User reviews

"Donovan's Reef" is an accurately made, funny, light-hearted work, with some moments of deep poetry. For the audience it is more a relaxing vacation than an actual movie: we are transferred to a paradisiac South Pacific island, where a bunch of super-nice guys, our friends John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Elizabeth Allen, Dorothy Lamour, Mike Mazurki, Cesar Romero make a funny show to entertain us. From the very beginning we find John Ford's characteristic sense of humour: we see a family meeting of sullen Bostonian shipowners, who all take for granted that their relative Dr. Dedham (Jack Warden) is living in orgiastic promiscuity over there, in the Islands of Sin. And then there is the usual number of (harmless) fist-fights and brawls... and a quarrel-loaded love-story... and many comic misunderstandings...

"Donovan's Reef" is one of the very last cinema appointments of John Ford. Inside this light comedy, the old Master inserts touches of his poetic legacy, his trade-mark messages of peace, brotherhood, anti-racism. An evident instance is the scene of the Christmas Mass and Ceremony, with the islanders in their native costumes. And then there is an extremely poignant short scene, just few seconds. The nice little French priest is walking on a beautiful, sunny lawn, shaded by palm-trees, close to the sea: it's the cemetery. We see tombs with a Celtic cross, a French cross, a David's star; then the priest stops at a native barrow, covered with garlands, and he starts to pray (this is the tomb of the late native princess, the doctor's wife). After the storms of our life on this earth, we become all brothers in a better world. This quiet and dignified, yet full of religious hope acceptance of death is one of the most felt and profound themes of Ford's poetry.

I recommend "Donovan's Reef": enjoy the humour, the funny action, the fine performances of the cast, and don't miss the deep poetic touches of the Master John Ford.

This was a beautiful film, not least because of the warm and lively music, and also because of the cool, sensual presence of Elizabeth, who died only recently. The comedy, as written above, could indeed be a little ham-handed, but there's no substitute for the scene when Amelia, riding the back of a jeep, is vaulted off the rear as it hits a bump and lands flat on her a**. John Wayne looks down at her and asks quietly, "Did you hurt your ---- self?" This is a pleasant, human drama, with a strong anti-racist message built around a great cast of characters. A solid, pleasing John Ford / John Wayne partnership, and Elizabeth Allen was a pure pleasure.

Donovan's Reef is fun. It has a decent story, good characters, and stunning scenery. This is why you go to the movies, isn't it? If compared against Ford's acknowledged masterpieces, Dononvan's Reef does not measure up, but measured against other escapist films, it is a great movie. John Wayne's performance is consistently good, and as always, believable. Wayne was so real in his films, that he is never considered to be a good actor, but if you look at his body of work, you have to admit he could do it all. His Guns Donovan character is certainly up to snuff, and he does well with what he has. His interaction with Lee Marvin as Boats Gilhooley is as good as any of his other brawling, head-butting clashes with legends like Ward Bond or Victor McGlaglen. Lee Marvin is very funny and clever in his scenes, and very rarely over the top. He could always deliver on a character that was supposed to be likable, but mentally ill.

Aside from the fun, we have a significant plot element of prejudice considering the behavior of Guns, Boats, and Andre, where they hide the Doctor's half-caste Polynesian children from the All-White Bostonian daughter, Amelia. Paradoxically, we have Chinese stereotypes in the form of goofy looking morons with toothy grins and heavy accents. Still, in the end reason prevails in that the young Leilani shows wisdom beyond her years. When she sings a prayer of thanks to the goddess of the canyon where Guns chops down their Christmas tree, Amelia asks if she believes in gods and goddesses. Leilani replies, "I believe in one God, as we all do, but I respect the customs and beliefs of my people." Amelia subsequently accepts the cultural differences with a gracious bow to Leilani, who is being honored as the last hereditary princess of the island. That is a nicely done scene.

If you focus on what Donovan's Reef isn't, it will be a disappointing film. If you enjoy it for what it is, you will have a great time.

