Main Cast: Jean Simmons, Donald Houston, Susan Stranks, Noel Purcell, James Hayter, Peter Jones, Cyril Cusack
Release Year: 1949
Country: UK
Run Time: 103 minutes
Plot
Henry Devere Stacpoole's lyrical novel The Blue Lagoon was rather chastely filmed in 1921. The 1949 remake is a tad more explicit, though it's hardly as racy as the 1980 Brooke Shields version. Two British children, Emmeline (Susan Stranks) and Michael (Peter Jones), are shipwrecked on a tropical island in the company of kindly old salt Paddy Button (Noel Purcell). Eventually, Paddy dies, leaving Emmeline and Michael, now attractively grown up and played by Jean Simmons and Donald Houston, all alone. Their relationship, more along the lines of brother and sister in their youth, blossoms into love, and then passion. Emmeline has a baby, and the two live as common-law husband and wife, content in their solitude..until.. Filmed in lush Technicolor, The Blue Lagoon was considered fairly exotic and somewhat risque back in 1949, though by current standards the film is a model of decorum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Nora Nicholson - Mrs. Stannard; Maurice Denham - Ship Captain; Philip Stainton - Mr. Ansty; Patrick Barr - Second Mate; Lynn Evans - Trotter; Russell Waters - Craggs; John Boxer - Nick Corbett; Bill Raymond - Marsden; Gladys Boot
The film tells the story of two young children shipwrecked on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Emotional feelings and physical changes arise as they grow to maturity and fall in love. The film has major thematic similarities to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve.
The film was a remake of a black and white silent film shot in the UK in 1923, not long after the publication of the Henry De Vere Stacpoole novel on which it was based. The 1923 version was directed by W. Bowden and Dick Cruickshanks, starring Molly Adair and Dick Cruickshanks.
The evil traders were invented for this film and were not part of the novel.
In the Victorian period, Emmeline Foster (Susan Stranks) and Michael Reynolds (Peter Rudolph Jones), two British children, are the survivors of a shipwreck in the South Pacific. After days afloat, they are marooned on a lush tropical island in the company of kindly old sailor Paddy Button (Noel Purcell). Eventually, Paddy dies, leaving Emmeline (Jean Simmons) and Michael (Donald Houston), now attractively grown up, all alone with each other. Together, they survive solely on their resourcefulness, and the bounty of their remote paradise.
Years pass and both Emmeline and Michael become nubile young adults, tanned to a flawless bronze, and fitter than Olympic gymnasts. Eventually, their raging hormones lead the two young castaways into each other's arms. Their relationship, more along the lines of brother and sister in their youth, blossoms into love, and then passion. Emmeline and Michael have their baby boy, and they live together as common-law husband and wife, content in their solitude. But their marriage is threatened by the arrival of two evil traders, who force the boy to dive for pearls at gunpoint, before killing each other off.
The film was remade in 1980 starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. The updated version of The Blue Lagoon, directed by Randal Kleiser, was much closer to Henry DeVere Stacpoole's original novel, including nudity and sexual content appropriate to the story but not found in this original cinematic adaptation.
The updated version was followed in 1991 by the sequel Return to the Blue Lagoon, starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause. The sequel bears a strong similarity to the 1980 film, also directed by Randal Kleiser. It bears very little resemblance to Stacpoole's sequel, The Garden of God. The pearl-greedy traders do not appear in Stacpoole's original novel. However, in the second sequel, The Gates of Morning, a pair of sailors attack the people of a nearby island because they know its waters are rich with pearls, and it is possible the filmmakers used this.
References
^Jean Simmons Goes Native, cover story , Illustrated magazine 15 January 1949
