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Fair Wind to Java

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Fair Wind to Java
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoseph Kane
Written byGarland Roark (novel)
Screenplay byRichard Tregaskis
Produced byJoseph Kane
StarringFred MacMurray
Vera Ralston
CinematographyJack Marta
Edited byRichard L. Van Enger
Music byVictor Young
Production
company
Republic Pictures
Distributed byRepublic Pictures
Release date
  • April 28, 1953 (1953-04-28) (United States)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million[1]
Box office$1.3 million (US)[2]

Fair Wind to Java is a 1953 American adventure film in Trucolor from Republic Pictures, produced and directed by Joseph Kane, that stars Fred MacMurray and Vera Ralston.[3] With special effects by the Lydecker brothers, the film was based on the 1948 novel of the same name by Garland Roark.

The film tells the story of an American sea captain who voyages in search of diamonds on a volcanic island and must contend with various mysteries, pirates, and finally an exploding volcano (based on the 1883 eruption of the island of Krakatoa).[4]

Plot

In 1883, the Boston, Massachusetts, company that owns the full-rigged sailing ship Gerrymander gives her captain, Captain Boll, six months to show a profit for the company in the Netherlands East Indies. Facing both pirates and a Dutch trade exclusion policy that prevents him from carrying goods between ports in the islands, Boll looks for a another way for Gerrymander to make money. On Java, Boll encounters an Indonesian in Soerabaja, whose life he once saved. The Indonesian tells Boll that native divers salvaged a fortune in diamonds from the sunken ship Pieterzoon, contrary to legend which says the diamonds were lost. The Indonesian directs Boll to a Chinese junk captain, who has cargo that will lead Boll to the diamonds.

Boll discovers that the junk's "cargo" is the woman Kim Kim, who knows the diamonds' location. She had been a dancer at the palace of the sultan, before the Chinese had taken her as a slave. Boll violates Dutch anti-slavery laws by buying Kim Kim and smuggling her aboard Gerrymander. Flint, the ship's first mate, discovers Kim Kim and finds out that Boll purchased her; he threatens to turn Boll in to the Dutch authorities if he is not given half the diamonds when they are found.

Posing as the naturalized Dutch citizen "Saint" Ebenezer, actually the pirate Pulo Besar, also becomes aware that Kim Kim is aboard Gerrymander. He tips off the Dutch authorities, and they search the ship but do not find her aboard (she is hiding in plain sight inside a half-filled water cask on deck). Later, however, the Gerrymander's crew discover her. Boll insists that they treat her well, but first he is forced to fight one of the drunken sailors in order to protect her honor.

Boll constantly questions Kim Kim about the diamonds. At first, this angers her, but when he finally confides in her, telling her that he is impoverished but dreams of one day owning his own ship, she has a change of heart. She tells him that the diamonds are on what she calls the island of the fire god, Vishnu, which she visited as a child. Meanwhile, Flint incites the Gerrymander's crew against Boll by claiming that Kim Kim's presence aboard has made Boll mentally unbalanced; he leads a mutiny against the captain. When the mutinous crew confronts Boll, he offers the crew Flint's half of the fortune if they leave him in command. They agree, the mutiny ends, and Flint is imprisoned below decks. Gerrymander immediately sets sail in search of Vishnu's island.

Boll and Kim Kim become romantically involved, but Kim Kim harbors a fear that Vishnu will become angry if Boll attempts to recover the diamonds from the island. Meanwhile, Besar and his pirates attack and seize control of Gerrymander. The pirates take the ship and her crew to Besar's island kingdom, where he maintains an exquisite palace with riches, servants, and dancing girls. Besar has Boll imprisoned separately from his crew. In an attempt to get Kim Kim to reveal the location of the diamonds, Besar has Kim Kim lashed, while being shown that her mother, Bintang, is his prisoner and has been permanently broken and driven insane from years of torture and imprisonment. Loyal to Boll, Kim Kim refuses to say anything about the diamonds. Giving up on torturing Kim Kim, Besar instead threatens to kill Boll unless she helps him find the diamonds; she agrees in order to save Boll's life. Flint and two other sailors from Gerrymander also offer to cooperate with Besar.

Besar, his pirates, Kim Kim, Flint, and the two sailors set sail for Vishnu's island in the pirate ship. Meanwhile, Gerrymander's crewmen escape and set Boll free. They take back control of their ship from the pirates and set out in pursuit. To keep from losing Besar's ship during a moonless night, Boll and two of his men ride ahead of Gerrymander in a black sail-equipped longboat, sending shrouded signals back to their ship. One of Gerrymander's sailors, Wilson, aboard Besar's ship, jumps overboard and swims to Boll's longboat after overhearing where Besar is heading. Wilson's information allows Boll and his crew to identify Vishnu's island as Krakatoa.

