White Savage (1943)

A shark hunter (Jon Hall) falls in love with the princess (Maria Montez) of Temple Island but a hidden treasure on the island's sacred pool brings greedy scoundrels to the island. Written by Richard Brooks (ELMER GANTRY) of all people and directed by Arthur Lubin (BUCK PRIVATES). More South Seas nonsense with Maria Montez and the usual suspects (Hall, Sabu, Turhan Bey) but this one isn't much fun. It's rather dumb and dull and except for a campy "native" dance number and an earthquake finale, not very lively. But the film was a huge hit anyway! Hey, WWII was raging on and these exotic escapist movies provided some relief from wartime anxieties on the home front. It's no coincidence that Montez's post WWII career did a quick fade. When the film was rereleased in 1946, it added WOMAN to the title. With Thomas Gomez and Sidney Toler (not Chan this time but still playing Chinese).