Return to Paradise
Directed by Mark Robson 100 mins (1953)
Gary Cooper – Mr. Morgan
An American drifter comes to a remote Polynesian island controlled by a Puritanical missionary and turns the social life of the island upside-down.
Also starring Barry Jones, Roberta Haynes, Moira Walker and John Hudson
Roberta Haynes said she adored working with Gary Cooper, who she noted was ill and on medication during filming on location in British West Samoa.
MARIA’S NOTES
My father thought that making Return to Paradise would be just that. I learned he got a rude awakening. Although Samoa was picturesque and beautiful beyond belief, the actual experience for all concerned was less than ideal. Novelist James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific contained the story about which Return to Paradise was made. The original title - Mr. Morgan – is the character that Gary Cooper portrays. The island community is full of drama between Mr. Morgan and a harsh Evangelical minister who tries to oppress the natives’ lives. Morgan stands up to the minister with a fiery bit of dialogue, “I’m not taking orders from any two-bit Mussolini.” He falls in love, has a child, her mother dies in childbirth and the story continues to unfold. Mr. Morgan finally achieves his life’s redemption.
Here are some excerpts of some of my father’s letters that he wrote to my mother and me while he was away for those 3 very long months – don’t forget, no cell phones, no internet, not even faxes in 1951.
In one of his letters, he wrote that apparently there had been a shipping strike in San Pedro which delayed the delivery of the movie equipment – 120 tons of it – and halted production for a month.
“We’ve been sitting here without stuff to make a picture and no word from the ship yet…you just barely set foot on the ground here and you know why Gauguin stayed. It’s more beautiful than you imagine. The villages are like parks. The fales (houses) are all high-poled thatch roofs open on all sides. They decorate everything with flowers and the shoreline is nearly one solid continuation of villages and the people dress and look exactly as Gauguin painted the Tahitians years ago.
“Big disappointment – the swimming!!! All sewage goes into the water and the water inside this coral reef surrounds the island…I hear the sharks, barracudas and eels are plentiful. You wouldn’t like it for long!! The food!!! Phewww!!
“The ship came over the horizon Monday. No word from her on account of a different wavelength and it’s about a mile beyond the reef. We identified her as not a local craft. Everyone’s spirits rose, big excitement and much work unloading tons of equipment. The picture is really going to start!”
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In another exasperated letter he wrote:
“Dear Sweet Girls,
It doesn’t seem to make any difference whether you work or don’t work here – the time goes so fast. It’s like looking back on having a fever – you don’t know where the devil the time has gone and you can never do all the things you set out to do on a Sunday off. You don’t write because you know the mail won’t go out for another 10 days or so. And also I’ve come home from work several times at 7:30 or 8:00, kicked off my shoes, had some soup and gone off to sleep – with clothes on – and up again before daylight. The parade of bright days and starry nights flicker by so fast – you really wonder if you’ll ever get out of here to see your own world and your own people.
“From where I sit now, you can look up on the high jungle-covered hill that dominates the town and on the top of which Robert Louis Stevenson is buried. In the daytime it’s usually backed by a huge whiter cumulus cloud and in the evening, flying foxes – an animal like a bat but a little bigger than Charlie our crow – fly in from the highest hills to feed on the fruit trees at night. Will try to get a movie of one before I go.
“The picture is going pretty well considering the Samoans are a little “green” and also that money doesn’t mean a damn thing to them. The only thing they buy is cloth for their clothes, mostly the lavalava, a sarong to you. Every other darn thing the use, eat or live in comes from the trees and the plants around them. They believe in the long siesta at noon and think we are crazy to work right through the day. They swim and bathe a couple of times a day (but are still a little high!) but so are we I notice after just a few minutes exposure to work.
“There stores are limited. They buy from New Zealand, have a few canned goods. Very little variety. There was no hot water…the hotel was equipped to handle 20 people…when we got there, there were 60 extra people – they were swamped. They cook on crude stoves. Food wasn’t bad, but no too good. We didn’t have much time for pleasure…got up at 6; leave the hotel at 7; drive out to location which was an hour away; get back at 7:30 or 8; finish dinner at 9 or 9:30; then fall in the sack…2 pooped to work on Sunday. I went spear fishing a couple of days – caught small stuff. When I had 2 days off, I had a sore throat and stayed in bed. It would be good to see my 2 girls about now. I miss you very much. I love you very much and I want to come home.
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Returning home from a movie location in Paris (Love in the Afternoon) was a lot different from my father’s tale of the South Pacific.