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By
NICK ZEGARAC
Director John Cromwell's Son
of Fury (1942) is a magnificent South Seas island
adventure yarn based on the novel by Edison
Marshall. It stars Fox's resident heartthrob,
Tyrone Power as Ben Blake -- the bastard son of an
English lord whose uncle, Sir Arthur (George
Sanders) commands the wealth, power and prestige
of the family name and lavish estate. Sir Arthur's
daughter, Isabel (Frances Farmer) is in love with
the roguishly handsome Ben, whom Arthur has bonded
in servitude as his stable boy. At a lavish
costume ball, Ben attempts to seduce Isabel -- a
move that incurs his uncle's wrath.
Ben is whipped and beaten unconscious, restored to
health by Arthur's compassionate wife, Helena (Kay
Johnson), and hidden from view by a lowly bar
wench, Bristol Isabel (Elsa Lanchester) after
Ben's uncle has sworn out a warrant for his
arrest. Escaping to the South Sea as a stowaway,
Ben is discovered and put to work on the vessel.
There, he befriends Caleb Green (John Carradine),
a man whose original intent is to jump ship and
mine the island for its pearls.
However, somewhere along the way, Green gets other
ideas. He decides that the simple life of the
native population suits him best and retires to
that palmed pastoral oasis, leaving Ben to return
to England and avenge his good name. In this
course of action, Ben is greatly aided by
barrister, Bartholomew Pratt (Dudley Digges -- in
a superb bit of character acting that is
memorable).The matter of Ben's rightful place in
England however, is further complicated by the
fact that Ben has fallen in love with island
innocent, Eve (the impossibly gorgeous, Gene
Tierney -- in her first film).
Sumptuously photographed in glorious B&W, with a
magnificent and haunting score and stellar
performances throughout, Son of Fury is a potent
adventure film that continues to hold up
remarkably well by today's standards. Sanders is a
genuine disreputable treat as the seething angry
villain who delights in the torture of his nephew.
Also, notable in the cast is young Roddy McDowell,
playing Ben as a winsome, though determined child,
briefly glimpsed during the opening scenes of the
narrative.
Fox Home Video's DVD transfer is quite stunning,
though not without its flaws. The B&W elements are
in reasonably good shape. The grayscale is nicely
contrasted. Blacks are deep, velvety and solid.
Whites are, on the whole, quite clean. However,
occasionally contrast levels appear a bit low.
There's also a considerable amount of film grain
in certain shots, age-related artifacts riddled
throughout, and a slight patina of digital grit
that tends to make the image appear less than
entirely smooth. On the whole, the picture
elements will satisfy -- but they are not
pristine.
The audio has been rechanneled to stereo. The
original mono is also included. The revelation on
this disc is in the isolated score track -- which
features a true stereo mix of the original
recordings; remarkably crisp and spatially
superior in their fidelity. There's also a brief
featurette, billed as 'behind the scenes' that is
actually a wasted opportunity; generalizing and
glossing over every film in the Tyrone Power
Collection without saying much about any of the
films specifically. Recommended! |