Besar's ship and Gerrymander both approach Krakatoa the following morning and find the island's volcano in the early stages of erupting. Despite their fear of the volcano, both Gerrymander's men and Besar's pirates go ashore. Each group races the other to be the first to arrive at the temple at the mouth of the volcano, where the diamonds have supposedly been hidden. During the climb, Boll spots Kim Kim on the shore below. As the eruption becomes more powerful and heavy lava flows head down toward them, Boll and his crew decide that the eruption has become too dangerous to continue their climb; instead, they rescue Kim Kim and hurriedly return to Gerrymander, heading out to sea. Besar and some of his crew reach the temple but are killed by the worsening eruption. His remaining crew aboard the pirate ship also head out to sea. Boll expects the eruption to generate huge tsunami waves. He orders his crew to set a sea anchor after turning Gerrymander toward Krakatoa. The ship and her crew successfully ride out a series of large waves. The pirates makes the fatal mistake of trying to outrun the tsunami waves, which capsizes their ship and drowns them all.

While the eruption completely destroys Krakatoa, ending all hopes of recovering the diamonds, Boll informs his crew that there is a 100,000-guilder bounty on Besar, which they will earn by handing over Besar's island kingdom to the Dutch authorities. In his capacity as captain of the ship, Boll marries himself to Kim Kim on Gerrymander's quarter deck, as his crew looks on.

Cast

Production

Fair Wind to Java was filmed on Point Dume in Malibu, California, and on the Republic Pictures backlot in the Studio City district of Los Angeles, California. Vera Ralston claimed that shots of Java inserted in the film were made by John Ford,[5] though other sources claim location shots were done in Hilo, Hawaii, by Bud Thackery.[6]

Howard and Theodore Lydecker filmed the ship and volcano sequences on Mono Lake in Mono County, California, using large miniatures constructed for a realistic scale appearance. A 26-foot (8-meter) model of Gerrymander was built, as was a model of Besar's lateen-rigged pirate ship; a miniature volcano, constructed on one of the rocky outcrops along the lake's shoreline, served as Krakatoa. Miniature palm trees and huts were placed along the lake shore to simulate the Indonesian coast. For the final eruption, bags of cement were used to simulate Krakatoa's volcanic plume. The remains of the model volcano built at Lake Mono still existed as of 2014; it had been adapted for use as a field base for bird researchers.[7]

The tsunami scenes depicting Gerrymander riding out multiple waves, and the swamping and sinking of Besar's pirate ship, were created by filming both large models in the Pacific Ocean surf of a California beach.[7]

The plot of the 1969 disaster film Krakatoa, East of Java, which tells the story of an attempt to salvage a fortune in pearls from a submerged shipwreck perilously close to Krakatoa during its 1883 eruption, bears many similarities to that of Fair Wind to Java.[8]

Theatrical release and box office

Fair Wind to Java was released theatrically in the United States on April 28, 1953; in France on Aug 20, 1954; in Spain on July 11, 1955, and Denmark on September 13, 1954. Republic's box office receipts totaled $1,300,000.

Restoration

After the University of California, Los Angeles Film and Television Archive restored Fair Wind to Java with funding from The Film Foundation, Martin Scorsese presented a showing of the film in 2006, calling it "the epitome of a Saturday afternoon matinee picture".[9]

Home media

Fair Wind to Java was released on video by Hollywood Scrapheap on a region-free, limited-availability BD-R in a standard movie poster DVD snapcase. As of December 2021, it was still available on disc via several different online outlets. It was also available for streaming rental via Prime Video.

References

  1. ^ Charles Tranberg, Fred MacMurray: A Biography, Bear Manor Media, 2014
  2. ^ 'The Top Box Office Hits of 1953', Variety, January 13, 1954
  3. ^ "Fair Wind to Java (1953)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  4. ^ "Fair Wind to Java (1953) | BFI". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 2015-07-02. Archived from the original on 2009-02-06. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  5. ^ Fitzgerald, Mike Vera Hruba Ralston interview in Western Clippins
  6. ^ "Fair Wind to Java (1953) - Notes". TCM.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  7. ^ a b "Fair Wind to Java 1953". modelshipsinthecinema.com. 2014-08-16. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  8. ^ "Krakatoa, East of Java". Tcm.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  9. ^ ""Fair Wind to Java" at Tribeca: Saturday Afternoon at the Movies | Victor Ozols". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
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