As a yacht sails into an island chain in the South Pacific, a large number of natives in pontoon boats sail out to greet them. The natives dive for the trinkets the yacht's crew throws them. A shark arrives, scaring most of the natives away. Attempting to catch a shark by throwing it bait that has been tied to a harpoon-sized hook, Johnny Baker accidentally steps into a loop that tightens around his ankle. The shark takes the bait, and the rope grows tighter, causing the rope to yank the young man overboard. Luana, the daughter of the chief, saves his life by leaping into the water and cutting the rope. It is not long before they meet in the middle of the night. Swiftly falling in love, they discover she has been promised by her father to another man – a prince on a neighboring island. An arranged wedding with an elaborate dance sequence then follows. Johnny appears at the nick of time, runs into a circle of burning fire, rescues her as the natives kneel to the fire. They travel to another island where they hope to live out the rest of their lives. He builds her a house with a roof of thatched grass. However, their idyll is smashed when the local volcano on her home island begins to erupt. She confesses to her lover that she alone can appease the mountain. Her people take her back. When Johnny goes after her, he is wounded in the shoulder by a spear and tied up. The people decide to sacrifice both of them to the volcano, but on the way, the couple are rescued by Johnny's friends and taken aboard the yacht. Johnny's wound is tended to, but his friends wonder what will become of the lovers. Luana does not fit into Johnny's world. When Johnny is sleeping, Luana's father demands her back. She goes willingly, believing that only she can save her people by voluntarily throwing herself into the volcano's mouth.
Cast (in credits order)
Dolores del Río as Luana
Joel McCrea as Johnny Baker
John Halliday as Mac
Richard "Skeets" Gallagher as Chester
Bert Roach as Hector
Lon Chaney Jr. as Thornton
Wade Boteler as Skipper Johnson
Reginald Simpson as O'Fallon
Production
Director King Vidor, under contract to M-G-M, was loaned to RKO producer David Selznick to make the “South Seas” romance. Filmed on location in Hawaii, Vidor and writer Wells Root arrived on the island territory and began shooting background footage without a completed script . The native dance sequences were boom-shot in Hollywood and choreographed by an uncredited Busby Berkeley. Bird of Paradise was almost the first sound film to utilize a full symphonic score from beginning to end. Producer David O. Selznick and composer Max Steiner had both been experimenting with this idea, while other studios had begun development along similar lines, such the score by Alfred Newman for Samuel Goldwyn's Street Scene. However, it was Steiner who first received screen credit for composition of a score which, other than a few brief pauses during the film, was almost entirely through-composed. Elizabeth Hill served as script clerk on Bird of Paradise during which she began an affair with Vidor. She would collaborate with him as assistant director on the 1935 Civil War dramaSo Red the Rose. She also co-authored the scripts for The Citadel and H. M. Pulham, Esq., the latter of which she received screen credit. They married in 1937. The native huts in this film were soon reused for RKO's King Kong.
Reception
Bird of Paradise created a scandal after its release owing to a scene featuring Dolores del Río swimming naked. The film was made before the Production Code was strictly enforced, so brief nudity in American movies was not unknown. Film directorOrson Welles said del Río represented the highest erotic ideal with her performance in the film.
Box Office
The film lost an estimated $250,000 at the box office. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
In the early 1930s, Hollywood produced a number of pictures that exploited popular interest in “exotic” tropical locations, though these regions were fully penetrated by Western culture by the early 20th Century, including Hawaii. Films of this genre ranged from elevated ethnological studies such as F.W. Murnau’s and Robert Flaherty's to the Tarzanadventure series and King Kong in 1932 and 1933. Vidor presents this “tragic” romance as a clash between modern “civilization” and a sexual idyll enjoyed by Rousseauian-like Noble savages. The sexual promiscuity and eroticism exhibited in Bird of Paradise is a measure of the as yet unenforced prohibitions of the Breen Office with its “nude swimming...lovers hanging from bamboo poles trying to kiss and Doloros del Rio sucking an orange, then transferring the juice to McCrea's fevered mouth.” Though the American and his Hawaiian lover attempt to transcend the racist and sexual strictures that doom their relationship, Vidor, although not personally a racist, was compelled to include an anti-miscegenation message. Selznick's story line that “climax with the girl tossed into a volcano” is both an example of the producer's predilection for tragic melodrama and a Vidorian “tongue-in-cheek” cautionary tale concerning the fate of racially mixed couples.
