Bahama Passage
Cast & Crew
Edward H. Griffith
Madeleine Carroll
Stirling Hayden
Flora Robson
Leo G. Carroll
Mary Anderson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When his father is found dead in a salt pond, having apparently struck his head on a piece of coral, Adrian Ainsworth is forced to hire an outsider to run the family salt reclamation plant on the isolated island of Dildo Cay in the British West Indies. Adrian's mother, who suffers from a weak heart and mental instability, is fearful that her husband was murdered by the local Bahamians who work for them, and her nerves are greatly calmed when Mr. Delbridge and his daughter Carol arrive to take over the running of the business. Adrian, however, resents the intrusion of strangers, especially as Delbridge insists on total control. His resentment is shared by Morales, Adrian's righthand man and friend, and the other islanders. Delbridge also immediately earns the enmity of the islanders when he strikes Morales after he refuses to give Delbridge the key to the house out of loyalty to the Ainsworths. Carol, a flirtatious sophisticate, is immediately attracted to the blonde and tanned Adrian, but is unaware that he is married because his wife resides in Spanish Harbour. A friendship between Carol and Adrian blossoms only after she learns this truth and Adrian learns that his business is in financial crisis. When Adrian gets a letter that his wife Mary is ill, he goes to Spanish Harbour, accompanied by Carol, who has business there, and discovers Mary in the midst of a love affair. Mary announces her intention to divorce him and insists that living on the barren Dildo Cay is destructive to the emotional well-being of any woman. Influenced by Mrs. Ainsworth's fear of the islanders, who are singing and chanting, Delbridge goes out into the night and fires upon the gathering. Mrs. Ainsworth suffers a fatal heart attack, and upon his return, Adrian learns that she has died and that Delbridge killed an innocent young boy. The islanders kidnap Delbridge and plan to take him to the local police, while Adrian and Carol are left helpless on Dildo Cay. Freed from any previous restrictions, Adrian and Carol fall in love and dream of their future life together. Morales, meanwhile, returns with the islanders and reveals that Delbridge, in fear for his life, jumped overboard before they got to the authorities and is presumed dead. Adrian, fearful that Carol will become like his mother and Mary, refuses to allow her to remain at Dildo Cay and forcibly takes her to Spanish Harbour. There his friend, Captain Jack Risingwell, advises Adrian that it was a lack of love and not Dildo Cay that was destructive to his family. On his return sail to Dildo Cay, Adrian happily discovers that Carol has stowed away in his boat.
Director
Edward H. Griffith
Cast
Madeleine Carroll
Stirling Hayden
Flora Robson
Leo G. Carroll
Mary Anderson
Cecil Kellaway
Leigh Whipper
Dorothy Dandridge
Jeni Legon
Fred Kohler Jr.
Crew
Charles Baquetta
Edmund Bernoudy
Richard A. Blaydon
David Buttolph
Edward Churchill
Wilfrid M. Cline
William Collins
Sam Comer
Allen M. Davey
Hans Dreier
Grace Dubray
Farciot Edouart
Don English
Merle Enz
Robert Farfan
Ernst Fegté
William Forsyth
H. Foster
Ed Froehlich
Curtis Gourlay
Edward H. Griffith
John Gustafson
Earl Hardaway
Norman G. Harris
Edith Head
M. H. Herriott
Newton House
Don Johnson
Natalie Kalmus
Charles Kelly
Stanley Kufel
E. D. Leshin
Harold Lewis
Robert Mccrellis
J. Miller
Dennis Moore
Richard Mueller
Walter Myron
Ralph Nelson
J. O'rourke
Harry Perry
Lee Price
Robert Quick
Lyle Ratican
Lorna Richman
Guy Roe
Robert H. Rogers
William Russell
Leonora Sabine
Steve Seymour
Al Shevling
Fred Sigle
Kenneth Smith
William Snyder
Lavaughn Speer
J. J. Stout
Walter E. Sullivan
Franklyn Thorpe
Leo Tover
Fred True
Virginia Van Upp
Eda Warren
Paul Way
Wally Westmore
Merrill C. White
Stanley Williams
J. E. Williamson
Ken Wylie
Sid Zipser
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film opens with this foreword: "This is the story of the people on Dildo Cay, a lonely wind-swept island of salt in the West Indies. Hard and unyielding as the island itself, bound by generations to a ruthless code of duty, and of what happens when into this loneliness and repression swaggers a girl who has been around." The working title of this film was Dildo Cay, which refers to a native West Indies flowering cactus. A Hollywood Reporter news item indicates that Frank Partos was signed to work on the script, but his contribution to the final film has not been confirmed. According to information in the Paramount Collection at the AMPAS Library and Hollywood Reporter news items, Dorothy Lamour was initially cast in the film, but was replaced by Madeleine Carroll due to scheduling difficulties. Marjorie Main and Fred MacMurray were also considered for lead roles in this film. Other actors scheduled to appear in this film were Anne Grandview and Rona Risotta, a Bahamian dancer; Philip Reed, Eunice May and Charles Breadon were tested for parts. The appearance of these actors in the final film has not been confirmed, however.
The picture was filmed on location in the Bahamas, both at Salt Cay in the Turks Islands and in Nassau. Information in the Paramount Collection reveals that the film cost $937,649 to produce, of which approximately $220,000 were Technicolor costs and $174,000 were location costs. Although reviewers praised the lavish Technicolor photography, comments about the film as a whole were almost unanimously negative. This film marked actor Stirling Hayden's second feature film, and was the second picture in which he and his then wife, Madeleine Carroll, appeared together. Because of reported personal conflict with the motion picture industry and trouble with his marriage, the former sailor enlisted in the Army immediately upon finishing his role as "Adrian" and did not return to films until 1947. Hayden and Carroll divorced in 1946.
