#2775: 1954 Color Hollywood movie shot in Haiti

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

Today's mail brought an incredible treasure for my library.  It is
a Hollywood movie released in 1954 in full color which is shot
almost entirely in Haiti.

[PLEASE, I WON THE MOVIE IN AN ON-LINE AUCTION.  I HAVE NO IDEA HOW
TO GET ANOTHER.  Please don't write asking.]

It is simply astonishing in the incredible footage from Haiti.  The 
movie is THE GOLDEN MISTRESS.  It stars (from Hollywood John Agar and 
Rosemarie Bowe.  In addition it has these featured players from Haiti:

Andre Narcisse
Jacque Molant
Andree Contant
Pierre Blain
Shilby Talamas
Andre Germain
Napoleon Bonard
and the simply darling Ti-Roro.

In addition it features two spectacular long sequences by the National 
Folklore Theatre of Haiti.  

Additionally in the credits is:

Haitian Coordinator Edouard Cassagnol and 
Costumes by Lucienne Cassagnol.
Choreography is by Andre Nargisse.  

[Anyone know any of these Haitians?]

The film is directly by Hollywood's Joel Judge and after that there is a 
special thanks, while the Haitian national anthem is playing which reads:

"Photographed in its entirety in the Caribbean through the generous 
cooperation of the Government of Haiti."

Okay, lets quickly forget the story.  Beautiful Rosemarie Bowe, sort of a 
Marilyn Monroe type who hangs out of her clothes all the time, and macho 
John Agar are after some treasure of some disappeared tribe.  It all 
involves Voodoo, of course.

But along the way:
-- there is astonishing footage of Port-au-Prince.
-- inside the Holy Trinity the murals are in the front of the church, but 
when the camera swings to the back the whole section of the organ loft 
had not yet been painted.
-- the macho hero gets locked up in the National Penitentiary over on the 
street that leads to the cemetery, can't remember its name, and the 
place is filmed sort of like a "honor system" prison without locked 
cells!!!  A bit of government propaganda along the way.
-- the National Folklore theater of Haiti does two very long dance sequences.
	a.  The first is quite authentic looking.  It is a Voodoo dance 
		for Dumballah. Beautifully danced, choreographed and with very 
		authentic sounding music.
	b.  the second piece is much less Haitian.  It is this lost tribe 
		doing some life and death trial dance, but it is quite 
		splashy and colorful.
-- the action shift to Sans Souci and here, I would presume filmed in 
	1952 or 53, San Souci is MUCH more spectacular than today, but quite 
	authentic.
-- next they move up the hill to the Citadel, and quite authentic.  I 
	recognized parts of the trail in that they take, and they walk all 
	around the Citadel looking for (and of course finding, which is a 
	bit more surprising) the secrets to the lost treasure they are after.

All of this takes about an hour of the 82 minute film.  After this they 
set off for some other Island, which may well be another part of Haiti, 
but I don't know.  However, this part of the film is nature time and 
there cute monkeys and a zillion coloful birds including toucans and 
others.

The film ends with the treasure lost, but the real treasure found since 
macho boy gets girl falling out of clothes.

Some really exciting full color, well-filmed footage of Haiti!

A great addition to my library.

[Again, please, I have no idea in the world where to get copies of
this film.]

Bob Corbett