By Richard Harland Smith
Hell Harbor
Brief Synopsis
A pirate's descendent tries to force his daughter into a marriage for money.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Henry King
Director
Lupe Velez
Anita
Jean Hersholt
Joseph Horngold
John Holland
Bob Wade
Gibson Gowland
Harry Morgan
Al St. John
Bunion
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Adventure
Romance
Release Date
Mar
15,
1930
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Inspiration Pictures
Distribution Company
United Artists
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Out of the Night by Rida Johnson Young (New York, 1925).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 33m
Sound
Mono (RCA Photophone System)
Color
Black and White
Film Length
8,354ft
(10 reels)
Synopsis
Anita, the daughter of a descendant of Morgan, the pirate, lives with her unscrupulous father, Harry, on a Caribbean island. Joseph Horngold, a pearl trader, seeing Morgan kill a stranger in the island honky-tonk, bargains with him, proposing that he marry Anita as the price for his silence; but the strong-willed Anita refuses to submit to her father's demands. She tells Bob Wade, an American trader, of her father's plans and warns him of her father and Joseph's treachery; consequently, he agrees to protect her. Anita steals Joseph's pearls; and when he accuses Morgan of the theft, Morgan kills the trader and menaces the girl with a similar fate. Learning of her peril, Wade comes to her aid and charges Morgan with the murder. Ultimately, Wade and Anita are happily reunited.
Director
Henry King
Director
Cast
Lupe Velez
Anita
Jean Hersholt
Joseph Horngold
John Holland
Bob Wade
Gibson Gowland
Harry Morgan
Al St. John
Bunion
Harry Allen
Peg-Leg
Paul E. Burns
Blinkey
George Book-asta
Spotty
Rondo Hatton
Dancehall proprietor
Habanera Sextette
Crew
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Adventure
Romance
Release Date
Mar
15,
1930
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Inspiration Pictures
Distribution Company
United Artists
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Out of the Night by Rida Johnson Young (New York, 1925).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 33m
Sound
Mono (RCA Photophone System)
Color
Black and White
Film Length
8,354ft
(10 reels)
Articles
Hell Harbor
Before his name became synonymous in Hollywood with humanitarian ideals, actor Jean Hersholt played his fair share of villains in such pictures as Erich von Stroheim's Greed (1924), Charles Brabin's The Beast of the City (1932), and this early sound film, based on Rida Johnson Young's 1925 novel Out of the Night. In Henry King's Hell Harbor (1930), Hersholt plays a South Seas scoundrel who blackmails a namesake descendant (Gibson Gowland) of the dread 17th Century pirate Henry Morgan and accepts as payment the promise of the man's alluring daughter (future "Mexican Spitfire" Lupe Velez). Produced by the independent Inspiration Pictures, Hell Harbor was shot on location on Tampa, Florida's Rocky Point peninsula, where a complete island village was fabricated and area residents drafted as film extras. Among these was a local newspaper reporter and publicist assigned to cover the film shoot. Henry King was so taken by the odd-looking Rondo Hatton that he convinced the fellow to try his luck in Hollywood. Victim of the glandular disease acromegaly, which distorts the size of internal organs, extremities, and facial features, Hatton took King's advice and traveled west to become Hollywood's "Monster Without Makeup," his gargoyle-like countenance adding value to such shockers as House of Horrors (1946) and The Brute Man (1946), as well as to such prestige pictures as In Old Chicago (1937), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Hell Harbor
Before his name became synonymous in Hollywood with humanitarian ideals, actor Jean Hersholt played his fair share of villains in such pictures as Erich von Stroheim's Greed (1924), Charles Brabin's The Beast of the City (1932), and this early sound film, based on Rida Johnson Young's 1925 novel Out of the Night. In Henry King's Hell Harbor (1930), Hersholt plays a South Seas scoundrel who blackmails a namesake descendant (Gibson Gowland) of the dread 17th Century pirate Henry Morgan and accepts as payment the promise of the man's alluring daughter (future "Mexican Spitfire" Lupe Velez). Produced by the independent Inspiration Pictures, Hell Harbor was shot on location on Tampa, Florida's Rocky Point peninsula, where a complete island village was fabricated and area residents drafted as film extras. Among these was a local newspaper reporter and publicist assigned to cover the film shoot. Henry King was so taken by the odd-looking Rondo Hatton that he convinced the fellow to try his luck in Hollywood. Victim of the glandular disease acromegaly, which distorts the size of internal organs, extremities, and facial features, Hatton took King's advice and traveled west to become Hollywood's "Monster Without Makeup," his gargoyle-like countenance adding value to such shockers as House of Horrors (1946) and The Brute Man (1946), as well as to such prestige pictures as In Old Chicago (1937), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Photographed on locations near Tampa, Florida.
