

A hermit's peace? Shattered. Your peace? Also shattered. 79 minutes of pure dread.
A hermit's idyllic life on an island is disturbed by the arrival of a bunch of cutthroats.
Acting
Fredric March's weary eyes carry decades of disillusionment.
Cinematography
Island paradise shot like a trap closing slowly.

Director
John Cromwell
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Conrad adaptation #2 for Cromwell; Hollywood's 1940 obsession with masculine failure and tropical doom.
Betty Field's Alma was softened from the novel—studio feared audiences wouldn't accept a heroine who was also, essentially, a transaction.