Tropical Siren

Some months back, I recorded the Silent Sunday Nights airing of Siren of the Tropics. It's been a little while since I've done a silent feature, so I recently watched this one to do a post on here.

The movie will be remembered for the performance of Josephine Baker, but she doesn't show up for a good 20 minutes or so. Before that, we get Sévero (Georges Melchior), a wealthy French businessman who's got a wife, the Marquess, and a goddaughter Denise that the couple has apparently raised as a sort of foster child. Sévero turns out to be a rather nasty man, as he's got the hots for Denise and is hoping to divorce his wife so that he can marry Denise, even though she doesn't seem to want this! Obviously the Marquess isn't up for a divorce either, and she's not going to let her husband cavort with Denise.

Denise, for her part, doesn't want the Count either. She's got a fiancé in André Berval (Pierre Batcheff), who is a mining engineer for Sévero's firm. This gives Sévero an idea. He's got some new land holdings out in the Antilles, so he's going to send André out to the Caribbean for a year to do some prospecting to see what sort of mineral wealth the land holds; that will also give him the professional experience necessary to make him a more suitable groom for Denise. Of course, that's the nominal reason. The real reason is that Sévero has an even nastier man, Alvarez, overseeing the Caribbean holdings, and Sévero impresses on the amoral Alvarez the need to ensure that André never returns to France.

It's in the Caribbean that we finally see Josephine Baker. She plays Papitou, a peasant girl with an alcoholic father who keeps the family going by... well, that's never explained. But Alvarez owns the land that all the peasants rent, which is how she's able to come into contact with André. André saves Papitou when Alvarez tries to waylay her while she's bathing, and it's love at first sight, at least on Papitou's part. André doesn't have anything against Papitou, but of course he's engaged and faithful to Denise. But when Alvarez tries to kill André, it's now Papitou who comes to the rescue.

Unfortunately for Papitou, she learns that her love is unrequited when it transpires that Denise and the Marquess have come to the Caribbean to see André. Considering all that's happened to him, the three decide to return to Paris to have an immediate wedding. Papitou hears this and figures she's going to get to Paris too, by hook or by crook, just to see André one more time. This even though she has nowhere near enough money for boat passage to France.

Of course she makes it to Paris and gets discovered as a dancer, where she could make big money in the nightclubs. However, she refuses to dance unless she gets to see André again. This gives Sévero the idea to make it look like André and Papitou had an affair out in the Caribbean, which will get Denise to break off the engagement and leade Denise for the count! Eh, it doesn't quite work like that.

Siren of the Tropics is an interesting movie, although the plot is all over the place, as if the writers had some ideas for two-reelers and didn't quite know how to turn it into a feature-length film. The story does more or less hold up, but it's really a vehicle for Baker. This is a silent, so she doesn't get to sing, but of course she gets to dance and that's a treat. There are some odd tinting choices for some of the scenes, while I also found parts of the score didn't quite work.

Baker's three films were released in a box set some years ago, and that box set is available at the TCM Shop; I'm not certain if Siren of the Tropics is available as a standalone.