Freddie Francis said he was "pressured" into doing the film by producer Leon Clore.
I don't think Pat Jackson particularly wanted me to do it. But Leon wanted me to do it. Not that there was any bad feeling between dear old Pat and myself but once again Pat was the wrong guy I think for the picture because the two stars were John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier. And let's face it, those two guys with dear old Pat whose such a nice bloke and basically a documentary director, he was way off... I remember one night I was having dinner in the yacht club in one of the Virgin Islands and Sidney Poitier and Cassavetes came over and said would I take the picture over. I said listen I can't do that, you better go and speak to Leon. So anyway they went to Leon and obviously Leon said no you can't do that. So it was a very unhappy picture from that point of view.[6]
Critical reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "So long as this film makes no effort to create a dramatic scenc or to talk seriously to the audience it is gaily and romantically successful; the comedy is unforced and the high spirits infectious. But when John Cassavetes, always too intense, begins to sermonise on independence, Virginia Maskell to preach about the tribulations of writers, and Isabel Dean to speak an uncomfortable monologue about being cut off from life, the film discloses an unnerving capacity to raise a squirm among the more worldly audiences. Sidney Poitier's outrageous caricature of the laughing West Indian hovers constantly on the verge of the sinister, but his ebullience,vand the crisp, clean-living appeal of Miss Maskell in her less serious moods, are the film's two undeniable assets."[7]
^British Virgin Islands, Report - Page 6
Great Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office - 1958
GENERAL The Colony was the location for the film Virgin Island shot by Countryman Films Ltd. of London during the period September to November, 1957. The film was based on Robb White's book Our Virgin Island which had its setting on ...
^Film Review - Page 22
F. Maurice Speed - 1959 But one girl who did get a really big chance in 1958 and made the most of it was Virginia Maskell, the girl from Shepherd's Bush who made a delightful impact with her performance in her first major role in the British Lion film Virgin Island.
