Aloma of the South Seas – 1941
This movie’s visual effects was a case of too little, too late. The movie was an hour and eighteen minutes long, and there were literally no visual effects at all in the entire film until the last five minutes, aside from a couple of minor visuals like a smoking mountain in the background or hot, dirty bubbles coming up in a spring of water. Nothing. No notable rear-projection shots, no composite shots, no falling rocks, nothing at all worth noting for the first seventy-three minutes of the seventy eight minute movie. I kept waiting for something to happen, some reason for the Oscar nomination, but there was just nothing. But then those last five minutes… they really went over-the-top.
That’s when the volcano erupted and we get flowing lava, falling rocks, an earthquake, fires, floods, debris, crumbling mountains, and before that all started, a psychotic guy with a machine gun, firing on a crowd of screaming people. They let us have it all. So let’s start with the automatic weapon that didn’t really seem to kill anyone. We could see the little puffs of dirt where the flying bullets struck the rocks and the ground, but that was about it. No big deal.
But then the fire goddess grew angry and unleashed her fury. There were several shots of flowing lava that were incredible. It looked deadly with smoke rising from the molten earth. The vegetation that it passed caught fire and began to burn. It was visually stunning and looked incredible. There were also some great shots of wildfire spreading through the jungle that looked like the fire was alive. It was like a ravenous monster, consuming the green in an aggressive feast of destruction.
There was one fantastic composite shot that combined a river of flowing lava, live actors, and a fantastic set that literally crumbled beneath them. There was a stone bridge over the gorge that our heroes had to cross. Aloma makes it to the other side, but her man, Tanoa, sees the bridge collapsing, and doesn’t allow anyone else to cross. When it falls, in spectacular fashion, Aloma is trapped alone on the other side. Tanoa, finds a convenient vine to swing over the river of lava, grab his girl, and swing back to the rest of the group. It was a great sequence!
And then the earthquake caused a tsunami and the entire beachfront sank into the sea. The ocean water flooded in and met the fire in the jungle with explosive results. The raging water met the conflagration, and a massive bout of steam rose into the air, hissing and sputtering. I tell you, that last five minutes of the movie was visually stunning, and I’d say, yes, they earned their nomination. But I’m also glad they didn’t win. Like I said, too little, too late. An Oscar winner in this category needs more than just a few minutes of smoky orange water and falling rocks. They were great, but they waited too long, and it was over way too quickly.