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25 out of 32 people found the following review useful:
Something special for my hundredth contribution, 11 November 2003
Author: John Simpson (post@jandesimpson.wanadoo.co.uk) from Hastings, England

I remember making an occasion of my 50th "user comments" by electing to write about a film that I found rather special, Carol Reed's "The Third Man". I concluded those comments by saying that I would take the opportunity to write about Reed's one remaining great film, "Outcast of the Islands", as my hundredth contribution, so here goes. We had left school by the time "Outcast" appeared so opportunities for quizzes during breaks no longer existed. Instead a group of us would visit the cinema together once a week and when walking home would give each other a slot of about ten minutes in which to extemporise a criticism of what we had just seen. This would certainly have been our "Outcast" game as we devoured everything Reed gave us. He was in fact our God. Although much of his work now seems a little dated and I am not at all sure that "Odd Man Out" or "The Fallen Idol" are quite the masterworks that we thought they were at the time, critical acclaim seems undiminished for "The Third Man". This has never been quite the case with "Outcast" although it found a great devotee in Pauline Kael who described it as "a marvellous film". It is a work that grabs you from the very first shot of a seething mass of natives and even an elephant on a dockside in the Far East and sweeps you forward with its tremendous pace and the director's sheer love of bravura cinema. It doesn't quite conform to any of the conventional genres being hardly an adventure thriller, a romance or a tragedy and yet it has elements of all three. I suppose one would have to call it high melodrama, a film, epic in its detail and scope yet more concerned with integrating its vast gallery of images of local colour into its narrative than bursting into big set-pieces of action. Films about anti-heros have never had great box office success, much less those where the anti-hero is weak through and through. Was it this that doomed Wyler's greatest film "Carrie" to near oblivion and was partly the reason for the neglect of "Outcast of the Islands"? And yet to ignore Trevor Howard's marvellous portrayal of Joseph Conrad's pathetically inadequate Willems would be to pass over one of British cinema's finest performances. And then there is that great actor Ralph Richardson as Captain Lingard whose Achilles heel is the misplaced trust he places in Willems. His portrayal has been seen as over the top by some but I would defend it to the hilt for its quality of Shakespearian declamation that is all part and parcel of Reed's directorial style. So often during his work of this period he shoots his scenes, particularly those between two characters, as if they are taking place on a huge theatrical stage. The shout at each other across large spaces, an effect that gives such scenes tremendous strength and resonance. The final sequence of "Outcast" between Howard and Richardson where they employ this device during the sudden outbreak of a tropical rainstorm is so powerful it has haunted me for years. It is possibly the single greatest scene in all Reed's work. Although he managed to retain his uniquely individual style of cinema throughout the subsequent "The Man Between" and the early part of "A Kid for Two Farthings", he was working with much less interesting scripts. That he ultimately lost even his stylistic fingerprints in later works such as "The Agony and the Ecstasy" and "The Running Man" is one of cinema's greatest tragedies.

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16 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Powerful, but misses the point of the novel, 26 February 2006
8/10
Author: tonstant viewer

This exciting film is well-worth watching. It is visually rich, and the acting is consistently surprising, even from such known quantities as George Coulouris and Wilfred Hyde-White. Trevor Howard shows great emotional flexibility, a quality we don't necessarily associate with him, and Robert Morley twinkles a good deal less than usual. Whether Sir Ralph Richardson looks good throwing a punch is something you'll have to decide for yourself.

However, the camera falls in love with picturesque young boys diving into water, which delays, over-ornaments and distracts from Conrad's austere story-telling.

More importantly, two of the female characters, Mrs. Almayer and Mrs. Willems, are turned from native women into transplanted Englishwomen, leaving Aissa the only native girl involved.

This has the effect of turning the movie into a tract on the horrors of miscegenation, when Conrad's novel is clearly focused on Peter Willems' double betrayal of Tom Lingard. Willems' taking up with a native woman is treated by the film as unique, instead of the usual thing in these climes. It is shown as embodying Willems' personal moral decline, which the book would regard as nonsense.

So if you can find the film, by all means watch it and enjoy its many virtues, but the movie has less to do with one of the great novels then it pretends to.

P.S. TCM now has this film in its library!