From the very beginning of this movie you know what you have let yourself in for, when Lee Marvin belts the ship's bosun over the ear with a broom. Followed by, "Permission to leave the ship"; then literally jumps ship and swims for the beach. You realize then that you are in for 150 minutes of a Fordian, boisterous knockabout comedy.

This was the last time that Ford and Wayne would team up together. Maybe this production was a farewell rave-up for both of them. With Lee Marvin thrown in to assist in turning it into a roughhouse just for the hell of it. Added to this pugilistic mixture, you have the jumbo-sized heavyweight, Mike Mazurki, serving as a French Colonial Gendarme. As a welcome opposite to the boisterous muscle we have the smooth, suave Cesar Romero, oozing glossy charm and good manners, serving as the colonial governor of this supposed French Polynesian paradise. Add to that, Dorothy Lamour, back in the sarong after a long absence, as a duskey maiden-type decoration. The three children belonging to Doctor Dedham add a nice child-like innocence to this warring male atmosphere. Here the softer side of Big John comes to the surface when he tries to comfort the eldest of the three children who becomes emotional over her half-cast origins. Elizabeth Allen adds a well bred prim and proper touch of class to this nonsensical tropical South Pacific potion.

This movie then, has a friendly-like approach to bar room brawling with smiles thrown in. Harmless and bruising fun all the way. I always imagine that this kind of rough and tumble movie seems to be "cobbled" together...somehow. Then everything seems to fall into place at the end. The end result being order out of chaos.

It's a sad to think that nearly all the lead characters plus John Ford, have all faded out and gone to the big movie studio in the sky. God help anybody else up there with this lot! That's all.

This movie is a little different from the average action picture starring John Wayne. While Wayne still is a hard-living, hard-drinking guy, this movie is neither a cowboy nor war picture but is about a middle-aged guy living in the South Pacific along with his goofy friends (including Lee Marvin). In many ways, Wayne and company play a group of older guys trying desperately to live like crazed frat boys. On that level, the movie actually works at times, though this also greatly detracts from the rest of the film. If this is a "kinder and gentler" John Wayne who can take care of children and romance a woman, then bar room brawling seems out of place and contrived--much like what occurred in another John Ford film, WHAT PRICE GLORY?. I really wish Ford had directed this film a little less like a party with his drinking buddies and stuck to the other 90-95% of the film. Still, it is a lot of fun to watch and is a very amiable time-passer.

With The Duke and Lee Marvin, I knew that this was going to be a fun movie to watch. No disappointment there. Filled with the splendor of the South Pacific and scored with beautiful music from the islands, it will appeal to any fan of the tropics. Elizabeth Allen is stunning as the leggy Boston blue blood who arrives on the island and gets everyone stirred up. She, along with Wayne, Marvin and Jack Warden make the film funny and appealing. If you want to watch a film that does not use today's hackneyed formula of gratuitous sex, profanity, explosions and car chases, fix yourself a Mai Tai, put on your flowered shirt and watch Donovan's Reef. Aloha.

This was a fun outing for John Wayne in the spirit of McClintock (including the spanking). I always enjoy seeing actors that have worked well together re-teamed, and here you get the Duke back with his nemesis from a year before, Lee "Liberty Valance" Marvin. And they do a great job of delivering an hour and fifty minutes' worth of entertainment, aided and abetted by a great supporting cast, Cesar Romero especially standing out.

I was a little frustrated by the underutilization of Jack Warden and Mike Mazurki. In fact, the scenes with Jack Warden almost seemed to be from another movie (such as Woody Allen's INTERIORS), with a humorlessness at odds with the rest of the picture.

My personal disappointment as a fan of singing cowboy Dick Foran was having to wait and wait for his appearance and then have it over way too quickly. Though he did sing!

My conceptions about the South Pacific were formed when I saw this movie at the Elm Theatre in Brooklyn growing up. It has an honored place in my collection.

First off that music does get you. Every John Ford film is marked by a great use of music, in his westerns the use of traditional western themes pace the action. Here in Donovan's Reef the music under the credits sets the mood for the story set on this South Seas Paradise.

Secondly this was the last film that John Ford made with John Wayne. I believe this is the most successful actor/director relationship in the history of film by just about any standard you want to use, box office, quality of work, etc. The partnership went out on a high note.

John Wayne's westerns are usually a self contained world that operates on the principles of his universe. This film does also, but here it is more believable. This mixed group of people really do know the secret of living and let living. And the outside world occasionally does intrude and violently as the World War II background of the principal characters demonstrates.

This is also a film about believing stereotypes. John Wayne, Lee Marvin and the rest of the island believe Elizabeth Allen will be a racist. She's hurt by the abandonment of her father (Jack Warden) but she does come to accept her half-siblings. The film is anti-racist, but it also teaches a great moral lesson in not making your mind up about people prematurely.

The comedy as in all Ford films is heavy handed, but I still crack up at Wayne and Marvin and their escapades.

This is what the definition of escapist entertainment is.

Not John Wayne's best movie, but one of my favourites. I love the locations, which I believe was Hawaii. It is just a fun movie to watch. The type of movie you don't have to think to hard about.

Hoping to inherent a substantial fortune by proving that her estranged father is a man of ill repute, a Boston woman travels to the tropical island where her father has long resided in this late career John Ford comedy. Elizabeth Allen is well cast as the prudish woman in question who gradually softens during the course of the film, but top billing here goes to John Wayne and Lee Marvin, cast as her father's friends. Wayne in fact has the most screen time as he takes to covering up the fact that Allen's father married a local woman - and had three non-Caucasian children - by pretending that the kids are his own. The comedic potential of this angle is never quite maximised though as Ford instead tries to derive humour from friendly fistfights and physical comedy (a man crashing through a concert piano). Wayne's formulaic romancing of Allen is not especially funny either, but then again comedy was never Ford's strongest suit. The film is more worthwhile than it may sound though. The snapshot of island life is fairly alluring with many races living there in peace and harmony. The locations are quite spectacular too and one gets a sense that the characters living there are quite rich in other ways, even if they do not have a fortune to inherit. The film has a very good supporting cast too, though most do not have a lot to do. Caesar Romero is perfectly smarmy, Jack Warden is solid as Allen's father and Jacqueline Malouf is great as Warden's eldest daughter who has to contend with the emotional toll of meeting her half-sister for the first time and pretending to be someone else.

Some people thought that John Ford was crazy to do such a picture with John Wayne. Where is the action? This movie is a departure for Ford and Wayne collaborations in that it plays more like a 30s screwball comedy in a scenic location that the typical Ford/Wayne picture that you've seen before (Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon etc). All the actors do good jobs and the script, like a 30s screwball comedy, is not likely to happen in real life but fun to watch. The movie was filmed in Hawaii and the scenery is gorgeous. The interplay between Wayne and Co-Star Elizabeth Allen ("Amelia") is reminiscent of Wayne and Maureen O'hara. Allen compares favorably to O'Hara in that she plays the strong woman who is not overshadowed by Waynes "Guns Donovan". I enjoyed Caesar Romero, who played the Governor of the island and is looking to court Amelia only after he checks her wealth in Dun and Bradstreet. Pay particular attention to Lee Marvin's "Boats Gilhooley", grab a beer, and sit back and enjoy.

FYI...the summary of this film identifies Dr. Dedham's daughter as "Elizabeth". "Elizabeth" Allen is the actress who portrays the daughter. The character's name is "Amelia". This film may not be one of John Wayne's best movies, but it provides all the action, fun and adventure typical of all his films. This is a film for the whole family to enjoy.

Having not seen "The Wings Of Eagles", I cannot say that "Donovan's Reef", the last collaboration between director John Ford and star John Wayne, was also their least. But "Eagles" would have to be remarkably bad to beat this.

"Guns" Donovan (Wayne) lives on a faraway island in French Polynesia which he helped liberate from Japanese occupation in World War II along with buddies "Boats" Gilhooley (Lee Marvin) and "Doc" Dedham (Jack Warden). Trouble comes in the form of Dedham's long-estranged daughter Ameilia (Elizabeth Allen), who travels from Boston to prove her father is not of fit moral character to own a piece of his family's fortune. Donovan hides Dedham's three native offspring by pretending they are his, to buy time while winning Ameilia over to the ways of the island and her father.

There, I just spent more time on the plot of "Donovan's Reef" than the movie itself does! "Donovan's Reef" is a rambling mess, perhaps an attempt to grab all the comic relief bits from Ford's more serious films and build an entire movie around them. Either that or an excuse for Ford to throw himself a party in the Pacific. Beyond the arrival of Ameilia, nothing happens during the film's two-hour running time. Gilhooley and Donovan smash up the latter's bar, Donovan's Reef, while Gilhooley is chased by aging barfly Miss Lafleur (Dorothy Lamour). Christmas is celebrated in a rainy church. The French governor of the island (Cesare Romero) makes eyes for Ameilia.

William H. Clothier fills the screen with some remarkable Hawaiian landscapes, and Allen gives her part, "Miss Bunker Hill" as Donovan calls her, more than it deserves. She also gives Wayne someone to play off of that rouses his better moments in this film, something that can't be said of any other member of the cast, including Marvin, who after a big build-up retreats to the background and acts drunk. Maybe he WAS drunk; it's that kind of film.

Warden plays his part way too straight and Marcel Dalio as a French priest plays his way too broad. One of these guys is in the wrong picture; I think it's Warden. Ford plays everything too broad, with annoyingly repetitive musical cues and endless ceremonies. The island seems a haven for Ford's cinematic tics and idiosyncrasies. People don't walk anywhere, they file in tight parade, two by two. They also burst into sudden song, the same dreary number complete with arms waving in unison and invisible instrumental accompaniment. When Ameilia swims onto an empty beach in a revealing bathing suit, an unidentified character runs into the frame, throws her a towel, and runs out.

What really annoys me is the script by James Edward Grant. We are asked to side against Ameilia because she took badly to her father's abandonment and because she is stuck up. Yet as soon as she's on the island, she's being abused by Donovan, doused in the ocean and then dragged across a beach. Grant liked his women being spanked and thrown out of windows, but here he really shoves your face in that, along with icky cute scenes featuring the Dedham offspring.

If not for Allen and Clothier, "Donovan's Reef" would be much worse than it is. As it is, it's pretty bad, showing even the best of movie partnerships needed the right help to make something for the ages.

Brawling, leisurely-paced comedy with an island setting: typical of director Ford in its plethora of colorful characters and occasional sentimentality, but is actually a heavy-handed attempt at the Howard Hawks style (as displayed most recently in another John Wayne vehicle, HATARI! [1962] - which I've just learned, via the McLINTOCK! [1963] Audio Commentary, was critic Leonard Maltin's favorite film growing up!); this is most evident in the love-hate relationship between the Wayne and Elizabeth Allen characters.

Despite a stalwart cast, all performers are basically operating below-par (Lee Marvin's co-star credit isn't really justified, Dorothy Lamour's role is insignificant, while Jack Warden is not only too young to play Allen's father but too 'modern' to fit in this company!). All in all, it's a harmless but disappointing swansong for one of cinema's most famous and durable director-actor teams; pity they didn't part company with the elegiac THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962) - also featuring Marvin - which preceded it!

Wonderfully shot Ford film with a lively look at the Pacific atoll life , including amusing scenes , humor , acting class , familiar drama , a love story and sentimental nostalgia with interesting character studio of a varied assortment of individuals . Entertaining and fun story with agreeable romance adding strong knuckles for spectacular fight between Wayne, Ford's favorite leading man, against brawling Lee Marvin . It deals with two WWII buddies Donovan (John Wayne) and Gilhooley (Lee Marvin , similar role to starred by Victor Mclagen) are supposed to share December 7th for their birthday and meet every years on a South Seas paradise to engage a perpetual bar-brawl until a stuck-up Bostonian maiden (Elizabeth Allen) appears to find her lovable dad (Jack Weston who played Elizabeth Allen's father, was only nine years her senior in real life) who has fathered a brood of intimate half-casts .

This amusing , good-natured film contains Ford's usual themes as familiar feeling , a little bit enjoyable humor , friendship and and sense of comradeship among people . Interesting screenplay portraying in depth characters and brooding events with interesting issues running beneath script surface was written by James Edward Grant and Frank Nugent , John Ford's habitual , and based on the story by James Michener . Here Ford goes to an atoll in an evocative and idealized portrait , paintstakingly constructed , about life in an idealized Pacific island .

The main heroes , Wayne and Marvin , are two mighty tough guys who break beer bottles , tables and brawling among them . As in a fight with Lee Marvin, John Wayne underestimated an uppercut , he crashed through a table and fell down and director John Ford decided to leave the scene in the movie . This rollicking film featuring a magnificent performance by whole casting and acting class mainly supplied by starring duo and an excellent plethora of secondaries . This is the technically last movie that John Ford and his favourite actor , worked on together, although Wayne later provided the voice-over narration for Ford's documentary Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend . Both of whom , swap the wide open spaces of the prairie for the spaces of a marvelous Pacific island . That's packed with many Ford's regulars a and familiar characters such as Mike Mazurki , Dick Foran , Mae Marsh , Chuck Roberson ,some of them are uncredited and Patrick Wayne, John Wayne's son, has a small cameo, he plays the Australian Shore Patrol officer that breaks up the final fight . Good and colorful cinematography by William H Clothier and evocative musical score in Hawaian style by Cyril Mockridge . This sprawling , brawling adventure story was well directed by John Ford in a personal style . It's a hight-spirited tale with a sensitive fresh-air feeling , and one of Ford's finest movies . Rating : Better than average . Well worth watching for John Wayne and Le Marvin fans .

"Donovan's Reef" is set on an island in the Pacific, which is basically getting by on its own merits without much contact with the modern world. John Wayne and Lee Marvin team up to portray two navy buddies that seem to have two things in common--the same birthday and a desire to punch each others' lights out because of a quarrel that started several years before on that birthday. The rest of the cast occupy themselves trying to keep the two "friends" alive because they genuinely are decent guys.

Into this island bliss comes Elizabeth Allen, portraying a lady from Boston who is attempting to prove that her father, played by Jack Warden, has been living on the island in standards less than acceptable by Boston customs so she can claim his share of a family shipping business. Through one scene after another, the film takes a merry romp through its plot and gives the viewer a very enjoyable time.

This film is not one of Johns best but it ranks pretty high. It's good to see John Wayne in something besides a cowboy movie. It has a great supporting cast. Lee Marvin out does his self in his role as the out cast friend who has the same birthday as John Wayne. Cesar Romero plays his part brilliantly as the French Ambassador. And the kids in this film could not have been cast better. Jacqueline Malouf plays her part as the teen age daughter of Jack Warden so convincingly you forget she was 22 at the time. And Cherylene Lee is the cutest little girl who ever played a part in the movies.

The plot is a little lame and Elizabeth Allen is a little young to be playing John Wayne's love interest. John Wayne appears to look the oldest of the three Americans who stayed on the island to help the inhabitants during WWII. But the movie comes off pretty good if you can over look the age difference. Besides, Wayne and Allen do work well together. I like to watch this movie from time to time. It's a feel good movie were everything comes out good in the end.

When l'd saw the casting with Duke, Lee Marvin, Warden, Lamour, Dalio and directed by the legendary John Ford, I really foresee, the dust will raise, the beginning is quite amusing, but a bit contrived, those fights are just to do a fine entry, the plot is absolutely well-crafted, a daughter looking for his unfaithful father on the lost island, which he already have three children sounds great, how it has been developing was the main key to settle all things slowly, Dr. Dedham try out tells the truth to your anxious daughter many times, perhaps in that time something happens, whatever he never got the right chance to do it, smart screenplay, Duke and Marvin has been tame and the daughter played by Elisabeth Allen find out by herself, also the amusing Cesar Romero and Duke compete for her, guess who will be chosen, a touching picture, something alike "Return to Paradise" with Gary Cooper ten years before !!!

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First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

"Donovan's Reef" is a strange film I suggest or many reasons, and about as physically glowing as a film can be. it is a hymn to Polyneisa, to its natural beauty, its friendly people and its future, from John Ford and John Wayne who clearly by the film's message hope not to see these qualities spoiled. I find it a strong element in the script that the faults of Bostonians, an allegorical composite for super-rich-government connected types, are discredited---with the qualities that describe unrealistic power-mongers--inability to enjoy simplicity, lack of a sense of humor, intolerance, frigidity in sex, inability to seek amity, unwillingness to compromise on nonessential points, bigotry against all those poorer or differently, worship of power...all the traits that define corporate-man of the U.S. increasingly throughout the 20th Century (but have the opposite quality of truly American values). The film is gentle, deliberate in pace and pits two screwball comedy types, the seemingly over-macho but lovable brute and the seemingly stuck-up by basically-goodhearted girl against one another; and from the beginning as his steely spirit and her iron resolve meet sharply , sparks fly. In the film's focused storyline, a youthful, would-be heiress from Boston, Ameiia (Elizabeth Allen), travels from her cold, snowy and overly-formal zone of existence to locate her father, missing since WWII. She had been born near the beginning of that Pacific conflict; but he stayed in French Polynesia and has never seen her. He stands to inherit millions, that is the prospect; she needs to prove that he is "morally unfit" in order to overturn that provision of a will. The assumption is he must be living in sin, he's in paradise--not Boston. She is met not by her errant papa but by his friend, "Guns" Donovan, an ex-sailor, and a man who who owns the local saloon, 'Donovan's Reef'. What she does not know is the father has had three children since, by a Polynesian mother. It takes time, a brawl over a shared birthday, meeting and growing to love the people, some tense scenes with her father, ceremonies, arguments, a water-skiing contretemps involving two sorts of bathing suit representing Boston and Polynesia and an opportunistic play for her by the governor that the girl finally melts--in so far as iron can. She decides it is more logical to stay with Donovan than to deny her feelings, and her love for the island. Donovan spanks her, the Amelia that was; but the action is symbolic, for from this point on they will be equals,; his brawling partner will own 'Gilhooley's Reef' and and they will make a life together where people get along and respect one another's differences. . The film is an amiable service-style comedy--John Ford is never far from cavalry-post humor--and the build of the romance from a hotly-denied spark through incidents, misassumptions, mutual interactions and learnings prepares us not for surrender but for a warlike alliance at the end; and for a procession of priests, friends, children, Gilhooley, her father, and a huge French policeman bearing her worldly goods to Donovan's house in train behind the happy couple. The cinematography by William Clothier and the art direction by Sam Imazu and veteran Hal Pereira are I found often stunning. Icons Sam Comer and Darrell Silvera did the set decorations, Edith Head the colorful costumes and Nellie Manley the many hairstylings. Wayne's favorite writer James Edward Grant worked with Frank Nugent on a story by Edmund Beloi(out of James A. Michener's works, uncredited); Cyril Mockridge provided original music. In the cast, Wayne, whose heavy-handed but genial comedic touch went unrecognized for years stands his own with Elizabeth Allen, one of the strongest and most-underrated actresses in the history of the screen. Other standouts in the cast include Cesar Romero as the governor, Lee Marvin who gets to be loud and occasionally rambunctious, Marcel Dalio, Jack Warden, Dick Foran, Edgar Buchanan, Jon Fong, Mike Mazurki as the policeman and the children Jacqueline Malouf, Cherylene Lee and and Jeffrey Byron. The movie has a Christmas feel about it in some strange manner; I believe it is its message of Americanism set against a rather silly and stuffy set of 'republican' attitudes of petty power-wielding that cause it to be so happy a film; this was what, despite its errors, worked for "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Giant", for instance. This was also the last that lasted over many years. And we are the richer for it. if you're looking for tons of action, for this one; it's more of the "How Green Was My Valley" and "Rio Grande" sort of atmospheric tale about common sense being taught to those who have been avoiding it, by gentle comedic example.

