By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 26, 2021 – Despite serious financial problems that have been the root cause of tremendous stress recently, I had a relatively enjoyable Christmas, highlighted by my son Dwight and his family bringing me Christmas dinner.
Dwight and my daughter-in-law Donna are wonderful parents. When my two grandchildren – Jania and Marco – were young, Dwight and Donna had a time-share apartment in Orlando, Florida, where they spent two weeks each year, and on other occasions during the year they exposed my grandchildren to the culture and geography of the United States by taking driving trips to various cities. Spending time with them on Christmas Day was indeed a delight.
For most of the Christmas holiday, however, I have been immersed in watching movies on television, which has been an enjoyable pastime for many years. Ever since I saw my first movie – a western with Johnny Mack Brown – at Paul Meeres Theatre on Market Street when I was around 10 years old, when my family moved to Nassau from Stanyard Creek, Andros, I have been a die-hard fan of movies.
My current Internet provider, XFINITY, provides me with access to a galaxy of movies covering the gamut of entertainment, and being a Bahamian, I have in recent days watched most of the movies made by Bahamian actor Sidney Poitier. Indeed, I have watched some of them several times – particularly, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “To Sir With Love,” “Blackboard Jungle,” and “In the Heath of the Night.”
I have also binge-watched classics like “Gone With the Wind” and “Casablanca,” which in my view is one of the best movies ever made.
But the movie that I have repeatedly watched more than any other is “Island In the Sun,” whose stars include James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, Stephen Boyd, and Patricia Owens.
The film is about race relations and interracial romance set in the fictitious island of Santa Marta, and when it was released in 1957, it was banned in The Bahamas, for reasons that become quite obvious to persons familiar with political developments in The Bahamas. Indeed, the Fleury Family in the movie closely resembles the family of the late Sir Roland Symonette, the first premier of The Bahamas.
Check out this excerpt from Wikipedia: “The film follows several characters, black, white and mixed race, and their relationships. It also chronicles the social inequality between the British who colonized the island and the native population. Maxwell Fleury (James Mason) is a white plantation owner’s son who suffers from an inferiority complex and makes rash decisions to prove his worth. He is tormented by jealousy of his wife Sylvia (Patricia Owens), and he is envious of his younger sister Jocelyn (Joan Collins), who is being courted by the Oxford-bound Euan Templeton (Stephen Boyd), a war hero visiting the governor of the island, his father Lord Templeton (Ronald Squire).
“David Boyeur (Harry Belafonte), a young black man emerging as a powerful politician, represents the common people and is seen by some as a threat to the white ruling class. Mavis Norman (Joan Fontaine), a woman from the elite white class, strikes up a romantic interest in Boyeur and much of the story explores the tension between these two.
“There is also an interracial romance between Margot Seaton (Dorothy Dandridge), a mixed-race drugstore clerk, and Denis Archer (John Justin), aide to the governor.
Maxwell believes that Hilary Carson (Michael Rennie) is having an affair with his wife. He strangles Carson during a quarrel, then tries to make it look like a robbery. Colonel Whittingham (John Williams), the head of police, investigates the murder.
A journalist named Bradshaw (Hartley Power) writes an exposé revealing that Maxwell’s grandmother was part black. Maxwell has decided to run for the legislature, but is jeered by the crowd, then insults everyone there.
Jocelyn learns she is pregnant, but does not wish to burden Euan with a child of mixed race. Her mother reveals that Jocelyn’s father was actually a white man, the result of an undisclosed affair. She and Euan board a plane to England, as do Margot and Denis, to begin new lives.
Maxwell, a broken man, contemplates suicide, then decides to go to Whittingham to confess. Mavis wishes to marry Boyeur and begin a new life of her own, but he decides the needs of the island and his people must come first.”
If ZNS-TV still runs movies on a regular basis, I would like to strongly recommend that Picewell Forbes, Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas Chairman, instruct the person responsible for programming to include “Island In The Sun” in the station’s movie broadcast schedule.
Meanwhile, having enjoyed a relatively good Christmas, my financial woes continue going into the new year. However, I full expect that I shall soon see “light at the end of the tunnel” and my journalistic skills will be utilized in some capacity to assist the current government in its continued efforts to restore good governance to The Bahamas.
