Island In The Sun (1957)

A jealous plantation owner (James Mason) suspects his wife (Patricia Owens) of infidelity with a visiting Englishman (Michael Rennie), the island governor's son (Stephen Boyd) is courting Mason's sister (Joan Collins) and two interracial relationships play out: a budding political leader (Harry Belafonte) and an elite member (Joan Fontaine) of island society and a government aide (John Justin, THIEF OF BAGDAD) and a young stenographer (Dorothy Dandridge). Based on the best selling novel by Alec Waugh and directed by Robert Rossen (THE HUSTLER), this melodrama of racial tension on a small island in the British West Indies was quite daring for 1957. Unfortunately, the societal taboos of the 1950s caused the film makers to hold back (apparently an interracial kiss between Fontaine and Belfafonte was excised) which undercuts the film's message. Still, it acccurately reflects the racial strain and stress during a time of changes. Beautifully filmed in CinemaScope in the Caribbean on the islands of Barbados and Grenada by that wizard Freddie Young (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA). With Diana Wynyard, John Williams and Basil Sydney.