La sirena del fiume

The film begins with a prologue in prison that really isn't necessary. Suffice to say that three oddly matched guys are recently out of prison (Robert Young, Nat Pendleton and Ted Healy) and head to Cajun country in Louisiana. This is a 1930s Hollywood version of Louisiana--where most of the folks have normal, everyday Hollywood accents and a few have odd French-inspired accents that still don't sound very Cajun or Creole. Heck, Jean Parker, who was one of these ersatz Cajuns couldn't even correctly pronounce 'Jambalaya'!! This is like a German who has no idea what sauerkraut is!! Had this casting and attention to details been better, the film would have worked a lot better and not come off as so phony.

Back to the story. The three walk into a bit of a fishing and shrimping war. A local family is being pushed around by some Asian gang*--with many of their employees being hired by the gang or ending up dead. The gang clearly means business and so it's up to the three ex-cons to aid the nice locals. In many ways, this aspect of the story is a bit reminiscent of the Humphrey Bogart film "We're No Angels"--though in that case, the three men were escapees from Devil's Island. So overall, is it any good? Well, it's not terrible and is pretty much a time-passer with a few good moments scattered throughout. It also has quite a few bad ones, however--such as the magical way the story gets all wrapped up at the end.

*Like the Cajuns, some of the Asians in this film are just white folks made up to look kind of Asian (these are the leads, whereas many of the non-speaking Asian roles are often played by Asians). As this film illustrates, Hollywood had SERIOUS issues when it came to ethnic characters in the good 'ol days!