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
Fredric March
Hendrik Heyst
Betty Field
Alma
Cedric Hardwicke
Mr. Jones
Jerome Cowan
Martin Ricardo
Sig Ruman
Mr. Schomberg
Margaret Wycherly
Mrs. Schomberg
Fritz Feld
Signor Makanoff
Lionel Royce
Pedro
Rafaela Ottiano
Madame Makanoff
Chester Gan
Wang
Sam Ash
Dutchman (uncredited)
Romaine Callender
Missionary (uncredited)
Edward Fielding
Fetherston (uncredited)
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.
US
