Island in the Sun is credited by others as the first movie to star an interracial couple. It was made in 1957 the same year as Sayonara in which Marlon Brando, Red Buttons, and James Garner are all involved in interracial romances with Japanese women. Also there is a Barbara Stanwyck film from I believe the 1930's where she is involved with a Chinese man so this is not the first interracial romance. Generally I would agree with what others have said about this movie. A beautiful looking dud, filled with beautiful people. Unlike others however I would blame the director and editor, rather than the script for the problem. In countless number of occasions the film dissolves to a slow fade just as the action is reaching it's dramatic peak. As in James Mason's attempted suicide, his wife comes into the room sees the gun and ..... dissolve to next scene. Terrible. The cat and mouse , Crime and Punishment murder subplot gives the film some vigor but then peters out in a very predictable way. A great cast , and great scenery photographed by Freddie Young ( Lawrence of Arabia) all of it wasted.

At the center is Santa Marta, an imaginary small island in the British West Indies… Leading the story is David Boyeur (HarryBelafonte), a homegrown revolutionary, whose skin is his country… But the issue here is not just one of color… The issue here is who is really best fit to represent the people in the colorful island? Who knows them the best? Who feels for them the most? Who's really a part of them? On the other hand, one of the other important fights, for Boyeur, is against tradition as Santa Marta shackles with traditions…

Sizzling around the edges is Mavis Norman (Joan Fontaine) who happens to be in love with this charismatic leader… Mavis Norman feels that he is superior to most men…

As a public figure, there is Maxwell Fleury (James Mason) who seeks the election to revenge himself upon the whites whom he now thinks despise him… Fleury is ready to use the black people so that he can still rule in that world that he still belongs to…

Delving into his personal life, we see him jealous of Hilary Carson (Michael Rennie), the gentlemanly English drifter… Fleury envies him because he thinks that his wife (Patricia Owens) is attracted to him… Blind by love, he thinks that his wife had fall in love with Carson who is better suited to her…

There is also Euan Templeton (Stephen Boyd), the governor's son, who wants to be married before he goes back to England… His fiancé, Jocelyn Fleury (Joan Collins), is the most difficult person to get a wedding ring on for some powerful reason… Caught in a tangle of rumors, she comes out to her mother (Diana Wynyard) who placates her by revealing a secret of her own...

There's also the governor's aide Denis Archer (John Justin) who thinks that there's always a point at the beginning of a love affair where a man can draw back, where he's still safe… His love interest Margot Seaton (Dorothy Dandridge) delivers some of the film's best moments…

And let us not forget the police inspector John Williams—in a really outstanding performance—who easily identifies an unpremeditated murder… Colonel Whittingham considers the murderer not strong enough to bear the burden of his guilt… But to tell you more would be to reveal too much too soon…

Robert Rossen manages a few winningly odd performances from Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, and John Williams whose presence give the film some strong dramatic qualities

Having never read the book I can't comment on it, but it seems that the political implications of Alec Waugh's novel was largely sacrificed for the romance. Island In The Sun is a big old romance novel set in a British crown colony just as the United Kingdom was getting shed of its colonial empire. The island at one time was a part of the French empire to explain the name of Fleury as one of the island's big plantation owners. Their romantic entanglements form the basis of the novel.

Basil Sydney and Diana Wynyard are the head of the Fleurys and they have two surviving children James Mason and Joan Collins. Mason is married to Patricia Owens and he suspects her of having an affair with a rather dissolute, but charming doctor Michael Rennie. Collins is kanoodling big time with Stephen Boyd the governor's son and would be peer. The governor's aide John Justin is having a fling with Dorothy Dandridge. But most shocking of all another plantation heiress Joan Fontaine is considering taking up with Harry Belafonte who sings a couple of Jamaican ballads which is always good.

That interracial kiss between Belafonte and Fontaine was daring and groundbreaking and no doubt Island In The Sun had zero bookings in the American South. How silly we were back then.

A story about the Fleury family reveals that Sydney's grandmother was black though I'm sure she could have passed. That sets in motion some radical reassessment of the family's status. They still have their money, but not entry into some of the best homes. Mason who has decided to stand for the local parliament with his opponent being Belafonte tries to exploit his new found black heritage with disastrous results. It ends in tragedy, but also in a strange twist happiness for one of the Fleurys as it is discovered the parents have their secrets.

Harry Belafonte and James Mason stand out in this film. Belafonte has some real screen charisma. As for Mason his is a complex role of a strange man with a brooding inferiority complex that was acting out even before the news of his great grandmother.

And of course the West Indies looks nice. I'm sure the original novel had more of the political situation of the time in it. Island In The Sun the movie drained most of that and we get a tropical soap opera instead.