Outcast of the Islands (1951)

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The clash of cultures seen in Outcast of the Islands, is displaced between the Europeans (Trevor Howard plays a Dutchman), Wendy Hillier, Robert Morley and Ralph Richardson. The other, native is occupied by the partially blind Babalatchi (George Coulouris) and Aissa (Kerima) and a multitude of nameless indigenous characters. The opponents to the whites and, to a lesser extent, of the natives are the Arabs, led by Abdullah. The struggle by all three groups for mastery of the economic opportunities of these territories is crystallised in attempts by Willems, an involuntary exile to satisfy his own needs, who along the way compromises his livelihood. The chorus of natives who balefully witness the economic power games of the foreigners in their midst is not only composed of stereotyped trouble-makers but uncomprehending elders and, above all of bright eyed children in whose expression may be read the anticipated joy of their country's eventual self-determination and liberation from the colonists and in this respect reminiscent of Renoir's The River also filmed in 1951.

Extract from Carol Reed by Peter William Evans. Courtesy Manchester University Press.