Fair Wind to Java (1953)

Fred MacMurray, Vera Ralston, Robert Douglas, Victor McLaglen, John Russell ... see more  , Buddy Baer , Claude Jarman Jr. , Grant Withers , Howard Petrie , Paul Fix , William Murphy , Sujata , Philip Ahn , Stephen Bekassy , Virginia Brissac , Howard Chuman , John Halloran , Chuck Hayward , Al Kikume , Keye Luke , Vera Miles , Richard Reeves , Blackie Whiteford

Republic Pictures' notion of an "epic", Fair Wind to Java manages to pack in enough entertainment value to send the adventure fans home happy. Tough South Seas skipper Fred MacMurray goes hunting for ... read more pearls on a forbidden Javanese island. Native girl Vera Ralston (never mind her Czech accent) falls in love with MacMurray and defies local laws to help him. She is punished by the island rulers, compelling MacMurray to spirit both Vera and the pearls off the island. As they make a last desperate attempt to escape, a lava-spewing volcano threatens to destroy the island. While the shipboard scenes in Fair Wind to Java are as shoddy as a high school production of Pirates of Penzance, the climactic volcanic eruption is masterfully staged by miniature experts Howard Lydecker and Theodore Lydecker. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi