In a scene in Lady Godiva Rides Again, Alistair Sim as a bankrupt film producer cynically reflects that, “What with television to the left of us, Hollywood to the right of us, and the government behind us, our industry – laughable term – is forever on the blink.” It was a cry from the heart: by 1952, the independent companies formerly under Rank's umbrella had found the rain getting in, several of the major studios had been disposed of, the Crown Film Unit was closed, and the “X” certificate was introduced to tempt audiences to the previously forbidden. Yet, while television and Hollywood seemed a threat to the studios, for an adaptable composer like Alwyn they could be an opportunity. Already he had composed for a television film, and, of the four features bearing his credit in 1952, the first was Hollywood-financed.

Stuart Heisler's Saturday Island (1952) was released by RKO-Radio in March. An episodic, improbable, and often ludicrous curiosity notable for its kitsch, the film explores the relationship between a Canadian nurse (Linda Darnell) and a US marine (Tab Hunter), shipwrecked together on a desert island. The performance of the one-armed actor Donald Gray, who arrives late in the film as a crashed RAF pilot, strips it of any vestiges of dignity. Alwyn made some attempt at rescue, compensating for inadequacies in the direction through his own interpretations of mood and emotions, at its most extreme amounting to a kind of musical doodling. At other times the composition seems too polished for the uninspired direction and camerawork.

The film's main theme, a calypso by full symphony orchestra, lacks the robust rhythmic mix of calypso and rumba of its predecessor in The Rake's Progress. There is also a surprise: among the orchestral instruments is what sounds like a theremin. Although the instrument had been used successfully by Miklos Rozsa in Spellbound (1945) and Roy Webb in The Spiral Staircase (1945), Alwyn usually relied on fairly standard orchestral instruments for his vertiginous harmonies. However, here it is, joined by the vibraphone to flashback to the experiences of a crazed, shipwrecked poor-man's Ben Gunn (John Laurie).