LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Leofwine_draca I had no idea before watching that OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS was based on a novel by Joseph Conrad; I might have avoided watching it had I known. I'm not a fan of Conrad after I struggled to read HEART OF DARKNESS, which I found pretentiously written and a chore to struggle through. OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS explores a tale that sees the author on familiar ground, telling of an ordinary man driven out of his mind by the wild passions of the exotic Far East.The film is set in and around some trading ports in an unnamed Eastern country, probably Malaya or the like. Trevor Howard plays a roguish character who begins the film by being sacked and then takes up a new position in another location, where he quickly falls for the charms of a native woman. Robert Morley has a splendid role as a stuffy ex-pat who crosses swords with Howard and the 'hammock' scene is by far the most memorable of the film.Sadly, the rest of it is a bit of a bore. The ending is dramatic but it takes a long time to get there and it doesn't help that the writers give you nobody to root for. Ralph Richardson appears in the production so infrequently that he might as well be in a cameo. As ever, watching a bunch of British actors "browned up" to play natives dates this quite considerably. I like Howard when I've seen him in the likes of THE CLOUDED YELLOW but his hateful character here is too off-putting. I know Carol Reed made some well-remembered films but this certainly isn't one of them.

MARIO GAUCI Although he made a handful of worthwhile films before them and won a competitive Oscar much later, Carol Reed is still most admired for his immediate post-WWII work: ODD MAN OUT (1947), THE FALLEN IDOL (1948), THE THIRD MAN (1949) – all of them BAFTA winners – and the movie under review. The latter is the least-seen and least-regarded of the lot (perhaps because there are very few sympathetic characters in it!) but emerges a remarkable achievement nevertheless, with the director's sure hand more than evident in several striking sequences throughout. It features a great cast, all of whom deliver splendid performances: Trevor Howard (second-billed but clearly the protagonist here), Ralph Richardson, Robert Morley, Wendy Hiller, George Coulouris (as an English-speaking native!), Wilfrid Hyde-White and Frederick Valk. While the Far East atmosphere is undeniably vivid and captivating (and John Wilcox's cinematography suitably gleaming), this never draws attention away from the complex character study at the center of Joseph Conrad's typically sea-based and compelling plot line (which works its way up to an abrupt yet memorable ending) about a rogue trader driven mad by lust for a native girl (the silent Kerima) and delusions of grandeur a' la Kurtz in the same author's "Heart Of Darkness". For the record, OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS was also a BAFTA nominee, was apparently shorn of 8 minutes for U.S. TV screenings and is featured in cult American film-maker Monte Hellman's All-Time Top 10 list, apart from being championed by eminent movie critics like Pauline Kael and David Thomson!

eigaeye This film falls well below Carol Reed's best work. Despite a strong cast and the benefits of location shooting, the action is dissipated by poor editing (the frenzied intercutting of shots). The idea of the worthless white man left to wash up on an alien shore (condemned to the too-fleshy arms of his 'half-caste' woman) seems terribly hackneyed from today's viewpoint. Reed's artistry, unfortunately, is not sufficient to overcome these weaknesses. The one memorable thing is the presence of the actress, Kerima, whose character does not utter even one line of dialogue. That the film's assistant director, Guy Hamilton, should have married her soon after will came as no surprise to anyone. As much as I admire Trevor Howard, Wendy Hiller and Ralph Richardson as performers, this is not a worthy vehicle for their talents. What is it about Conrad that even film-makers as good as Carol Reed struggle to put his stories to film? For what it's worth, I think Hitchcock's 'Sabotage' is a better film, albeit a loose adaptation of Conrad's 'The Secret Agent', than this more faithful adaptation of 'The Outcast of the Islands'.

theowinthrop Carol Reed's "An Outcast Of The Islands" is generally conceded to be the finest film ever made of Joseph Conrad's tales. To be fair "Nostromo", "Under Western Eyes", and "Chance" never have been filmed. Hitchcock's "Sabotage" (based on "The Secret Agent") is a good Hitchcock film, but the story is modernized and changed. The later film version of the novel was politely received and then forgotten. "Victory" was made into a serviceable love and adventure story with Fredric March and Cedric Hardwicke, but the irony and allegory of the story was lost. "Lord Jim" was better recalled for the severe drubbing critics gave it - concluding with a Mad Magazine spoof called "Lord Jump". There is "Apocalypse Now" which is a fine attempt at "Heart of Darkness", but it changes the site of the story from the Belgium Congo of Leopold II to Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. "An Outcast" stuck to the basic story of Willems and his betrayal of Almayer and Captain Lingard for a beautiful native girl. Trevor Howard gave many memorable, delicate performances in his life (best, perhaps, for "Brief Encounter"), but this performance as a man who was poor enough material to begin with but goes to seed is possibly better. The supporting cast is great, with Robert Morley playing his most despicable character, and Ralph Richardson as the decent Lingard. George Coulouris is properly Machiavellian as the sly Babalatchi, and Wendy Hiller is tragic as that human dishrag Mrs. Almayer. The only problem a purist may have is that Willems is killed at the end of the novel accidentally (and quite memorably). Not so in the film. But his punishment of living as a monument to failure and hopelessness may be even more fitting - I leave to the reader/viewer.