This Jeff Chandler and Anthony Quinn Movie Is Impossible to Watch Today
In the age of streaming everything, it's rare for a major studio film to completely vanish.
But East of Sumatra (1953) has pulled off the impossible: a Universal adventure movie starring Jeff Chandler, Anthony Quinn, Marilyn Maxwell, and Suzan Ball — and you literally can't find it anywhere.
No Blu-ray. No DVD. No streaming. No digital rental. Unless you've got a dusty 16mm print in your garage or taped it off TV 40 years ago, it's as good as gone.
A Big Cast, a Forgotten Film
East of Sumatra was pitched as an exotic South Seas adventure: Chandler plays a tin mine manager sent to open a new operation on a remote island ruled by Quinn's character, King Kiang. Throw in some jungle danger, romantic subplots, and yes — an obligatory waterfall scene — and you've got yourself a very 1950s studio adventure.
Director Budd Boetticher, best known for his later run of tough-as-nails Westerns, was still early in his career here. The cast was stacked: Peter Graves, Earl Holliman, John Sutton, and Scatman Crothers even shows up. The film began shooting in late 1952, and Gloria Grahame was originally attached before being replaced by Maxwell.
But despite all that, the final product fell flat — a mix of backlot jungle sets and mid-tier melodrama. It never found a fanbase, and Universal quietly shelved it.
"It Went Down the Drain"
Originally, the film had higher ambitions. The treatment was co-written by Louis L'Amour, who based it on his own travels in Sumatra. He wanted to explore colonial exploitation and a young rajah fighting for medical aid for his people.
But, as L'Amour later wrote in his memoirs:
"Instead of a meaningful picture, the producers or somebody turned it into a sex and jungle epic… The sincere young Rajah is largely forgotten; he doesn't get his medicines and his hopes and the picture go down the drain."
Boetticher wasn't much more generous. His take? It was just a fun way "to make all my friends some money."
Why Can't You Watch It?
Unlike Boetticher's Westerns, which have been preserved and reissued, East of Sumatra has disappeared into a rights and access black hole. It's never been included in Universal's manufacture-on-demand DVD programs, and no streaming platform has picked it up — not even the deep-cut libraries.
Collectors say the few surviving prints are in private hands. No restorations, no preservation efforts, and no cult revival to speak of. Just… gone.
Seventy years later, East of Sumatra has accidentally become what it was pretending to be: a hidden relic buried in the jungle. It may not be a masterpiece, but it's a rare artifact — a studio film with name actors and a major director that simply doesn't exist in the modern film ecosystem.
For fans of mid-century adventure flicks, it's the white whale. Good luck finding it.