Anatahan (1953) review

During the Second World War, twelve members of the Japanese Navy wind up on the island of Anatahan, which is occupied by married couple Keiko (Akemi Negishi) and her husband Kusakabe (Tadashi Suganuma) who refuse to surrender ... and then they fight among themselves over Keiko (who eventually abandons them).  It's based on an actual incident (although he decreased the number of individuals that were there to keep it manageable) and I think Von Sternberg had good intentions in traveling to Kyoto to film it in a studio with actors from the country, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired: the lack of subtitles means non-native speakers don't know what's being said (the director provides the voice-over narration and also regularly spoils what's going to happen) and it quickly becomes tedious when the males start murdering each other (in real life, those who didn't make it after spending seven years there died from disease).  I can't imagine many feminist scholars holding it in high regard (Kael surely didn't) and it's an underwhelming note for one of the greatest filmmakers to go out on: part of me just thinks it wasn't his story to tell.