Very well executed

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I first saw this at the cinema in 1957. I was young and probably didn't fully appreciate the issues the film dealt with, but over the years I realised that it was an important film that had something to say about race relations.With Barbados standing in for the fictional Santa Marta in the West Indies, the plot centres on the Fleury family - Maxwell Fleury (James Mason) and his sister Jocelyn (Joan Collins). Other characters and relationships weave through the story including the ones between David Boyeur (Harry Belafonte) and Mavis Norman (Joan Fontaine) - black boy, white girl - and Denis Archer (John Justin) and Margot Seaton (Dorothy Dandridge) - white boy, black girl.The crux of the story is the inequality between the white establishment and the native population descended from African slaves or of mixed race - 'the colour problem'. But times are changing and the native population is gaining political power.Maxwell Fleury, who represents the white patrician families of the island, becomes paranoid over just about everything, especially when he learns that a mixed-race grandmother crept into his family tree.The film features four actors with great presence: Harry Belafonte, James Mason, Michael Rennie and Steven Boyd, and four actresses so striking it's almost overload: Joan Fontaine, Patricia Owens, Joan Collins and Dorothy Dandridge.The film was a daring decision by Daryl Zanuck at the time. It dealt with race issues that were boiling to the surface in the 1950's and would boil over in the 1960's and regularly thereafter. Director Robert Rossen tackled the issues head on - the last conversation between David Boyeur and Mavis Norman expressed uncomfortable truths.However, this good-looking movie with its good-looking cast also had to work as entertainment, and it does from the opening frame as Harry Belafonte sings the brilliant title song, which he also co-wrote. The song gave composer Malcolm Arnold something to build the score of the film around. Although Arnold was a fine composer for the concert hall, much of his film work sounded the same. Belafonte 's title song and "Lead Man Holler", which he sang later, lifted Arnold's score from his usual by-the-numbers approach.Other films at the time were also focussing on the race issue, but this one went closest to the bedroom. Although the interaction between the sets of interracial lovers stopped short of a passionate kiss, "Island in the Sun" otherwise didn't hold back on what it had to say.

***SPOILERS*** Never ending soap opera that takes place on the fictional Caribbean island of Santa Marta involving arrogant white plantation,of coffee beans and sugar cane, owner the insecure and high strung Maxwell Fleury, James Mason. Maxwell always felt that he was considered by his late father as a second stringer, in the Fleury clan, to his dead older brother, killed in WWII, the highly respected and looked up to Arthur.Maxwell's insecurity starts to get the best of him when he suspects his wife Sylvia, Patricia Owens, of having a secret affair with roving British diplomat and adventure Hilary Carson, Michael Rennie, when he spotted him leaving the Fleury Mansion in a huff while leaving a clue to him being there behind: A half smoked Egyptian cigarette something that only Carson, and no one else on Santa Marta, smokes. Maxwell is also worried about black labor leader David Boyeur, Harry Belafonte, who's stirring up trouble at his plantation by demanding that the native workers get their fair share of the profits, in labor costs, as well respect from their white, Maxwell Fleury, overlord.Meanwhile while this is all going on there's a number of mixed, between blacks and whites, love affairs spinning out of control notably with handsome British embassy worker Denis Archer, John Justin, and pretty half-breed island native Margot Seaton, Dorothy Dandridge, who works as a cashier at the local Santa Marta drug store. What makes things even worse is that Margot just happens to be labor leader Boyeur's girlfriend! And to complicate things even more Boyeur is starting to get it on with royally bread and lily white, she seems to glow in the dark, British socialite Mavis Norman, Joan Fontaine, who's just nuts about him while he's, in not trying to stray from his people and heritage, trying like hell not to fall in love with her! We of course can't overlook the hot and steamy affair going on between Maxwell's younger sister Jocelyn and war hero and British Aristocratic Euan Tempelton, Stephen Boyd, who's old man is a major maker and shaker back in Jolly Old England and a good friend of the Royal Family.****SPOILER ALERT**** All this fooling, as well as horsing, around comes to a sudden and tragic end when the truth-through an exclusive newspaper article-comes out about Maxwell, as well as Jocelyn's, genetic backgrounds that involves their dad Julian's, Basil Sydney, real mother who's identity, or racial background, he had hidden all these years. This sets off a number of ugly events that leads Maxwell to go completely bananas as well as, in the case of poor Hilary Carson, homicidal. It also has Julian's wife, Diana Wynyard, reveal to her distraught daughter Jocelyn, in order to keep her upcoming marriage to Euan from being deep sixth-ed, that she isn't really her father's daughter! What a Relief!Well anyway in the end everybody-in the cast-is happy the way the movie "Island in the Sun" turned out with both love, in the case of Euan Denis and their girlfriends Jocelyn & Margot, winning out over ignorance and prejudice. In the case of the by now ready for the funny farm Maxwell Fleury he finally saw the light in what he did, to the drunk on his feet Hilary Carson, and gladly accepted the consequences. As for David & Mavis they went their separate ways knowing full well that fate would not be kind to them if they didn't.

At the center is Santa Marta, an imaginary small island in the British West Indies… Leading the story is David Boyeur (HarryBelafonte), a homegrown revolutionary, whose skin is his country… But the issue here is not just one of color… The issue here is who is really best fit to represent the people in the colorful island? Who knows them the best? Who feels for them the most? Who's really a part of them? On the other hand, one of the other important fights, for Boyeur, is against tradition as Santa Marta shackles with traditions…Sizzling around the edges is Mavis Norman (Joan Fontaine) who happens to be in love with this charismatic leader… Mavis Norman feels that he is superior to most men… As a public figure, there is Maxwell Fleury (James Mason) who seeks the election to revenge himself upon the whites whom he now thinks despise him… Fleury is ready to use the black people so that he can still rule in that world that he still belongs to…Delving into his personal life, we see him jealous of Hilary Carson (Michael Rennie), the gentlemanly English drifter… Fleury envies him because he thinks that his wife (Patricia Owens) is attracted to him… Blind by love, he thinks that his wife had fall in love with Carson who is better suited to her… There is also Euan Templeton (Stephen Boyd), the governor's son, who wants to be married before he goes back to England… His fiancé, Jocelyn Fleury (Joan Collins), is the most difficult person to get a wedding ring on for some powerful reason… Caught in a tangle of rumors, she comes out to her mother (Diana Wynyard) who placates her by revealing a secret of her own... There's also the governor's aide Denis Archer (John Justin) who thinks that there's always a point at the beginning of a love affair where a man can draw back, where he's still safe… His love interest Margot Seaton (Dorothy Dandridge) delivers some of the film's best moments…And let us not forget the police inspector John Williams—in a really outstanding performance—who easily identifies an unpremeditated murder… Colonel Whittingham considers the murderer not strong enough to bear the burden of his guilt… But to tell you more would be to reveal too much too soon…Robert Rossen manages a few winningly odd performances from Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, and John Williams whose presence give the film some strong dramatic qualities

I actually liked this movie. It doesn't seem to get as much credit as it should, seeing that it is the first movie to ever star an interracial couple (between the beautiful Dorothy Dandridge and the cute John Justin. Also, would've been between much older, but good actress Joan Fontaine and handsome Harry Belafonte). The scenery is beautiful and the plot is very good, but I think it's the storyline and script that make it so bad. It really doesn't count for a romance seeing that Ms. Dandridge and Mr. Justin were hardly aloud to touch each other and another character got pregnant out of wedlock, who was white. But this if you want a great movie with a beautiful tropical set (filmed on location in the Caribbean), interracial romance, suspense, mystery, a little singing, race relations, and politics, I suggest this movie.