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"Daylight in St. Thomas"

1984

Written by:  A.H. Eckles

Art Director:  Simone Schaffer

Directed by:  Nathan Blackthorne

 Genre:  Drama/Mystery/Thriller

Taglines:  Anything's possible in paradise

Everyone looks different in daylight

Plot Summary:

When this moody little film hit theaters in the summer of 1984, the Pope himself blushed by its raucous sexual themes. Set in 1950’s Virgin Islands, Monica Sutton (Reynolds), a bored housewife on vacation with her girlfriend, Sarah, finds herself alone and vulnerable when Sarah is killed in a shark attack. The local constable, Sam Watertown (Blackthorne) finds himself drawn to the lonely young woman and an intense romance blossoms. When Monica’s husband, Trevor, comes looking for her, complications arise. Monica finds herself stalked by a threatening presence at night. By the end of the film, it’s Sam who stops the stalker with a bullet hole in the chest. The culprit: Sarah, having faked her death in the shark attack in an attempt to cover for the fact that she and Trevor were having an affair. Blackthorne did double duty as co-star and director, and won a Filmmaker award for his work on this film. This was coincidentally the last picture that Nathan Blackthorne directed or starred in before his exile from Hollywood in 1987.  

Cast overview, first billed only

 

Alex Reynolds                       ...Monica Sutton

Nathan Blackthorne               ... Sam Watertown

Elfie McEwen                         ...Sarah Denton

Roger VanTrapp                     ...Trevor Sutton

Holly Rubenstein                    ...Deputy Faye

Mark Shandelmeir                  ...Ham Lorie

Rodrigo Siffuentes                  ...Paulo

Dirk Monahan                        ...Mr. Reinhold

Stephen Szywicki                  ...Bellman

Ronna Lorenz                        ...Maid

Trivia:  The first film produced by Sunset Studios.  Was rushed into production with a low $9 million budget. Rumors of presonality conflicts between its two main stars circulated heavily on the Hawaii mainland where most of the locations were shot.  James Blackthorne and Alex Reynolds were married, which reportedly caused tension between Reynolds and Nathan Blackthorne on the set, but critics claim the sex scenes are some of the raunchiest in recent movie history at the time.  

Also known as:

The Getaway (USA Working Title)

Runtime: 118 min

Country: USA

Studio: Sunset Studios/One Girl Productions

Language: English

Color: Color (Metrocolor)

Sound Mix: Dolby

Certification:   Singapore:R21 (cut) / New Zealand:R18 / Canada:R (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) / Canada:18+ (Quebec) (original rating) / Canada:13+ (Quebec) (re-rating) (2003) / Australia:R / Italy:VM14 (re-rating) / Argentina:18 / Finland:K-18 / France:-12 / Italy:VM18 / Norway:15 (cut) / Norway:16 (1985) / Portugal:M/18 / Sweden:15 / UK:18 / USA:R / West Germany:18 / Iceland:16