JohnHowardReid Director: JACK CONWAY. Screenplay: Anne Morrison Chapin, Whitfield Cook, Cyril Hume. Based on the 1945 novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Photography: Sidney Wagner. Film editor: Conrad A. Nervig. Music: Herbert Stothart. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Gabriel Scognamillo. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis, Ralph S. Hurst. Costume supervisor: Irene. Special effects: A. Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newcombe. Technical adviser: Lieutenant John B. Muir, Jr. Assistant director: George Rheim. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Everett Riskin.Copyright 6 March 1947 by Loew's Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at the Capitol, supporting Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, plus Jean Carroll, The Pitchmen and Lathrop & Lee: 5 June 1947. U.S. release: May 1947. U.K. release: 23 June 1947. Australian release: 22 May 1947. 8,294 feet. 92 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Adrift in the Pacific during WW2, the survivor of a downed aircraft tries to keep his companion's spirits up by telling him the story of his life.COMMENT: A perennial Friday flick, "High Barbaree" was still being booked for midweek double bills in the early 1960s. The reason for its remarkable longevity wasn't due to any entertainment merits in the movie itself. Universally judged to be a very mediocre show, "High Barbaree" had the box-office strength of June Allyson and Van Johnson (two of MGM's most popular stars), plus its intriguing premise and catchy title, plus its basis in a novel by "The Mutiny on the Bounty" team, Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall — plus a great trailer. All of these pluses drew the patrons in. And if they left the theater a bit unsatisfied, they had only themselves to blame for expecting too much from a Friday feature.In actual fact the script is just awful. Full of sickening sentiment and hogwash philosophy! The acting of the principals is likewise below par. Johnson especially tends to out-stay his welcome. And even normally steady character players like Thomas Mitchell don't shine so brightly.Maybe director Jack Conway can carry the blame. Not only is the acting ragged, but compositions appear haphazard, angles don't match, and lighting changes abruptly. My guess is that Conway and Wagner didn't start the film at all but were brought in halfway through to try to clean up someone else's mess. Whatever, the direction is mostly inept, the photography jarringly inconsistent.Nonetheless, despite their surrounding seas of trouble, some scenes do have a certain appeal: The water-tower. The circus bicycle. The tornado. These sequences, and a few others, are genuinely moving. But all that stuff on the ocean waves with Cameron Mitchell — a boring actor if ever there was one — is strictly for poverty lane.

Neil Doyle This is truly awful stuff from MGM for two of its most popular stars during the forties--and even the presence of CAMERON MITCHELL in a supporting role--where he must listen and listen to VAN JOHNSON rambling on and on about his childhood past and his attachment to sweetheart JUNE ALLYSON, doesn't save the film from floundering in a sea of sentimental mush. Nor does the presence of THOMAS MITCHELL as Johnson's uncle help matters.A plane crash has the two men (Johnson and Cameron Mitchell) sitting on a raft in the middle of the ocean awaiting uncertain rescue and much of the story is told in boring, sentimental flashbacks to the Navy flier's early life and subsequent romance. Johnson has long-winded monologues and all of them are dreadful to listen to. It's a wonder he and Allyson kept their box-office popularity as long as they did with flimsy material like this.Even the good support from CAMERON MITCHELL and MARILYN MAXWELL doesn't help overcome the weak script, an odd blend of fantasy about an island called High Barbaree and idealized romance. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on any level at all, let alone as a vehicle for Van Johnson and June Allyson.

alumni72 I remember seeing this movie when I was around 11, one rainy Saturday afternoon, with my father. It's stuck with me all these years (I'm 46 now) and I wish I could see it again! I could be romanticizing it a bit based on memory of days long past, but I remember it well enough to know that it WAS a great movie despite the tricks the years may have played on me. It was indeed an unusual mixture of adventure, romance and fantasy - but what makes it unusual also makes it unique and well worth watching. I know I turned it on originally because of the phrase 'World War II' that I spotted in the TV Guide - but the war really has little bearing on how the story plays out. If you happen to see it advertised on TV, be sure and watch it - I've been waiting for years now, and have only seen it listed once (but sadly I wasn't home at the time and couldn't see it).

skallisjr I haven't seen this for decades, but I do remember it. The pilot, reminiscing to his shipmate, while downed on a tropical island, goes on and on about his past experiences, including his dream since childhood about an island paradise called High Barbaree.On and on he goes, as one reviewer observed, slowly boring his companion to death. And the theme and throughout his ramblings, the subject of High Barbaree recurs.SPOILER FOLLOWS: Toward the end of the film, a Polynesian native appears, and offers him entry to High Barbaree, but he realizes that he shouldn't go there then. Not if he wants to keep on living. For High Barbaree _is_ Paradise (as in Heaven).It's a very slow film, but there have been far worse.