Das Ende von Maradu

In general, this action drama does a good job of establishing its atmosphere, but otherwise most of the movie doesn't really work very well. It has too many slow stretches, and it doesn't make use of many of the possibilities in its characters and setup.

Rose Hobart and Charles Bickford star as an estranged couple, with the wife traveling deep into the wilds to find her husband, creating a delicate and dangerous situation between them and the native ruler whom the husband now serves as a court physician. The situation had lots of potential, but much of the middle part of the movie simply uses up screen time rehashing the same ground. The loyal servant girl played by Lupita Tovar also offered some possibilities, but she is never used for anything more than fetching things.

The finale is full of action, but it would have worked much better if it had come after a more careful buildup. The movie does establish the jungle atmosphere quickly and believably, with a lot of wild animals and other details, and for a while the setting is interesting enough to keep your attention even when not a lot of significance happens. Eventually, though, the story just bogs down, and doesn't go much farther until just before the finale. Overall, "East of Borneo" is probably more significant as the source of material for Joseph Cornell's interesting experimental feature "Rose Hobart" than it is in its own right.

Rose Hobart (DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE) travels deep into the jungles of Borneo to find her missing doctor husband (Charles Bickford), now the drunken court physician to capricious potentate, Prince Hashin (Georges Revavent). Although her husband won't give her the time of day, the Prince decides this white woman will do to give him an heir to further his "Aryan" race. After a slow (but not uninteresting) start, EAST OF BORNEO picks up with a couple of dynamic adventure scenes - one showing the heroes racing across the backs of crocodiles, and the other showcasing a fantastic volcanic eruption achieved by a primitive but still wondrous combination of rear screen projection and miniature work. Leonard Maltin is all wrong about EAST OF BORNEO; although it's not quite as good as the later THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, this forgotten film (made by the same team responsible for Universal's Spanish-language DRACULA) is definitely worth seeking out.

So many years after he abandoned her, thinking her unfaithful, "Linda Randolph" (Rose Hobart) sets off to trace her long absent husband on an island in the East Indies. When she finds him, he is friends with, and working for, a dodgy local potentate who takes a bit of a shine to her. The unscrupulous prince seems bent on capturing her heart (or something like that..) so she and the ex-husband (Charles Bickford) have to come up with a plan to get the hell off the island. It takes about half of the film to build up anything like a head of steam; but once it does it actually moves long quite nicely and though the ending is never really in any doubt, we do have some fun getting there. It looks like the jungle is growing from pots on a back-lot somewhere in California, so don't go looking for authentic images of Krakatoa; but it's fine - if maybe a touch too long - for what it is.

The best thing about East Of Borneo is the very clever way Universal was able to blend in real jungle footage into the plot of this movie. I'd love to know where Carl Laemmle got it. I can't believe he spent the money to actually go to the Dutch East Indies and shoot it for the studio. Universal was on its uppers at the time.

Saying that we have an interesting jungle melodrama. Rose Hobart has come looking for her estranged husband Charles Bickford who has truly gone native. When he's not shacking up with all the native women, he's court physician to the local maharajah Georges Renevent. When he makes it clear he's scorning Hobart, Renevent starts checking her out. She is the only white woman he's seen in some time.

The film has a really nicely filmed volcano sequence at the end. This might have been the inspiration for Crosby and Hope burlesquing such climax at the end of Road To Bali. Plot if you could call it that had some of the elements of East Of Borneo.

Seen today East Of Borneo is quite archaic and I doubt we'll see a remake. It holds up well in spots and worth a look.

Just want to add my cheers for this film to the previous rater. Maltin is definitely wrong - he must have been in a bad mood when he saw it. The jungle animal perils are filmed with much more action and danger than seen in other picture, even the Weissmuller Tarzan flicks. Knowing that it was film by the crew who worked on Universal's Spanish version of Dracula (and the cast includes one of its actresses), I add that you can clearly see the Dracula set used for the jungle castle, draped with extra cobwebs and fineries. You can't miss those Gothic archways, though. This picture is great fun and can be had from the amazing Alpha Video for five bucks. Don't miss it!