Isle of Destiny
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Elmer Clifton
William Gargan
Wallace Ford
June Lang
Gilbert Roland
Etienne Girardot
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
"The Lady Bird," a plane piloted by heiress Virgina Allerton, is testing a new supercharger. While the plane is tossed by a tropical storm, ships in the area are alerted to its possible distress. Most distressed of all is Virginia's brother, Lt. George Allerton, of the Company M52nd Regiment U.S.M.C., who is on the South Sea island of Palo Pango. On the steamship Albotros , Captain N. Lawson and Oliver Barton argue over the illegal shipment of guns that the boat is about to take on. Max Raft, the supercharger's inventor, who is flying with Virginia, fixes the "Lady Bird's" radio and the plane heads for Palo Pango. There, the plane is met by two Marine buddies, "Stripes" Thornton and "Milly" Barnes. Barton, a trading post proprietor as well as gunrunner, schemes with his assistant, "Doc" Spriggs, an old gentlemen who believes he knows all his past lives, about using Virgina as a cover for their gunrunning. Barton invites Virgina to stay at his home in Palo Pango, then challenges her to a race to Guam for $5,000. Before the night is over, however, both Stripes and Milly have fallen for Virgina, and she for one of them. During the race, Barton takes a short cut over the island and Virgina follows in her own plane, though she was warned not to because of the danger of the jungle below. Barton fakes crashing his plane, and when Virgina lands to rescue him, she damages her plane and is forced ashore. Virgina and Max become the guests of Barton and his native wife Inda, who becomes immediately jealous of Virgina. Max refuses to believe that all Barton's radios are broken and finds evidence of Barton's gunrunning in Barton's plane. A fight breaks out between the two men, and as Max is about to strike Barton with a log, Inda kills Max with a poison dart. Barton flies back to Palo Pango, telling all he had engine trouble and has no idea where Virgina is. Stripes, finding a poison dart stuck into Barton's plane, knows better, and he and Milly decide to follow Barton as he joins the search party. Stripes, who stows away on Barton's plane, radios his position back to the base and finds Virgina in Barton's hut. Inda, seeing Stripes with Virgina, tells her husband, whose men surround the hut. Barton goes in the hut alone, only to be captured by Stripes. Realizing their only chance for escape is Barton's plane, Stripes and Virgina hold Barton hostage and make their way to the plane. When the plane won't start, however, Barton escapes. As Stripes and Barton's men shoot it out, Milly, captured earlier by Barton's men, escapes and joins the battle. When Inda sees Barton trying to sneak off with Virgina, she kills him with a poison dart just as Lt. Allerton and the Marines arrive. Back at the base, Stripes and Virgina ask permission to fly to Honolulu together, but her brother refuses the request. They do fly off together, and Milly calls on the radio asking for Virgina's phone number, but now that she and Stripes are married, he is told that neither will be giving out or receiving any numbers.
Director
Elmer Clifton
Cast
William Gargan
Wallace Ford
June Lang
Gilbert Roland
Etienne Girardot
Katherine Demille
Grant Richards
Tom Dugan
Harry Woods
Ted Osborne
Crew
Constantin Bakaleinikoff
J. Sam Berkowitz
Irving Bibo
Wm. Bridgehouse
Eddie Cherkose
David Chudnow
Robert Crandall
Samuel Diege
Allan Vaughan Elston
Arthur Hoerl
Alfred Hustwick
Edward Linden
Robert Lively
Fred Preble
John Rawlins
Franklyn Warner
Herman Webber
M. Coates Webster
Wm. Wilmarth
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title for this film was Trouble over the Pacific. Karen Morley was originally cast in the role of Virgina, but was forced to leave the film due to illness and was replaced by June Lang. There was a two-week shooting period on location in Catalina, California. At the time of its production, it had the biggest budget of any Fine Arts picture to date and marked the introduction of Cosmocolor to feature films.
