A yacht shows up at a small island where the wahinis are dancing the hula -- in colorful tops, alas. The men are charmed. The ladies are disapproving the the yacht owner falls in love with one of the dancers in this late silent, two-strip Technicolor short from Tiffany.
Tiffany was a poverty Row studio with ambitions. They hired John Stahl and fronted some prestigious stuff, including distributing some two-strip movies, before they crashed and burned in the early 1930s under the stresses of the Depression. This particular short, which turned up in New Zealand, is in very good shape. It was shot by Technicolor's Ray Rennahan to show off the process. There are lots of colorful leis, the ladies all wear clearly differentiated dresses in strikingly different colors, the trees are almost emerald green and the sands are pink: which is actually the point of this production.
As for the story, it is a simple one, credited to Duncan Renaldo, better remembered for playing the Cisco Kid in the movies and on the television. He had ambitions, though: half a dozen screenplays, one turn as director and a few as an associate producer in the late 1940s. The director was a busy actor who directed about thirty movies. This was his last.
Tiffany was a poverty Row studio with ambitions. They hired John Stahl and fronted some prestigious stuff, including distributing some two-strip movies, before they crashed and burned in the early 1930s under the stresses of the Depression. This particular short, which turned up in New Zealand, is in very good shape. It was shot by Technicolor's Ray Rennahan to show off the process. There are lots of colorful leis, the ladies all wear clearly differentiated dresses in strikingly different colors, the trees are almost emerald green and the sands are pink: which is actually the point of this production.
As for the story, it is a simple one, credited to Duncan Renaldo, better remembered for playing the Cisco Kid in the movies and on the television. He had ambitions, though: half a dozen screenplays, one turn as director and a few as an associate producer in the late 1940s. The director was a busy actor who directed about thirty movies. This was his last.