Product Details

• Actors: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, George Sanders, Frances Farmer, Roddy McDowall
• Directors: John Cromwell
• Writers: Edison Marshall, Philip Dunne
• Producers: Darryl F. Zanuck, William Perlberg
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303095186
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,841 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Tyrone Power was on a hot streak at Fox from the late 1930s through the start of WWII, and 1942's Son of Fury catches him in full adventure-hero mode. The story is a typical costume potboiler with one atypical South Seas interlude. Power plays Benjamin Blake, illegitimate son of an aristocrat, raised by his knave of an uncle (George Sanders--commence hissing) as a lowly, humiliated servant. Ben romances a high-class lady (Frances Farmer) and then flees to the South Pacific, where a revenge plan is formed and a fortune in pearls awaits. Seadog John Carradine leads Ben to a remote atoll, and Gene Tierney is a sultry island maiden (do you love this movie yet?) who understands that at some point Blake must return to England to settle his affairs.

Director John Cromwell was deft at putting this kind of thing over (he'd made the splendid Prisoner of Zenda five years earlier) and the violence, especially coming from Sanders' blackguard, is unusually tough. The tasty supporting cast includes Elsa Lanchester, Dudley Digges, and young Roddy McDowall, who plays Ben as a boy. Alfred Newman has fun with the score, which includes a well-nigh irresistible Polynesian-flavored love theme. Power is his usual straightforward self, still at his physical prime; he and Tierney are about as pretty a couple as you could imagine stranded on a lost island--the island of escapism. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Polynesia, Pearls, and Tierney, April 24, 2005

By 

Bobby Underwood "starlighthotel" (Manly NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Son of Fury [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Tyrone Power gives one of his most entertaining performances in this terrific and exciting story. This one is grand adventure and has all the elements that make films in this genre fun to watch. If this film doesn't make you feel good, I suggest you check for a pulse!

Power is Benjamin, whose rightful place as Duke is suppressed by his slimy uncle, Sir Arthur Blake. George Sanders portrays the gent we love to hate with as much aplomb as Power portrays the dashing and youthful hero in this most delightful and robust of adventure films.

Removed from his grandfather's care as a young boy, Ben grows into manhood under the harsh abuse of Arthur, all the while dreaming of adventure, and revenge. A romance with his uncle's daughter Isabel results in a brutal beating that prompts his escape by ship. Elsa Lanchester has a nice part as Bristol, the kind soul who doesn't belong in Ben's world but helps him get his passage to freedom.

Ben and his mate Caleb (John Carradine) decide to jump ship and swim to shore in beautiful Polynesia, where they discover treasure. One is in the form of pearls and the other is the gorgeous beauty of Gene Tierney, as native girl Eve. The second treasure may be the more valuable in the end, as Ben quite naturally falls in love with her without realizing it.

A youthful Gene Tierney was just coming into her own at Fox and has perhaps never been so gloriously photographed as in Son of Fury. Maybe it's the island outfits or the South Sea sun, but it is hard to remember a film in which she was more breathtaking. She is like a dream come true in this film.

But Ben's dreams are haunted by what has been done to him and he returns to claim his rightful place, only to be betrayed by Isabel (Frances Farmer) before a document surfaces that changes everything. All will not be set right, of course, until Ben deals with Arthur! But what about the waiting island girl Eve?

This lush swashbuckler is a perfect feel good movie for a Saturday morning in bed. This was Tyrone Power at his best, Sanders at his delicious worst, and Gene Tierney at her most beautiful. You can't help but enjoy this film, so you may as well not try.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining action romp of the old school., September 28, 2001

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: Son of Fury [VHS] (VHS Tape)

'Son of fury' comes from a period in Tyrone Power's career just as he was beginning to explore the darker side of his bland romantic image. Here he plays a man consumed by vengeance, incestuous desire and envy: the illegitimate son of a peer and a working class woman, he is snatched as a child from his loving maternal grandfather by a dastardly uncle (George Sanders in fabulously, louchely vile form) terrified the young fellow will usurp his title, who makes him a stable boy. In a remarkably brutal story, he is subjected to vicious bouts of violence, grimly biding his time before he can escape to the New World, make his fortune and return to claim his title.

the film, which plays like 'Les Miserables' rewritten by Robert Louis Stevenson, is neatly divided into three parts. The first and third are the kind of perverse Georgian/Regency melodramas the British studio Gainsborough were popularising at the same time: vicious, charming aristocratic cads horsewhipping their inferiors; lusty servants violently seducing their swooning mistresses; priapic young bucks fleeing the police and a monstrously unjust legal system; teeming lower class streets, with dingy pubs and tarts with huge souls.

The transition from prurient Britain to puritan America leaves this model surprisingly intact: Power's masochistic submission to beatings and scarrings have an immense charge. The cultural detail isn't as precise as a British film would be - there isn't the sense of a teeming 18th century England - but this gives a clarity to Power's terrible quest, and the set-design, especially in the interiors staging the masculine squabbles, are spare and beautiful.

