JimB-4 Review of Isle of Forgotten Sins

Isle of Forgotten Sins (1943)

John Carradine: World's Skinniest Brawler!

[2/10 · 18 August 2008]

If you've ever wanted to see what the classic brawl at the end of THE SPOILERS would look like if one of the guys weighed 110 pounds, this is your chance. John Carradine, just a couple of years after being robbed of the Oscar for his role as preacher Casy in THE GRAPES OF WRATH, here plays the romantic tough-guy lead in a South Seas adventure film which calls on him to have several fistfights with his partner, the comparatively hulking Frank Fenton, and to win them! Dressed in stereotypical tight sailing man outfits, Carradine looks like the skeleton of Gene Kelly in ANCHORS AWEIGH. It's downright bizarre seeing him play Quirt and Flagg with stolid Fenton. And it's only a little less bizarre seeing Gale Sondergaard as his madam lover. I've always liked Sidney Toler, but after seeing this, I realize he was much, much better suited to play Charlie Chan than anything else. His delivery is flat and his sneering smile pasted on. And the less said about Toler in a bathing suit, the better. All in all, it's an amazingly cheap-looking little tropical blunder, interesting for the sets and props which look like Toys R Us rejects and for the chance to see Carradine do something different, even if it's way outside his range.