For a film that's billed as a romance movie, this has got a surprising amount of good suspense and action. It's really an adventure story with a romance angle. It's also very interesting and a good film with decent special effects, at least for when this was made.

It's almost a "Count Of Monte Cristo" story with an innocent man imprisoned on an island and finally succeeding in escaping. However, in this story, the escapee "Terangi" (John Hall) also has to battle a hurricane after escaping!

The film starts slowly in the first half hour, but stick with it, it's worth it. The story becomes very involving as "Terangi" begins his battle against "the law," which is not pictured very flattering here. In that respect, the film is ahead of its time with its anti-government message. However, it's behind the times with the typical classic-era white man trying to pass himself off as a dark-skinned island native. Dorothy Lamour is likewise as "Marama," Terangi's wife.

The cinematography is very good and the direction excellent. Then again, one of the best directors of all time did this film: John Ford. It also has a nice cast. Look at the supporting actors: Mary Astor, Raymond Massey, C. Aubrey Smith, Thomas Mitchell and John Carradine!

A solid Golden Age adventure story and one of the best of the 1930s decade.

An early stab at the disaster genre by western director John Ford, THE HURRICANE is a film that manages to tick all of the right boxes, delivering a classic slice of Hollywood adventure in the meantime. Jon Hall is well cast as a Tarzan-like hero, finding himself the subject of a vendetta by weaselly villains, and ending up saving the day when the titular event strikes. A classic cast of characters do their bit here, with plenty of romance, ponderous lines, and well-directed mayhem come the climax.

This is a very good movie that earns an 8 due to the amazing (though a bit overlong) ending. Without the technically brilliant ending, I'd give the film a 6 or 7.

The movie is about a small fictional French-controlled island near Tahiti. Everything seems happy and idyllic until one of the main characters justifiably protects himself from attack in a bar when visiting Tahiti (the film never mentioned WHICH island this was--just calling it "Tahiti"). However, the French legal system seems totally indifferent and unjust and sentences this native to six months in jail. And, not unexpectedly from a "child of nature", he goes almost crazy and tries to escape again and again--and increases his six month sentence to over 16 years!!! This is almost exactly like what occurred in LES MISERABLES, where poor Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread and after trying to escape is sentenced to spend most of his life in prison--just for a crust of bread! And, like Victor Hugo's classic, there is a parallel to the character Inspector Javert--a man whose obsession with the technicalities of the law but not justice makes him almost inhuman. Interestingly, however, in this film, there are actually several characters reminiscent of Javert--not just the governor (Raymond Massey).

In the role of the native couple are Dorothy Lamour (who is beautiful and looks like a real native) and Jon Hall (who is beautiful and looks too much like a European to be believable as the native prisoner). However, Hall did an excellent job with the role, though I must admit that Lamour was given little to do other than to pout, swim and kiss Hall.

Overall, this re-working of LES MISERABLES was very competently done and interesting. John Ford and the rest did a good job. However, the hurricane scene at the end was the true star of the film. How did they ever get it to look so realistic?!

FYI--This movie was made in 1937. I seriously doubt if it would have been made in the same form just a few years later, as it makes the French government look very, very bad. During the war years or especially just after WWII, Hollywood tried very hard to portray the French in a sympathetic (such as CROSS OF LORAINE) or somewhat sympathetic light (such as in CASABLANCA).