ISLE OF DESTINY (1940) William Gargan, Wallace Ford & June Lang | Comedy | Adventure | B&W

Isle of Destiny (aka Trouble Over the Pacific) is a 1940 American comedy adventure film set in the South Seas. The film was directed by Elmer Clifton and originally produced by Franklyn Warner for Grand National Pictures in 1939. Isle of Destiny was the only feature film filmed in the Cosmocolor process with prints by Cinecolor. Isle of Destiny stars William Gargan, Wallace Ford, June Lang and Gilbert Roland.

SYNOPSIS
"Isle of Destiny" is a 1940 adventure film directed by Elmer Clifton. The story follows a society glamor girl and aviatrix who diverts her around-the-world flight to visit her brother, a Marine lieutenant, stationed on a Pacific island. She becomes ensnared in a local smuggler's gun-running operation, leading to her crash on another island. Two Marines rush to rescue her, while the smuggler's jealous native wife tries to kill her with poison darts.

CAST & CREW
William Gargan as "Stripes" Thornton
Wallace Ford as "Milly" Barnes
June Lang as Virginia Allerton
Gilbert Roland as Barton
Katherine DeMille as Inda
Grant Richards as Lieutenant Allerton
Eddie Bruce as Radio Operator

Directed by: Elmer Clifton
Written by: Allan Vaughan Elston (story), Arthur Hoerl (screenplay), Robert Lively (screenplay), M. Coates Webster (screenplay)
Produced by: Franklyn Warner
Cinematography: Edward Linden
Edited by: Robert O. Crandall
Music by: C. Bakaleinikoff
Production Companies: Franklyn Warner Productions, Fine Arts Pictures
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures
Release Date: March 8, 1940
Running Time: 95 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English

NOTES
The working title for the film was "Trouble over the Pacific," with principal photography beginning in 1939 on Santa Catalina Island, California. Produced by Franklyn Warner originally for Grand National Pictures, the film's production encountered a setback when Grand National went bankrupt in late 1939. Consequently, RKO acquired the distribution rights to the film.

Karen Morley was initially cast as Virginia but had to leave the project due to illness and was replaced by June Lang. Filming included a two-week period on location in Catalina, California, from May 24 to late September 1939. At the time, "Isle of Destiny" had the largest budget of any Fine Arts picture to date and introduced Cosmocolor to feature films.

Aviation film historian Christian Santoir compared the film's scenario to the real-life tragedy of Amelia Earhart, who was lost in the South Pacific. The aviation elements in the film featured a Sikorsky S-39-CS Special and a Stearman C3R aircraft for the "air race."

B.R. Crisler, in his review for The New York Times, noted, "The authors of the Rialto's current excursion in melodrama, 'Isle of Destiny,' certainly deserve to be commended for their resourcefulness, if for nothing else, because they have succeeded in cramming into one feature-length picture practically all of the tricks known to the adventure story. In fact, the writers seem to have been so impressed by the plethora of material that they didn't pay much attention to continuity. As a result, the film becomes somewhat entangled at times in its own plot manipulations."

Film historians Richard Jewell and Vernon Harbin, in "The RKO Story" (1982), considered "Isle of Destiny" to exhibit "laughable exoticism" with a "wretched screenplay," "frenzied direction," and "inept performances by the lead actors."