On this day in movie history – Dangerous Paradise (1930 movie & novel):

Dangerous Paradise

directed by William A. Wellman,

written by William Slavens McNutt, Grover Jones,

based on the novel Victory by Joseph Conrad,

released in the United States on February 13, 1930.

Music by John Leipold.

Cast: Nancy Carroll, Richard Arlen, Warner Oland, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Francis McDonald, George Kotsonaros, Dorothea Wolbert, Clarence Wilson, Evelyn Selbie, Willie Fung, Mrs. Wong Wing, Stanley Fields, Lillian Worth.

Recommended reading:

Victory

By Joseph Conrad.

Filmed as:

Victory (1919), directed by Maurice Tourneur.

Dangerous Paradise (1930), directed by William A. Wellman.

Devil's Paradise (1987), directed by Vadim Glowna.

Victory (1996), directed by Mark Peploe.

Published by Penguin Classics.

First published 1915.

ISBN 13: 9780140189780

ISBN 10: 0140189785

ASIN: 0140189785

Description:

I am glad that I am alive, if, for no other reason, because of the joy of reading this book. – Jack London.

Axel Heyst, a dreamer and a restless drifter, believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others. Then he becomes involved in the operation of a coal company on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, and when it fails, he turns his back on humanity once more. But his life alters when he rescues a young English girl, Lena, from Zangiacomo's Ladies' Orchestra and the evil innkeeper Schomberg, taking her to his island retreat. The affair between Heyst and Lena begins with her release, but the relationship shifts as Lena struggles to save Heyst from the detachment and isolation that have inhibited and influenced his life.

Marked by a violent and tragic conclusion, Victory is both a tale of rescue and adventure and a perceptive study of a complex relationship and of the power of love.