Torrid Zone (1940)

My Review

“Torrid Zone” is an action-comedy film about an American owner of a Central American banana plantation who is having trouble with a revolutionary spreading unrest among his workers. The only man who can handle the situation has quit, and he has also ordered a local singer out of the area for spreading a different kind of trouble among the men. Director William Keighley did a fantastic job of directing traffic from a fantastic screenplay by Richard Macaulay and Jerry Wald. They expertly blended witty repartee with dramatic moments.

The cast includes James Cagney as the fired supervisor, Ann Sheridan as the singer, Pat O’Brien as the plantation owner, Andy Devine as sidekick to O’Brien, Helen Vinson, Jerome Cowen, George Tobias, George Reeves, Frank Yaconelli, and Frank Puglia as the police chief. This movie reunited Cagney, Sheridan, and O’Brien from the 1938 box office hit “Angels with Dirty Faces.” This watchable film “Torrid Zone” was also popular in theatrical release for Hal B. Wallis and Warner Bros. Pictures. It was filmed in closed sets at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.