Isle of Missing Men (1942)

Merrill Hammond is the humanistic governor of the penal colony located on the small, isolated island of Caruba off the northwest coast of Australia. Sailing back to Caruba, he invites a few on the ship to the island in wanting to show that it should someday be home to more than the penal colony, his guests able to leave on any one of the weekly cargo ships. The one who does and is able to accept his invitation, the one he was hoping the most would in his attraction to her, is the beautiful Diana Bryce, who is interested in all Hammond has to show her on the island. Hammond returns to the island to discover a few issues, one an uncharacteristic prisoner riot and subsequent attempted prisoner escape, one prisoner who was shot dead, Hammond who would not have handled the situation as his stricter and more naturally suspicious chief administrator George Kent did, and two a typhus outbreak which keeps alcoholic Dr. Henry Brown busier than usual. What happens in this situation is how others on the island react to Diana's presence, and in her hidden agenda.