By Violet LeVoit
Red Morning
Brief Synopsis
A ship captain's daughter fights to survive a mutiny and hostile islanders.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Wallace Fox
Director
Steffi Duna
Kara Perava
Regis Toomey
John Hastings
Raymond Hatton
Hawker
Mitchell Lewis
Captain Perava
Charles Middleton
Stanchon
Film Details
Also Known As
Girl of the Islands, Kara, the Sea Girl, Sea Girl
Genre
Adventure
Release Date
Dec
14,
1934
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Location
Santa Catalina Island, California, United States; New Guinea
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 6m
Film Length
7 reels
Synopsis
In British New Guinea, veteran seaman and freighter owner Captain Perava prepares for his next voyage, while his daughter Kara discusses marriage plans with insurance agent John Hastings. Although she loves John deeply, Kara delays their wedding in order to accompany her father as second mate on his upcoming trip. Shortly after their departure, Hawker, the first mate, scuttles the freighter, knocks out the captain, kills the cook, and escapes with the rest of the crew in a lifeboat. After discovering that the cargo they were hired to carry is worthless sand, Kara and the captain row to the shore of an island populated by superstitious "headhunting" tribesmen. With the help of a medical kit, Kara and the captain save the life of Mao, the chief's snake-bitten son, and ingratiate themselves with the otherwise hostile natives. Meanwhile, in New Guinea, Hawker reports to John's company, which had insured the dummy cargo, that the freighter sank with Kara and her father still on board. Back on the island, the captain falls ill with fever and dies, and Kara leaves the affectionate Mao in her rowboat. Unknown to Kara, John has hired seaman Sakki to sail him to the area of the shipwreck. After being told by a Scottish freighter captain that Kara's ship is still afloat on a nearby reef, John heads eagerly for the site but is captured by a violent island tribe. Eventually, Kara, who has found Sakki anchored at sea, uses explosives to scare the tribesmen and rescue John. In New Guinea, the Scottish captain unwittingly alerts Stanchon and Glibb, the insurance swindlers, to John's activities. With Hawker, the swindlers then steal Sakki's boat to find and blow up the freighter before John reports their crime. Aided by Mao and his tribesmen, Kara and John capture the swindlers, just as Hawker is killed by his own explosives.
Director
Wallace Fox
Director
Cast
Steffi Duna
Kara Perava
Regis Toomey
John Hastings
Raymond Hatton
Hawker
Mitchell Lewis
Captain Perava
Charles Middleton
Stanchon
George Lewis
Mao
Francis Mcdonald
Sakki
Arthur "pat" West
Glibb
Brandon Hurst
Magistrate
Willie Fung
Cook
Olaf Hytten
Alphonz Ethier
Lionel Belmore
James Marcus
Crew
Ted Cheesman
Editing
Al Colombo
Music Director
George Dromgold
Background Photographer
George Dromgold
Tech Director
Wallace Fox
[Wrt] by
Al Herman
Art Director
Ray Lissner
Assistant Director
Gouverneur Morris
Story
Van Nest Polglase
Art Director
Cliff Reid
Associate Producer
James B. Shackelford
Background Photographer
John Twist
[Wrt] by
Vernon Walker
Photography Effects
Harold Wenstrom
Photography
Earl A. Woolcott
Recording
Film Details
Also Known As
Girl of the Islands, Kara, the Sea Girl, Sea Girl
Genre
Adventure
Release Date
Dec
14,
1934
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Location
Santa Catalina Island, California, United States; New Guinea
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 6m
Film Length
7 reels
Articles
Red Morning -
When plans were shuttled for a Merian C. Cooper "adventure epic" that had already started location shooting in New Guinea, executives at RKO put their heads together - or rather, the unused footage and Steffi Duna together, since they felt their newly acquired starlet wasn't doing enough to justify her contract. (The Hungarian born starlet was plenty busy perfecting her English.) The new movie, patched together by writers John Twist and Wallace Fox (the latter also serving as director), centers around the seafaring Kara (Duna), a shipcaptain's daughter who loves sailing so much she postpones her wedding to John Hastings (Regis Toomey) in favor of one last voyage with dad Captain Perava (Mitchell Lewis). But when they're betrayed by the mutinous first mate Hawker (Raymond Hatton), will they be able to survive on an island populated with shrunken-head-hungry natives? The movie poster makes much of Duna's islandside wardrobe of sarong and beads, but Duna emerged unscathed to appear in much fancier duds in the following year's One New York Night (1935).
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Red Morning -
When plans were shuttled for a Merian C. Cooper "adventure epic" that had already started location shooting in New Guinea, executives at RKO put their heads together - or rather, the unused footage and Steffi Duna together, since they felt their newly acquired starlet wasn't doing enough to justify her contract. (The Hungarian born starlet was plenty busy perfecting her English.) The new movie, patched together by writers John Twist and Wallace Fox (the latter also serving as director), centers around the seafaring Kara (Duna), a shipcaptain's daughter who loves sailing so much she postpones her wedding to John Hastings (Regis Toomey) in favor of one last voyage with dad Captain Perava (Mitchell Lewis). But when they're betrayed by the mutinous first mate Hawker (Raymond Hatton), will they be able to survive on an island populated with shrunken-head-hungry natives? The movie poster makes much of Duna's islandside wardrobe of sarong and beads, but Duna emerged unscathed to appear in much fancier duds in the following year's One New York Night (1935).
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were Sea Girl, Kara, Kara, the Sea Girl and Girl of the Islands. An early pre-production Hollywood Reporter news item announced that producer Cliff Reid was replacing Shirley Burden as supervisor of the production. According to a Daily Variety news item, Dolores Del Rio was originally slated to star in the film, but left the production to perform in a Warner Bros.' version of Madame Bovary. (The film was never made, however.) Motion Picture Herald's "The Cutting Room" includes Willie Best and Ray West in the cast, but their participation in the final film has not been confirmed. According to news items, exteriors were shot on Santa Catalina Island and were filmed to match background footage taken in New Guinea in 1932 and 1933 by George Dromgold and James B. Shackelford. The background footage, which reportedly featured twenty-three island tribes, was filmed for an independent venture that never was completed. According to modern sources, the footage was part of an unfinished Merian C. Cooper project.
