Tropic Zone (film)

Tropic Zone

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Lewis R. Foster
Produced by William H. Pine
William C. Thomas
Screenplay by Lewis R. Foster
Starring Ronald Reagan
Rhonda Fleming
Estelita Rodriguez
Noah Beery, Jr.
Grant Withers
John Wengraf
Music by Lucien Cailliet
Cinematography Lionel Lindon
Edited by Howard A. Smith
Production
company
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • January 14, 1953 (1953-01-14)
Running time
94 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Tropic Zone is a 1953 American crime film written and directed by Lewis R. Foster. The film stars Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Fleming, Estelita Rodriguez, Noah Beery, Jr., Grant Withers and John Wengraf. The film was released on January 14, 1953, by Paramount Pictures.[1][2][3]

Plot

Reagan's character, Dan McCloud, is an American (described as a "soldier of fortune" in the publicity for the picture's release[4]) who becomes the foreman of a Central American banana plantation. Learning that his employer, Lukats, is corrupt and trying to corner the market, McCloud joins with one of the smaller growers (played by Rhonda Fleming) to organize the workers and stop Lukats' scheme.[5]

Reagan later dismissed this film as a "sand and banana" picture with a "hopeless" script.[6][7]

Cast

Production

Paramount built a large set for the film, reportedly the studio's biggest new set in ten years. Designed by art director A. Earl Hedrick together with studio supervisor Hal Pereira, and covering four stages, the set depicted "a complete Caribbean native village", with "16 buildings, irrigation ditches, five hilltops, a schoolhouse, two roads, two streams, a complicated powerhouse" and more.[8] Edith Head, who had already won the first four of her eight Academy Awards, handled the costumes for the film, highlighted by Fleming's fourteen different outfits, all of them in "jungle tones".[9]

See also

References

  1. "Tropic Zone (1953) - Overview". TCM.com. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
  2. "Tropic-Zone - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
  3. "Tropic Zone". Afi.com. Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  4. "Orpheum Slates Banana Bonanza", The Spokesman-Review, March 11, 1953.
  5. Michael Thomas Carroll, Popular Modernity in America: Experience, Technology, Mythohistory (SUNY Press, 2000), ISBN 978-0791447147, pp. 199-200. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  6. "Here's the Rest of Him: The Complete Movie Career of Candidate Ronald Reagan", People, September 15, 1980.
  7. Marc Eliot, Reagan: The Hollywood Years (Three Rivers Press, 2009), ISBN 978-0307405135, p. 261. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  8. "Gigantic Set Built For Pine-Thomas Film", The Spokesman-Review, April 20, 1952.
  9. Jay Jorgensen, Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer (Running Press, 2010), ISBN 978-0762441730, p. 186. Excerpts available at Google Books.
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