The Beachcomber – 1954 | 81 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Romantic drama colourfully adapted from a story by W. Somerset Maugham. Director Muriel Box’s flat remake of the 1938 film Vessel of Wrath stars Glynis Johns, Robert Newton and Donald Sinden.

The Honourable Ted (Robert Newton), a drunken drifter on the South Sea Welcome Islands, loathed by the Welsh missionary Owen Jones (Paul Rogers) and his strait-laced sister Martha (Glynis Johns), comes into conflict with newly-arrived government official Mr. Gray (Donald Sinden) who tires of Ted’s loutish behaviour. After a drinking binge and subsequent court appearance, Mr. Gray sentences him to three months hard labour, before later ordering him to complete his punishment on a nearby island. There, whilst Ted impatiently awaits a return home, Martha operates both on the tribal Headman (Michael Hordern) and his wounded elephant. On the returning boat trip Martha begins to see Ted in a different light when they become marooned overnight. When an outbreak of cholera erupts on a neighbouring island, a reforming Ted goes to work with the irksome missionary to stem the epidemic but the hostile natives believe the sickness is caused by ‘white-mans medicine’, and condemn Martha and Ted to death. The Headman’s elephant intended to trample on them saves the day.