Being an American film, the corruption of European 'civilisation', with its vice-ridden aristocracy and arbitrary legal tyranny, where a brave, bright and able young man is spiritually deformed by outmoded social rules, is contrasted with the primitive, though equally hierarchical idyll of Polynesia. This middle section, calm between the English storms, suffers in comparison with the surrounding, full-blooded action - and Power is made wear some ridiculous togs - but allows director Cromwell insert some subtle irony: Power tries to escape decadent Europe, but he imports its defining characteristics (language, religion, industry etc.). How long will the untainted idyll survive? Conversely, the vision of Britain on the verge of its great Empire is almost left-wing!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tyrone Power in Swashbuckling South Seas Adventure, April 29, 2004

By 

Simon Davis (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Son of Fury [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Son of Fury", would certainly never be the first film that automatically comes to mind when Tyrone Power's films are discussed in any detail. Thoughts always seem to jump straightaway to classic efforts such as "The Mark of Zorro", and "In Old Chicago". However this film has always been a favourite of mine and makes for highly entertaining viewing from Hollywood's golden years. It displays Tyrone Power at the peak of his prewar stardom with his famous good looks shown off to great advantage in the period settings and in a tale of high adventure that suited him so well. Considered one of Hollywood's best looking leading men this films strange lack of colour photography (due to wartime restrictions on studios use of expensive colour film) actually seems to enhance his appeal as the wronged young man anxious to reclaim his birthright. "Son of Fury" is also significant for its two leading ladies in Frances Farmer, the tragic actress who led a horrific post Hollywood existence, and in it being the first teaming of Power with rising young beauty Gene Tierney. The two would be frequent costars in the succeeding years, most significantly in the classic "The Razor's Edge".

Twentieth Century Fox planned "Son of Fury", based on the sprawling novel by Edison Marshall titled "Benjamin Blake", as one of their biggest productions for 1942 and it kicked off Tyrone Power's last full year of film work before going into the armed services. The story begins with young Benjamin (Roddy McDowell playing Tyrone Power as a child and amusingly billed in the credits as "Master Roddy McDowall") who is the rightful heir to his late father's dukedom which has been usurped by his corrupt uncle Sir Arthur Blake (George Sanders). Sir Arthur manages to take the boy from his loving maternal grandfather Amos Kidder (Henry Davenport) and puts him to work in the estate stables as a bonded servant where he is mistreated and underfed. Ben grows up a defiant young man with a strong will to one day rectify the great wrong done to him and along the way begins an affair with Sir Arthur's daughter the haughty but beautiful Isabel (Frances Farmer). When Sir Arthur, who is a champion boxer discovers the affair he thrashes Ben within an inch of his life and soon escape from this existence seems the only option. Ben plans his escape and with the help of a kindly young prostitute Isabel (Elsa Lanchester),manages to get away on board an Indies bound ship as a stowaway. Discovered he is put to work as a deckhand where he forms a friendship with fellow adventurer Caleb Green (John Carradine).The two plan to make their fortunes in the Spice Islands and both jump ship and swim ashore where after time they begin to live amicably with the natives. Ben and Caleb begin harvesting the rich desposits of pearls and Ben falls in love with beautiful Island Girl Eve (Gene Tierney). However when the opportunity to return to England with their fortune comes Caleb decides to stay and Ben travels back alone. Once in England he hires a barrister to help fight his claim for his stolen title. Still labelled a runaway bonded servant Ben finds himself betrayed by Isabel and hunted and it is only when a marriage certificate does surface that proves his full right to his title that a settlement is made in his favour. Realising he still loves Eve however Ben leaves the estate to the loyal workers and travels back to his South Seas paradise to be reunited with her Eve.

"Son of Fury", would have to be labelled as a perfect romance story with its exotic locales and fine period feel. Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney make a handsome pair of screen lovers and there was rarely anyone better than Tyrone Power in playing these very romantic types of male lead characters. In "Son of Fury",he does however get to display some deeper elements to his character as young Ben is not simply a loving man but is a tormented individual consumed by a need for retribution and in obtaining his proper family name. Power is ideally cast and he is aided by a very lively story that showcases his often underestimated talents to perfection. He is aided by frequent Power costar George Sanders playing to perfection the evil and conniving villian of the piece which he did so well in countless films in this period. Frances Farmer's name nowadays always arouses curiosity due to the film biography of her tragic life in "Frances", starring Jessica Lange and she does well as the cool and beautiful but ultimately untrustworthy lover of Ben. John Carradine who probably worked more frequently than anyone with Tyrone Power also does great work as Ben's shipboard pal who ultimately realises where the "real treasure", in life lies when he reaches the South Seas. Directed with spirited pace by John Cromwell, he keeps the story moving right from the start and the film never drags. The beautiful black and white photography for the English scenes which then takes on Sepia tones for the exotic South Sea sequences was executed by gifted Fox cinematographer Arthur Miller. His work really enhances the overall look of the production.

For old fashioned adventure full of excitment, romance, beautiful leading ladies and dashing lead characters fighting corruption in a unfair world then "Son of Fury", makes ideal viewing. It really was part of the last crop of big swashbuckling films produced before America went fully into World War Two and teamed with Tyrone Power's other pirate epic that year "The Black Swan", was a fitting farewell to these lavish star vehicles that really were a product of Hollywood's golden age in the 1930's. Enjoy dashing Tyrone Power looking for romance and revenge on the high seas in Twentieth century Fox's "Son of Fury".