Cheap Hollywood Classics Collectors Edition - Bird of Paradise (Video) (King Vidor) Price

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Customer Reviews of Hollywood Classics Collectors Edition - Bird of Paradise

Exotic And Erotic.
BIRD OF PARADISE is one of those films that remained unseen for years thanks to its pre-code nudity and the fact that a lame 1951 remake made sure that it sat on the shelf. A few years ago VCI Home Entertainment in conjunction with the Roan Group issued a restored version on VHS. This is now on DVD coupled with a 1931 film THE LADY REFUSES. BIRD was David O. Selznick's biggest production to date. He had just headed up RKO Radio Pictures and was looking for something to follow up on the success of MGM's TRADER HORN and TARZAN THE APE MAN. What he decided on was a reworking of F. W. Murnau and Robert Flaherty's adventure/documentary TABU about an ill-fated South Sea Island romance. This gave him the perfect opportunity to showcase the Mexican actress Delores Del Rio who had already been in films for a few years. This was her breakthrough vehicle which led to her role in FLYING DOWN TO RIO the following year. Joel McCrea, fresh from THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, was the male lead. The film was shot on location in Hawaii at a cost of over a million dollars but managed to turn a profit thanks to Del Rio's nude swimming scene which is still pretty erotic even after 70 years. The rest of the film is quite good as the story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl is made fresh by the Hawaian locales. Del Rio is simply marvelous as the native girl caught between tradtion and her love for Joel McCrea. McCrea is a creditable hero but his best roles were still to come. Look for Lon Chaney Jr in a bit part as a sailor billed under his original name Creighton Chaney. King Vidor, one of the great American directors, keeps the film moving along primarily through visuals with dialogue kept to a minimum. He is aided immeasurably by Max Steiner's music score which is a trial run for KING KONG. Sexy, violent, and very exotic, BIRD OF PARADISE is a classic example of the pre-code films which were made between 1930 and 1934 when the Production Code was rigidly enforced. Censorship of mainstream American movies would last until 1968.

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Delores Del Rio shines in a lackluster effort
At the time it was filmed, "Bird of Paradise" cost an astronomical 1 million dollars. Producer David Selznick okayed the project and said that he didn't care anything about the plot as long as Delores Del Rio's character was thrown into a volcano at the end. The disregard for a good story line clearly shows and the result is a boring and tepid film highlighted only by actress Delores Del Rio. Although Del Rio's voice is high pitched and she speaks little English here, her beauty and presence holds your attention. The exotic locales are not that impressive in black and white and some underwater footage was taken from another film, "The Most Dangerous Game".

The flip side of the dvd features "The Lady Refuses" a low budget "adult drama" popular in its' day for presenting provocative story lines. This one involves a wealthy man hiring a prostitute (Betty Compton) to seduce his son away from a gold digger that he is dating. In the process, Compton falls in love with her employer instead. Interesting only for a peek at how films got around the censors with sly word play and innuendos.

The dvd quality of both films is very good.

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Strange, engrossing
Strange and amateurish in many regards, yet fascinating and engrossing in its own way, this David O. Selznick production is the original "Bird of Paradise" -- not the 1950s remake starring Debra Paget and Louis Jourdan, which will make for an interesting comparison if it's ever released on DVD.

The stars of this one, Joel McCrea and Delores Del Rio, make quite a strange pair. Joel seems like a hayseed just off farm (his dialogue is peppered with "huhs?" and "whats?" as he seeks to communicate with the mysterious island beauty, Delores). As for Dolores, she seems to belong in a different, and probably more interesting, movie than this one. And even her fabled nude swim scene is pretty tame and unimpressive.

The movie was filmed on location in 1930s Hawaii. Although the focus always seems a bit off, the scenery is still beautiful -- and a good reminder of what Hawaii must have been like before "they paved paradise and put up a pink hotel (the Sheraton Waikiki by the way)." There's also quite a bit of underwater photography, which is pretty impressive given that this movie was filmed approximately 70 years ago.

Cheap and fun, this "Bird" is worth looking into if you're interested in old movies, and if you'd like to see what David Selznick was up to just a few short years before filming his masterpiece, "Gone with the Wind."