Bahama Passage (1941) DVD-R

Starring Madeleine Carroll, Sterling Hayden, Flora Robson, Leo G. Carroll,
Mary Anderson, Cecil Kellaway, Dorothy Dandridge
Directed by Edward H. Griffith

Print: black/white
Runtime: 89 min.
Genre: comedy
Print Quality: B

Bahama Passage is a leisurely bit of Technicolor exotica starring
Madeleine Carroll and her future husband Sterling Hayden. Based on
Nolson Hayes' novel Dildo Cay, the story takes place on a remote
Bahaman island where the principal commodity-in fact, the only—is salt.
The owner of the island is young Adrian (Sterling Hayden), who inherited
Dildo Cay from his family. The stultifying dullness of life on the island has
caused all the wives of Adrian's forebears to eventually descend into
insanity, and it looks as though the same thing might happen to Adrian's
sweetheart Carol (Madeleine Carroll), despite her uncanny ability to look
after herself. While Carol does not go crazy, her presence on the island
proves to be something of a jinx, resulting in dissension amongst the
native population. The most striking aspect of Bahama Passage is the
extremely casual clothing worn by the stars: Why, one would think that
Paramount was trying to get the audience's mind off the film's slower
passages by showing off as much cheesecake and beefcake as possible.