A religious zealot and his nephew are thrown together on a South Seas Island with an alcoholic beach comber and a native dancer. A battle to see who will "civilize" whom ensues.A religious zealot and his nephew are thrown together on a South Seas Island with an alcoholic beach comber and a native dancer. A battle to see who will "civilize" whom ensues.A religious zealot and his nephew are thrown together on a South Seas Island with an alcoholic beach comber and a native dancer. A battle to see who will "civilize" whom ensues.
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Did you know
- TriviaDuring the making of both this film andThe Love Flower (1920), filmed simultaneously in December 1919,D.W. Griffith and his cast and crew experienced rough seas while sailing on the yacht The Grey Duck from Miami to Nassau. Two persons were washed overboard and were rescued, but there was no food for three days.
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Title Card: The fires of youth flame to a mad dream of lawless love on a distant isle.
Featured review
"The Idol Dancer" is one of D.W. Griffith's two South Seas dramas made in Florida; "The Love Flower" is the other. It's a low point in his career--before his resurgence with "Way Down East". The story involves missionaries trying to make natives wear pants. Richard Barthelmess, as an alcoholic beachcomber, and Clarine Seymour, as the idol dancer, are briefly amusing, but the boring missionaries and the film's questionable morals soon ruin that.
Griffith's direction is prosaic and slipshod. The climax is derivative of "The Birth of a Nation", and like that film "The Idol Dancer" is racist, too, but has nothing to make itself worthwhile despite it. This one deserves its place as one of Griffith's lesser and ignored, or forgotten, pictures.
Griffith's direction is prosaic and slipshod. The climax is derivative of "The Birth of a Nation", and like that film "The Idol Dancer" is racist, too, but has nothing to make itself worthwhile despite it. This one deserves its place as one of Griffith's lesser and ignored, or forgotten, pictures.
- Cineanalyst
- Sep 2, 2005
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 32 minutes
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- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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