Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

MARIO GAUCI Though I had read John Baxter's Luis Bunuel biography some years back, I only recalled while leafing through it again the other day that the Spanish Surrealist had served as Assistant Director on this exotic romance intended as a showcase for legendary black performing artist Josephine Baker – hence, its belated viewing in this segment in my ongoing Bunuel retrospective dedicated to his formative years. Anyway, having acquired this and already owning another of the star's vehicles i.e. ZOUZOU (1934), I decided to also add to my collection the third film of hers – and the most famous – PRINCESS TAM TAM (1935) which was released first separately and then re-packaged in a Baker-related Box Set by Kino.Though I was not particularly enthused by the prospect of watching the title under review, being essentially a melodrama with interpolated dance routines, it turned out to be harmless enough – more importantly, it was delightfully typical of its period (including a couple of sequences which feature the shapely star in the nude!). As I said, the film's settings – high-society Paris, the tropics and even the ship-board section – were much in vogue in cinema of this era; hence, for someone who loves Silents as much as I do, they certainly evoked a pleasant air of nostalgia. Even so, these do not really jell together and the picture basically feels like three shorts pasted together!; predictably, the island sequences (with the obligatory hissable villain looking quite a bit like the great Lon Chaney!) prove the most engaging – while those at sea, featuring rampant politically Incorrect comedy relief (with Baker repeatedly chased all over the liner by virtually the entire crew and passenger list simply for being a stowaway!), make up its least appealing component.Bunuel cannot have been much inspired by the film (save, perhaps, for its notion of unabashed lechery on the two heavies' part) but he did retain its leading man, Pierre Batcheff, for his own notorious debut UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1929); at one point, the latter is even made to break the fourth wall by suddenly interacting with the audience –something which Bunuel himself would have the lead character do a quarter of a century later at the very end of his DAUGHTER OF DECEIT (1951)! To get to Baker's presence, which is the reason the film got made in the first place, she manages to exude star quality despite being surprisingly relegated to a secondary Other Woman role (Batcheff's relationship with his true love is plagued by the misplaced affection of her Godfather, the hero's unscrupulous employer – a situation eventually resolved by Baker's own timely, albeit clandestine, intervention); while undeniably an accomplished dancer (highlighted first in a native jig during an island festivity and, later, a full-blown Charleston number on stage at the "Folies Bergere"), I liked her best when displaying great affection towards animals (her large pet dog and a cat she has rescued from a well, which the canine amazingly helps in drying up!).Finally, I could not help noticing the choppiness of certain scenes – the key moment of Batcheff's attempted murder on a bridge suffers the most in this regard – but this appears to be the result of footage lost to the ravages of time (in fact, it was long thought that all of three reels had survived from SIREN OF THE TROPICS!). Having said that, the print I watched was attractively tinted from time to time.

Seltzer The film itself has an interesting plot and is well-acted by most in the cast. Baker is enjoyable to watch, although I don't think this film lets you in on why Baker was considered so talented in her day. She does a sort of athletic Charleston and a couple of shimmies, but I didn't see what the fuss was about. Perhaps she was someone you needed to see live. Also, this is her debut film, so perhaps it is not a great showcase for her dancing talent. Still, the plot is followable, and Baker has some funny bits including pushing her way into a boat ticket line by using her fanny.The musical accompaniment, new for this DVD, is excellent. If it were available on CD, I'd buy it.There's some interesting extra footage in the Extras section on the DVD, but skip the so-called documentary with the dance experts. Instead of showing clips of what the talking heads are nattering on about, the camera focuses on the talking heads as if we care what they look like. Dull, dull, dull. And they're the kind of talking heads that refer to their subject by her first name as if they all knew her intimately.

Snow Leopard Although it came very early in her film acting career, this is well worth seeing for the performance by Josephine Baker. Her talent more than makes up for any lack of experience, and the role gives her a lot to work with. Although there is no singing, her dancing, athleticism, boundless energy, and personal allure all stand out. The rest of the movie is solid rather than impressive, but most of it works all right in itself.Baker plays Papitou, an innocent, loyal native girl who becomes part of a clash involving a soulless French nobleman, his brutal colonial henchman, and a young engineer hoping to succeed in the tropics so that he can marry his Parisian fiancée. The first half shows the conflict that plays out in the tropics, and the second half shows the characters back in Paris, with the different settings naturally leading to much different kinds of developments.Baker's role has many similarities to her roles in later movies such as "Princesse Tam Tam" and "Zou Zou". As her first such role, she not only looks quite young, but also seems to have an extra freshness here. The character also is put in very different circumstances in the different parts of the story. From that viewpoint, the first half is more enjoyable, since it shows Papitou in her element. In the second half of the movie, her character is treated rather thanklessly, and at times it is almost painful seeing such an appealing character treated so badly by the story and by the other characters - which indicates how believably Baker defines her character.

psteier I only saw the first and last two reels, supposedly all of the file that has survived. Josephine Baker's role is similar to her roles in Zouzou (1934) and Princess Tam-Tam (1935), the innocent from the tropics who is brought to civilization and finds it somewhat wanting. However, she does get to keep a man in the end.Most interesting for Josephine Baker. It includes a short segment of one of her stage dances. Seeing her move in close-up is also a pleasure. The film is an oddity in that it was shot as a pantomime (there are no titles).