Producer: George Waggner. Copyright 23 April 1943 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Rivoli: 23 April 1943. U.S. release: 23 April 1943. Australian release: 31 March 1944. 8 reels. 6,805 feet. 75 minutes. U.K. release title: WHITE CAPTIVE.

SYNOPSIS: Sam Miller, the unscrupulous operator of a trading post on Port Coral, seeks to gain possession of a gold-lined sacred pool, located on Temple Island, a small coral isle ruled over by Princess Tahia. Tahia's wayward brother Tamara is an inveterate gambler and thus an easy mark for Sam who plans to exploit this weakness.

COMMENT: Beautifully Technicolored escapist nonsense with Maria Montez fans in for a great time as the color camera and native costumes caress the features and figure of the star, who brings a sincerity and earnestness to her role that makes it almost believable. The only player who is anything like a match for her is Thomas Gomez whose transparent villainy makes an agreeable contrast, though Paul Guilfoyle as his frightened thug of a henchman and Sid Toler as a jack of all work detective have their moments too. Don Terry, who is confined to the background in most scenes, has his moment of glory and even Turhan Bey makes a much better fist of the wastrel brother than he does of his usual romantic roles. Sabu is a bit of a bore for those who don't find him a lovable scamp and Jon Hall is only mildly personable as the hero of this yarn.

Director Lubin has a great time moving his camera through the crowded colorful sets and the photography is a work of postcard art that will leave most viewers - including this one - enthralled. Its nonsensical Boys-Own-Paper/True Romance story is directed with style and flair, photographed and set with color and kitsch, acted by all with eagerness and in many cases gusto and verve. But it's hard to see the script with its jejune dialogue and all too conventional characters as the work of Richard Brooks.

OTHER VIEWS: This was Richard Brooks' first contribution to films, and indeed his only movie work during his initial Hollywood sojourn from 1940 till 1943, aside from an original story which he sold to Republic, My Best Gal, which was released in 1944 when he was in the Marines; and Cobra Woman.

With an earthquake for a climax and a fabled treasure pool as plot bait, White Savage is a highly diverting and entertaining serving of South Seas escapism, packed with incident. Montez is at her imperious best as an island queen, the extras obligingly perform their native "dance of the gloves" while the hero is forced to straddle a high wire over the lion pit and then dive off a cliff before an advancing volcano - and that's just his warm-up! - JHR writing as George Addison.

"Sam Miller" (Thomas Gomez) owns a gambling parlor on an island called Port Coral. Not too far away is another island called "Temple Island" which is essentially off-limits to most white men. The reason for this is because Sam has managed to pass a law to that effect. And the reason he did this is because he discovered gold underneath a pool adjacent to a native temple and he wants the gold all for himself. Then one day a man named "Frank Williams" discovers this gold as well and just happens to tell Sam about it. Wanting to keep the secret from anyone else, Sam strangles Frank. But things begin to get complicated when a shark fisherman by the name of "Kaloe" (John Hall) arrives and develops a romantic relationship with "Princess Tahia" (Maria Montez) who is the ruler of Temple Island. Anyway, although Kaloe becomes aware of the gold underneath the Temple's pool, he doesn't really care about it. But Sam doesn't know that and he is very intent upon getting it. Anyway, rather than disclose the entire story I will just say that this is a nice little tropical island film which manages to capture the beautiful island scenery pretty well. However, the acting isn't great by any means and the movie lacks a certain amount of depth. Personally, I would have preferred that it lasted a bit longer than 76 minutes but that's probably just me. All things considered I give it an average rating.

Those who look at movies of the 1930's and 40's as horrifying examples of racist un- politically correct cinema are trying to remove the fun that these often innocent stories are trying to tell. Nobody is pretending that these characters are representative of what Pacific Islanders were like, ever, and you have to go into these with a grain of sand. Add on Technicolor queen Maria Montez, scantily clad Jon Hall and the over enthusiastic Sabu, and the recipe is there for a colorful adventure that takes ridiculous situations and makes them twice as silly with over the top performances and outlandish dialog.

Montez is a tropical island queen who falls in love with white shark hunter Jon Hall, dealing also with hidden gold and the very sinister Thomas Gomez and a jealous suitor (Turhan Bey). For Charlie Chan like wisdom, there's Sidney Toler spouting words of wisdom, making you wonder if he's in cahoots with Gomez or on the side of the good guys. With constant damp hair, muscular chest exposed and the enthusiasm of innocent youth, Sabu is adorable.

The color photography, campy atmosphere and overall sweetness of many of its characters (Montez's heavyset handmaiden, who ironically is also Sabu's mother pretending to be queen) makes this an above average time filler. Of course, there's the obligatory dance number, and if you look very carefully, you'll see a very young and sexy James Mitchell in dark make-up as one of the dancers, long before he danced on Broadway and was "Oklahoma's" dream Curly (and years before he became the nefarious Palmer Cortlandt on "All My Children"). This might not be in the same league as "Cobra Woman", but it's awfully close.