This is the very best version of Somerset Maugham's short story "The Beachcomber" ever filmed - even better than the Charles Laughton version, which I loved. Gerald O'Laughlin is great as Ginger Ted; and Sandy Dennis turns in her usual excellent performance as the missionary Reverend James' up-tight sister. Fred Morsell does an excellent job as the island's chief magistrate van den Hoag. The musical score, consisting of operatic choruses, is an inspired idea which helps sustain the light and comic mood of the story. All in all an absolutely marvelous film brilliantly achieved. Director Patrick O Neal deserves a round of heartfelt applause!
2 Reviews
Wrong Headed Rating
don-keck11 February 2012
How can IMDb give this film a rating of 2.9 when seven of the reviewers gave it a rating of 10, one gave it a rating of 8, one a rating of 5, and one a rating of 1. That's an average rating by people who actually saw the movie of 8.4/10.
What kind of a rating system are you using when you turn that kind of excellent rating into a "weighted" rating of 2.9. "Weighted" by whom? Using what criteria?
Someone at IMDb is completely lacking in aesthetic sense, and has no concept of what makes a fine film.
This movie retells Somerset Maugham's short story of Ginger Ted ("the Beachcomber") and the uptight spinster missionary - with commendable fidelity, not only to the story itself, but to the author's atmosphere of light comedy. It is marvelously acted by Sandy Denis and Gerald O'Loughlin, and includes an operatic musical score that greatly enhances the feeling of humor and farce which is conveyed by both the dialog and the musical background.
But I suppose it requires a degree of literary and musical taste to fully appreciate such an excellent rendition - something which your "weighted rating" system is apparently incapable of recognizing.
I shall never trust or rely on IMDb's rating system again.
What kind of a rating system are you using when you turn that kind of excellent rating into a "weighted" rating of 2.9. "Weighted" by whom? Using what criteria?
Someone at IMDb is completely lacking in aesthetic sense, and has no concept of what makes a fine film.
This movie retells Somerset Maugham's short story of Ginger Ted ("the Beachcomber") and the uptight spinster missionary - with commendable fidelity, not only to the story itself, but to the author's atmosphere of light comedy. It is marvelously acted by Sandy Denis and Gerald O'Loughlin, and includes an operatic musical score that greatly enhances the feeling of humor and farce which is conveyed by both the dialog and the musical background.
But I suppose it requires a degree of literary and musical taste to fully appreciate such an excellent rendition - something which your "weighted rating" system is apparently incapable of recognizing.
I shall never trust or rely on IMDb's rating system again.
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