I recently received an alert from a longtime reader & friend about a movie I thought that I'd seen before, but in truth had not!
No Man is an Island (1962) starred a beloved favorite of mine, Mr. Jeffrey Hunter, and tells the story (based on an actual incident) of a WWII sailor who evades capture for an extended time on Japanese-held Guam. The confusion stemmed from a decade-earlier movie,
Sailor of the King (1953) in which a shipwrecked Hunter works overtime single-handedly to thwart a German ship.
No Man has our stalwart hero struggling to eke out an existence with practically no equipment or provisions and a death threat hanging over any island citizen who aids him. This poster above left gives NO indication of the staggering beauty that Hunter brings to the table. The Philippine scenery (subbing for Guam) is lovely and the cinematography is generally handled well, but the real eye-catch is Jeff, who possessed the most crystalline blue eyes. This isn't a rundown of the movie, but sort of a Hunter highlight reel with a specialty ending. (I'll give you a hint... I watched this yesterday, two days after I had posted my latest tribute to April showers.)
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The eyes have it...
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The year before this, Hunter had portrayed our lord and savior Jesus Christ (King of Kings, 1961) and I did occasionally hear myself repeating those words as the film unfolded...! I hated the way his hair was smoothed back (even more than in the pic at left above) towards the start of the film, but as it went on, he sported a more disheveled look which was quite dreamy.
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He is strikingly photographed time and again. It's not just a one-man show. Marshall Thompson has a supporting role, there are many local actors who have significant parts and Barbara Perez (aka - The Audrey Hepburn of the Philippines) comes in late with an appealing and lovely performance as well. But always my attention stuck to Hunter.
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The rugged, shopworn appearance he adopts for much of the picture was probably considered unkempt and degraded at the time, but by today's standards he looks wonderful.
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The longer his ordeal goes on, the more tattered and abbreviated that shirt becomes.
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The moment depicted on this lobby card didn't appear in the version of the film I saw. He looks like he was down to almost nothing by this point!
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::Spoiler Alert:: Hunter does eventually get rescued. He's taken aboard ship and seems to have drawn an interested crowd. I wonder what's so fascinating...
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Oh, I see! Hell, yeah...! I'll crowd into that room for this, too!
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The poor guy is so undernourished after having stuck it out under grueling conditions for a long time that he's brought a pitcher of milk and a glass.
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He's so ready for it he slurps it down right there during his shower.
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Then he wants some more, please.
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Milk. It does a body good.
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After he's cleaned up, all eyes are still on him as he accepts various bits of clothing from the other seamen. And again, I can't blame a one of them...! This movie is okay, not tremendous and not bad. But fans of Jeff should enjoy it more than others.
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Um... I'm just gonna leave this right here... Pleasant dreams! Ha ha!
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I do recall seeing this in my youth and being captivated, and not just because of Mr Hunter’s gloriosity. And there is something about movies with lots of photogenic men confined on a ship.
ReplyDeleteAlas, so many movies I loved then just haven’t aged well, and I often regret not sticking with my memories. So true of much of life,
And here I just responded to the April Showers post only to have another with a lovely scrubbing up!
ReplyDeleteFew were as breathtakingly beautiful as Jeffrey Hunter even if he wasn't an actor of limitless scope. Not that he was bad either but the tremendous depth that someone like John Garfield or William Holden could bring to a role wasn't in Jeff's bag of tricks.
Outside of his beauty I wasn't bowled over by No Man is an Island. I watched it, it was fine I have no burning desire to look at it again.
Words are not needed for that last photo--lol. The picture says it all--lol.
ReplyDeleteDan, I understand what you're saying. But somehow for me it's almost the opposite. I love my old movies most of the time as I did then. Someone once asked me HOW I can stand to watch the same movies time and again as I tend to do (some of them I've described as almost a need, like blood to a vampire! LOL) and the best way I can describe it is that they are soothing to me. I can rely on them. I know what the characters are going to say and do and it gives me a bizarre sense of security in an unsecure world. And I usually prefer the way they look and behave to what's out there now... So I'm rarely let down when I revisit an old fave, myself.
ReplyDeletejoel65913, I coincidentally watched (for the first time) "Sergeant Rutledge" last night and - again - I just kept exclaiming how beautiful he was whenever John Ford went in for a luminous close up! Wow...
Skippy, I know it was a little naughty of me to put that pic up in such a context, but I couldn't resist it. Take care and thanks!
Oh yes, I'd put Jeff on my list of what I call "Hard do look ats" So beautiful it's a bit painful to look upon them. My beloved Stephen Boyd is at the top (natch) but Hunter is there for sure. I vividly recall my Southern Baptist church one hot summer night showing "King of Kings" on a projector in the back of the sanctuary. There was Hunter, with those eyes. "I was a teenage Jesus" for sure. I'm sure that depiction had unforeseen consequences for more than just me. Hunter and Van Williams would have been a good duo. Another very difficult man to look upon. Than you for this!
ReplyDeleteI just experienced that last shot in real life. But not with milk :)
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