Adverse." Turner is bright, conniving, but in the end, she is true to her convictions. Reed has her usual vulnerability character, and Cooper is her usual erudite self, but brought down to confession as her life ends. Witty is effective as Mother Superior; perhaps, Peggy Wood emulated her years later in "The Sound of Music." Heflin really undergoes a change of character as the picture progresses. From a drunk, he is appealing, kind and earnest as the movie goes on. Morgan reminds me here of his professor role 8 years before in 'Wizard of Oz,' but at a much more serious level.The general theme of the film is that fate will invariably lead one to redemption and finding a positive life for one self under the circumstances one originally never wanted.The earthquake scene is on par with the one from 1936's "San Francisco."A wonderful film not to be missed.

When I decided to watch GREEN DOLPHIN STREET on TCM recently I didn't expect much. A standard period drama starring Lana Turner, Donna Reed and Frank Morgan (the wizard in WIZARD OF OZ). It started nicely enough: beautiful cinematography, nice sets and location. But then things got more, eh, odd and then even more odd and yes, it morphed into something that was full-stop wacky. I mean seriously jaw-on-the-floor wacky. On one hand, the film didn't work at all but then the whole thing is so incredibly and spectacularly over-the-top that I was pleasantly surprised by this unexpected outcome. It wasn't the thoughtful period drama I expected but more an over-the-top ultra camp thingamajig that confounded me nonstop.The story is nearly impossible to describe because it goes here and there with no rhyme or reason, baffling the viewers with its overwrought drama that makes very little sense. If you saw TOP SECRET, the comedy from the 1980s starring Val Kilmer with all the incongruous elements (spy movie/beach movie/elvis movie/great escape etc) in it, well, GDS is like that but treated with a straight face. It's a combo of a Jane Austin period piece/swashbuckler/KING KONG/disaster epic/PEYTON PLACE all rolled into one. 3/4s into the movie, I thought nothing would top what had happened previously and the there's the scene when Donna Reed is caught in the rising tide and has to climb a well-like cave, that scene sent me over the edge. The well/cave is not something like 30 feet high but more like "Empire State Building" high. What happens to Reed's character after this scene is so priceless (certainly when you think of the story-line) that I was wondering "how come this film is not a camp classic?" That scene is so striking that it alone deserves to be remembered as one of the most brilliantly overwrought "symbolic" scenes of all time. It actually outdoes BLACK NARCISSUS (there's also a nunnery on top of a hill/cliff waiting at the end of the well) which was also released in 1947, several months before GDS! GREEN DOLPHIN STREET is like BLACK NARCISSUS' illegitimate child no one wants to talk about. In the film's many OTT scene, there's also an earthquake AND a roaring river tsunami (it won the Oscar for special effects over BLACK NARCISSUS which is something the other more famous film cannot claim), all of this over two sisters fighting for the love of one clueless man.Not a great film by any means but I give it 10 stars because it's pure ultra camp. It's a must see if you like camp and the unexpected. It's a totally hidden gem (what kind of gem it's hard to say).Who knew such a benign title (which is totally pointless vis a vis the story) could hide so much good stuff.

I accidentally stumbled on this movie on television while trying to pass a lazy summer day when I was a child. I was instantly intrigued by the two beautiful female stars, and the impressive period setting, as well as by the fact that I had never heard of the film. I was in for a big surprise. I expected a mildly entertaining but ultimately conventional Victorian melodrama, but the film was wrought with twists and turns that I never would have expected based on the first few minutes. In addition, it is filmed with lavish spectacle and breathtaking special effects that are no less than awe inspiring for 1947. I had been raised on classic movies but I had never seen anything like it and I haven't since. I was bewitched by the sheer magnitude of the production, and by the bizarre fantasy element of its setting. It is not so realistic as to be mundane, but has a sort of charming phoniness about it (not sarcastic at all) that makes watching it almost like going to Disneyland. I was inspired to research New Zealand and channel Island history, and read the book. I have not found a movie yet with so profound a sense of exotic mystery as this one. My first viewing of this was a once in a lifetime experience. I hope it will be the same for you.