Through the Breakers (US Import DVD-R) Release Date January 21/25

On a remote island in the South Pacific, John Lancaster manages a plantation while waiting for his spoiled socialite fiancée Diane to finish partying and marry him. Growing restless, he finds love in the arms of Taya, a native girl who adores him. Meanwhile, Diane enjoys the company of several wealthy men on an ocean cruise. When a fire breaks out on the ship, the temptress dives into the water... only to wash ashore on John's island, in a bizarre twist of fate. The estranged couple resume their relationship, with Diane's eye on John's bank account. Rejected, a fiery jealousy ignites inside Taya... one that could just about burn down the entire island...

A silent oddity from short-lived low-budget studio Gotham Productions, Through the Breakers features many of the same tropes as exploitation pictures from the later sound era. Leading man Holmes Herbert is best remembered as the concerned Dr. Lanyon in the 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Fredric March. Femme fatale Margaret Livingston was "the Woman from the City" in F.W. Murnau's masterpiece Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927). She would later infamously dub Louise Brooks' voice in the early talkie The Canary Murder Case (1929). Obscure actress Natalie Joyce, cousin of the better-known Olive Borden, is shown stripped to a g-string during a swimming scene - presumably her character's "native" nature (the intertitles tell us she isn't white, despite all appearances to the contrary) made this acceptable in 1928. Silent clown Clyde Cooke provides comic relief as a pipe-smoking lecher who chases all the girls on the island (though thankfully not the underdressed Ms. Joyce.)