I think, it is so-so, if you try to forget that is supposed to be after a novel by Joseph Conrad. There is no mystery to it at all. Jürgen's part is basically not bad, he is the manager of a derelict coal-mine on an island somewhere around Java, a recluse, who likes to keep his distance to the world in general. The annoying thing is, it could have been a great part for Jürgen had the film been any better.
What do I recollect of DEVIL'S PARADISE ?? Really, it made very little SENSE to me, and I mean that.
Jürgen is this loner dude, I guess, with his own island or something, and he's fixated on his dead father, if I recall. He looks nice, but he's moody. The thing starts with some low-life getting killed in some sorid little hut orgy, right? Then: honest, I can't remember what that dead guy ever has to do with anything. Anyhoo, Jürgen IS given to making pseudo-profound pronouncements about things/relationships, blah blah blah...I recall him doing it in front of a big desk in someone's office, but couldn't understand what the hell he was on about at the time. Anyhoo, Suzanna Hamilton's character, whose name I cannot recollect (Let's call her "Toe-rag") is playing the saxophone (?) is some cheesy girl band in some exotic dump with a bar, frequented by many rather disreputable folks, including some swarthy oily dudes, one of whom I guess wants to BUY her (he could do better) so she throws herself at Jürgen (as Esher? or Escher?), who has the acting job of his life sitting in front of her wretched musical-miming trying to look like he's just been stricken dumb with love.
He "saves" her by whisking her off to his little slice of heaven, and they roll around babbling non-sequiturs at each other. He looks GREAT slamming coconuts (?) open with a machete while Toe-rag mopes unattractively nearby, asking him if he loves her (WHY SHOULD HE??). They suck face in some lagoon, and she sits in his lap and wriggles and it just makes me sick. They hit the hay, he calls her "Princess of Samarkand" or something, and acts real smitten, I guess somebody tries to break it up or something. I couldn't recall what on gawd's green earth Sam Waterson has to do with ANY of this, but he lurks around in this bogus Colonel Sanders outfit with bad makeup and hair and the end somebody shoots him through with a spear (????) and you just couldn't care less. If memory serves, for once Jürgen dumps water on somebody else.
Does THAT help?
I didn't think it would.
I'm just sorry you didn't have 3 or 4 copies of Devil's Paradise so you could erase ALL of them. Ok, so mine was in German and I don't have clue one as to what this movie was about... but I do know this. If I ever meet the people who sat in the creative meetings for this project and suggested filming damn near every scene in total darkness PLUS never showing a closeup of anybody the entire time, I shall whip them with chains and run over them with a cargo trolley.
And by the way, I cared about Sam Waterston getting shot through was a spear. I wasn't hoping for anything that good; I'd have been satisfied if somebody had just slapped a straitjacket on him.
Next movie, please...
As I said already, this might have been a wonderful part for Jürgen, had it been a better film. There is none of the mysterious or brooding atmosphere that you would expect from a Joseph-Conrad plot and although there are some action scenes, all people seem to do is talk, all the important things are said in dialogues, not in pictures or actions. I got the feeling, that this could just as well have been a radio-play.
I would prefer to see Jürgen as the captain of the little mail steamer, with a shady past. He saves the saxophone girl from Schomberg's bar after some scene a la Das Boot and then takes her on his trip around the islands a la African Queen and together they dodge all the plots of Jones and Schomberg. Jone's end was quite alright though.