Customer Reviews

Island of Desire aka: Saturday Island

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

VCI Entertainment presents "ISLAND OF DESIRE (aka: Saturday Island)" (4 August 1952) (93 min/Color) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Good print and quality sound with breathtaking outdoor locations with this unusual plot and story --- Linda Darnell playing a Canadian Nurse, beautiful and sexy as ever --- Tab Hunter playing a US Marine who is stranded with Darnell during wartime on a Desert Island and love is in the air --- Donald Gray is shot down and enters the picture while Darnell tries to save him, while falling in love with him and throwing over Hunter for Gray --- Gray's acting gives the film more substance than it would have without him --- The film still holds up well and the cinematography is another character in the film --- Highly recommend this to one to all, especially when it was released in the early '50s, when the league of decency's was thriving and Darnell is very skimpy in her wardrobe.

BIOS:
1. Linda Darnell
Date of Birth: 16 October 1923 - Dallas, Texas
Date of Death: 10 April 1965 - Glenview, Illinois

2. Tab Hunter (aka: Arthur Andrew Kelm)
Date of Birth: 11 July 1931 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: Still Living

3. Donald Gray
Date of Birth: 3 March 1914 - Tidburys Toll, Fort Beaufort, Cape Province, South Africa
Date of Death: 7 April 1978 - South Africa

4. Stuart Heisler (Director)
Date of Birth: 5 December 1896 - Los Angeles, California
Date of Death: 21 August 1979 - San Diego, California

SPECIAL BONUS FEATURES
TRAILERS:
ISLAND OF DESIRE (1952)
SUMMER STORM (1944) - Linda Darnell, George Sanders & Edward Everette Horton
ACTORS & SIN (1952) - Edward G. Robinson, Eddie Albert, Marsha Hunt, Alan Reed, Dan O'Herlihy,

Total Time: 93 min on DVD ~ VCI Entertainment #603 ~ (1/26/2010)

Linda Darnell and Tab Hunter play two survivors of a ship that sinks in the ocean and wind up on a deserted island together.

Linda Darnell is beautiful,as usual, in this movie and it was Tab Hundter's first movie and he does very well. Acting of all of the three main characters is very well played and the scenes of love between Linda & Tab and the subsequent triangle when a downed pilot lands on the island, are all done tastefully unlike today's movies.

The resolution and color are beautiful and the sound is very good too. It is a nice wholesome movie and can be watched by the entire family and it has a nice ending.

The only thing in the movie that I questioned was Tab Hunter's character's ability to build so many huts in so little time and Linda making beautiful outfits, one dyed red, from a loon and threads made from within the bark of some native plants. But, it isn't distracting and makes for a nice story.

I highly recommend the purchase of this movie. It is certainly worth the cost which is not expensive.

I received the disk well packaged and in a short period after ordering it. I am glad that this movie was so greatly copied on to a dvd. I am in my sixties and had never seen it before even though, when I was young, my parents, who were movie buffs, took my sisters and me to most movies that played in the late forties & fifties until we were old enough to go on our own.

Buy it if you liked the late Linda Darnell or like Tab Hunter and you won't be sorry. It is a nice relaxing movie that is not dull or boring and moves along at a nice pace.

As indicated in the title of my review-this is a cut version of the film. Nine to ten minutes of the film are missing.Island of Desire aka: Saturday Island

As a child when seeing this 'desert island' film on B&W TV, I could only dream of having that experience, myself. I've waited many years for the current grade A DVD transfer, and it is finally here, thanks to KIT-PARKER-FILMS and VCI Entertainment distributor. Linda Darnell was a beautiful TX gal, and having met her sister, Undine, I mentioned this film as a favorite. Ron Davis wrote a terrific biography of Linda, a most desireable woman who wouldn't play the Hollywood casting couch game, so her career was made to suffer. She still triumphed over the studio heads showing her grit before her tragic end as a fire victim. As for Tab Hunter, a dreamboat blond Adonis of that or any era, who went on to become a mature and handsome man with much improved acting skills well-exhibited soon after in "Battle Cry" and a few years later in "Damn Yankees" is the perfect protagonist for this, his first film. Mr. Hunter (his Studio name), whom I met in Hollywood, remains a classy gentleman who learned and got much out of life, as displayed in his autobiography. He is perhaps one of the most genuine people Hollywood ever produced. The new transfer reveals a beautifull Technicolor film, though a more innocent Hollywood product than the overstuffed, overproduced, pretentious fantasy film products of today. Perhaps that, along with it's stars, recommends the film more than anything else. Donald Gray, the one-armed actor who played Mark Saber, P.I. on British TV, plays a downed pilot on this "Island of Desire" aka "Saturday Island" who creates the third party in this eternal love triangle. I thank David Rose for producing, Stuart Heisler for directing and Stephanie Nordli for scripting the original film.

I have read about Tab Hunter's first feature film. I assume it is in the public domain and the DVD I purchased needed to be restored. I guess because of the terrible acting, they didn't want to spend money cleaning it up? A few scenes the words are scrambled. From a small company that puts public domain features on DVD.

Seen this movie once and the picture quality was just horrible. I'm sure this DVD release has been cleaned up,and will have a good quality picture. Linda Darnell is stunning in this movie.I hope more of her films find a home on DVD. This lovely lady deserves to be remembered.