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17 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
The Best Film Version of a Joseph Conrad Novel, 22 February 2005
Author: theowinthrop from United States

Carol Reed's "An Outcast Of The Islands" is generally conceded to be the finest film ever made of Joseph Conrad's tales. To be fair "Nostromo", "Under Western Eyes", and "Chance" never have been filmed. Hitchcock's "Sabotage" (based on "The Secret Agent") is a good Hitchcock film, but the story is modernized and changed. The later film version of the novel was politely received and then forgotten. "Victory" was made into a serviceable love and adventure story with Fredric March and Cedric Hardwicke, but the irony and allegory of the story was lost. "Lord Jim" was better recalled for the severe drubbing critics gave it - concluding with a Mad Magazine spoof called "Lord Jump". There is "Apocalypse Now" which is a fine attempt at "Heart of Darkness", but it changes the site of the story from the Belgium Congo of Leopold II to Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. "An Outcast" stuck to the basic story of Willems and his betrayal of Almayer and Captain Lingard for a beautiful native girl. Trevor Howard gave many memorable, delicate performances in his life (best, perhaps, for "Brief Encounter"), but this performance as a man who was poor enough material to begin with but goes to seed is possibly better. The supporting cast is great, with Robert Morley playing his most despicable character, and Ralph Richardson as the decent Lingard. George Coulouris is properly Machiavellian as the sly Babalatchi, and Wendy Hiller is tragic as that human dishrag Mrs. Almayer. The only problem a purist may have is that Willems is killed at the end of the novel accidentally (and quite memorably). Not so in the film. But his punishment of living as a monument to failure and hopelessness may be even more fitting - I leave to the reader/viewer.

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10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
So it's not the Third Man, it's still a great movie, 28 March 2000
Author: (Tom-337) from Baltimore, MD

This movie got short shrift critically, because it followed Carol Reed's three greatest films, "Odd Man Out," "The Fallen Idol," and "The Third Man." It's been a while since I saw it, but if you get a chance and you're a fan of Reed's adventurous filmmaking, check it out. A riveting performance by Trevor Howard -- this, plus his performances in 3rd Man and Brief Encounter show an astonishing range. Robert Morley is wonderful as well.

My most memorable moments that still haunt me years after I saw the film: Morley "singing" a lullaby to his daughter ("Schlaf, kindchen, Schlaf") as Howard approaches in the night -- and said daughter calling "Pig!" after Howard's character later in the same scene. The bonfire, and Morley's torture. And Howard spotting Kerima standing in the water among the posts -- beautiful photography.

An unjustly forgotten film. May it play at a repertory theater near you.

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13 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Offbeat treatment of Joseph Conrad's story has greatness, 6 February 2000
10/10
Author: (nrrex@msn.com) from New York, NY

As art I rate this the single greatest movie I've ever seen. Not for those with a weak stomach. An incredible performance by Robert Morley as a man driven insane by hate. The hatred is directed at Trevor Howard who's inner demons lead him to destruction. This film has a cast of cannibalistic natives who consider murder a recreational sport.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Interesting film, though I was somewhat disappointed, 24 August 2008
6/10
Author: kuciak from United States

I am a big fan of THE THIRD MAN, I think it is one of the seven greatest movies ever made, I liked ODD MAN OUT, and also liked Reeds earlier effort of THE FALLEN IDOL. His latter film, THE KEY, while not being totally successful in my eyes in a good film, and an even better film is OUR MAN IN HAVANA. So I was excited about seeing this film. Perhaps if I was more patient, had seen this in a movie theater as it was meant to be seen, and did not have the benefit of a remote control for a VCR, I would have liked it more.

Everyone has said how great Trevor Howard is. I have also liked him in staring roles like Brief Encounter, Clouded Yellow, but here, even though he has some great moments, more towards the end of the film, I somehow feel he has been miscast. In one of the opening scenes, when he leaves the Billiards club, I felt I was watching Howard Imitating Orson Welles from THE THIRD MAN. if Reed and Welles could have formed a partnership, and that might have actually been from ODD MAN OUT, I think he would have been a better choice, though I'm sure they couldn't get him. One of the problems with his character is, that we realize right from the beginning what a jerk he is, and their fore, we never really care about him. This film would have worked better for me if I would have liked this guy in the beginning. Welle's Harry Lime, was a likable character, even though he was not a good man. Bogarts Harry Dobbs in Treasure Of the Sierra Madre works because we care about him in the beginning, and are sad to see his mental destruction. Howard's character elicits no such feelings, and for me this is one of the major failings of the film, and why this film has not received the accolades of Reed's previous three films.

