East of Borneo

EAST OF BORNEO (Universal, 1931), produced and directed by George Melford, is a rarely seen and revived jungle-setting adventure starring Rose Hobart in a rare leading performance, with Charles Bickford, Georges Renavent, Lupita Tovar and Noble Johnson as the only other listed named actors appearing in the casting credits.

Taken from a story by Dale Van Every, which plays liken a weekly chaptered adventure serial, the narrative opens with Linda Randolph (Rose Hobart), a young woman on board ship, traveling 6,000 miles to Borneo where she has traced her husband, Alan Randolph, whom she's been searching for nearly three years. With the information given her by the commissioner, Hans Von Blune, she learns her husband is now known to all as Doctor Alan Clark, who can now be found in Marado, some 300 miles inland East of Borneo. After a long and treacherous journey accompanied by native guides through the dangerous jungles consisting of pythons, tigers and pumas, Linda finally finds Alan (Charles Bickford), now a court physician in the palace located near a volcano, and house guest of Prince Hashin (Georges Renavent), who earlier had saved the drunken derelict doctor's life. Now good friends, aside from his boozing up liquor from time to time, Alan entertains the Prince with a game of checkers. Things begin to change when Linda and Alan come face to face, with Linda, stunned by Alan's drunken presence. In spite of how she's being treated, she still loves him and wants nothing more than to have him return home with her. Through plot development, it is learned that through their one year of marriage, Alan's medical experiments have kept him away from Linda, and because of her involvement with another man )Harry), whom she never loved, Alan accuses her of infidelity and leaves her. Alan is then told by Linda she never got the divorce and they are still legally married. Though Alan refuses her love and insists she leave, Linda finds herself forced to remain by orders of the Prince, for sinister reasons of his own.

While 1931 brought forth Universal horror classics as DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN, many of their other theatrical releases from that year are virtually forgotten. EAST OF BORNEO, a lesser known product, may not be a horror film, but it does contain some chills of its own. Released a year before the classic THE MOST DANGEOUS GAME (RKO, 1932), EAST OF BORNEO does contain a villainous-host, that of Prince Hashin, who pleasures himself in watching guilty natives being fed to the crocodiles as one swims for his life to safety across the bank, only to meet with more hungry crocodiles on the other side. The Prince even intends on doing the same to his doctor friend after Alan's attempts to sneak Linda off the island at night. Georges Renavent, who makes one think about the bearded Cesar Romero from WEE WILLIE WINKIE (1937), gives a notable performance. Lupita Tovar as Nieia, a native girl on the island who has a passion for the doctor, is visible in certain scenes, but sadly given very little to do or say throughout its full 75 minutes.

Though EAST OF BORNEO gets off to a very slow start, it does pick up considerably during its second half, even if some of the results are unbelievable at times. Unseen for many years, EAST OF BORNEO did have occasional broadcasts during the early years of cable television, such as Christian Broadcast Network in the early 1980s. Because it's a public domain title, prints have become available through various distributors since then on both video cassette and later DVD format. Aside from earthquake and volcano eruptions that occur in the story, EAST OF BORNEO may not offer any great shakes to contemporary viewers. Overall, for classic film buffs, it's still curiosity viewing if nothing else. (**)