I found Ralph Richardson's performance hammy, I just could not buy him as a captain, appeared to be a poor makeup job, and since we don't see him much, (He ironically got top billing), he does not appear to be important to this story, even if he gives the final denouncement. I also disliked George Courlouris (did I spell that right) as a native. Since they filmed this in Ceylon, they did not need an actor doing a role in black face.

Robert Morley is excellent in this film however. Those people who have always looked upon him as that jolly Englishmen who did those British Airline commercials, or seen him in other films, will get quite a revelation in this film. He is the one standout in this movie. One can just imagine how his daughter might turn out having a father like this. His character, while perhaps not being the character that Howard's character is, just oozes slime, would you want a father like this, and his acting makes the most of it. Wendy Hiller is alright as the suffering wife of Morely, and they should have made more of what I thought might have been her lust for the Howard character, while Howard's character lusts after the native woman, who, played by an actress named Kerima, who is supposed to have been born in Algeria, almost looks like an English actress given a darker skin tone, though probably not.

Reeds direction at the beginning of this film is unimaginative, I was quite disappointed with the back screen shots that were employed considering the location photography, and I always remember his great cinematography from his other films (Love that tilted camera). However never has lust been filmed so amazingly in an early 1950's movie, (British at that), here Howard is quite good, and the shots of Kerima, our realizing that she does not love this man and may have ulterior motives, in closeup, without Howards knowledge are well done. The last two climactic sequences, with Morely and Howard in a sequence that seems to predate Cornel Wilde's THE NAKED PREY, which probably sent shock waves in cinema's of the early 1950's, and the sequence at the end between Howard and Richardson are two very memorable moments from this film.

If the film comes out on DVD, with some interesting extras, a good audio commentary, I would be interested to see it again, and Hopefully get some further insight that might change my mind. However, of the six movies I have seen of Director Carol Reed, This is my least favorite.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Paging The Criterion Collection, 18 September 2008
8/10
Author: John Seal from Oakland CA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I haven't read the Joseph Conrad novel that forms the basis for this film, but regardless of whether or not it is true to the source material, Outcast of the Islands is a remarkable film and a sterling example of pure cinema. Trevor Howard delivers the greatest of his many fine performances as the morally compromised Willems, who finds himself stranded on a remote Indian Ocean trading outpost. His malign influence soon infects all around him, including fellow English ex-pat Almayer (Robert Morley, also in magnificent form) and crafty local Babalatchi (George Coulouris). Willems finds himself enthralled by native girl Aissa (exotic Algerian-born actress Kerima), the daughter of the local chieftain, but finds his lust turned against him by an Arab trader (Dharma Emmanuel) eager to get a slice of the trading action. William Fairchild's screenplay is erudite, sharply written, and probably went miles over the heads of most 1950s audiences, as it implicitly confronts issues of sex, race, and imperialism at a time when Britain was just beginning to disassemble its Empire. Ted Scaife and John Wilcox share credit for the film's cinematography (it's my guess that one went on location to Sri Lanka whilst the other stayed home to shoot interiors), and their work is frequently stunning, capturing indelible images of tropical life: boats skimming across the water, pounding rainstorms that seem to melt whatever they touch, natives intently and quizzically watching their white guests. But it's Howard's performance that will stay with you, as he transforms from canny con-man to obsessed fool (is it only coincidence that the object of his affection shares the name of H. Rider Haggard's all-powerful She?) to power-mad villain with consummate ease. And I would be remiss not to mention the understated performance of Wendy Hiller as Almayer's charity case wife, and little Annabel Morley's turn as spoiled six-year old Nina--young Annabel seems to have had a great time working with her Daddy! A truly great work of art, Outcast of the Islands is crying out for rediscovery and critical reassessment: I was at turns reminded of films such as Lord of the Flies, Salt of the Earth, Woman in the Dunes, and even Apocalypse Now, all films that came AFTER what is, arguably, director Carol Reed's finest hour. It's essential viewing for anyone who loves the art of movie-making.

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