Watching a John Ford film tickles me with the same excitement than a bar crawl... while a quick glimpse on the credits have that "drinks are on me" effect that gives its extra flavor to the beer. And from the synopsis, I could see that was a movie made for the beauty of the setting and its escapist value, which unburdened my mind from high expectations... except for fun. After all, John Ford had just added "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" to the top shelf of his body of work and I didn't expect two masterpieces in a row ("Valance" would be his last anyway).

But if the veteran director is entitled to concoct a few 'potboilers', he stills knows how to serve the starters: "Boats" Gillhooley, Lee Marvin as a US navy veteran, spots Haleakaloha (a name I could only copy-paste) and after punching the sailor who didn't want to call there as promised, he jumps from the freighter and swims to the island. His dive splashes the last doubts one misinformed viewer would still have: this is the lighthearted Ford. The 'splash' also says something about the magnetic power of the island as there must be some history buried in these golden sands. The only reservation is that it misleads the viewer on the role Marvin will occupy in the film: if anything, he's the closest to a comic relief, a role he embraces with the self-awareness of an actor who doesn't go for awards but free vacation in Hawaii.

Hawaii stands for French Polynesia here and -as one viewer might expect- it is full of female natives offering colorful garlands and radiant smiles to the modern "Bounty-mutineers". There's an interesting international ambiance à la "Casablanca" (minus the war): with an Asian diaspora, and as obligatory representatives of the French metropole, you have the nuns, the local priest (Marcel Dalio) and the distinguished Marquis (a delightfully hammy Cesar Romero). And finally, there are US Navy survivors in John Wayne as "Guns" Donovan and Doc Derham (Jack Warden) the only doctor in the archipelago and certainly the most dependable and respected figure of all.

Gillhooley is the last vet to join the club and the reason the film starts with him is because he guides us right to the place of action: the pub owned by Donovan where beer flows more surely than coins from the broken slot machine, and faces more likely to get hit than the jackpot. There's a strange rivalry going between "Boats" and "Guns" as both share the same birthday (... of infamy, December 7), and celebrate each one by a tradition of drag-on fistfights both actors indulge to with the same childish pleasure as kids playing cowboys (rivalries are like bar brawls, you don't know who start them, but you insist on being the one to finish them).

After these character-establishing shenanigans, we take a little detour from Boston where Amelia Derdham, a rich businesswoman, must prove that her father violated some morality clause so she can inherit his fortune and content her company's stockholders. She's played by Elizabeth Allen who's way too cold and sternly unattractive to fool us, and watching her icy façade slowly melting under the tropical sun is like the little peanuts you're being served with the beer, you know how it tastes but you can't just stop eating one after another.

So when her majestic little-self lamentably falls into the lagoon with Guns, it's one little dive for a character but a giant leap for the romance, that a straightforward director like John Ford doesn't stall. Indeed, from the very start, Mrs. Allen knows how to place her legs to let the camera literally lusting on them, so insistently it almost confines to fetishism. This is a man's movie and the male gaze is even more invasive toward the other woman played by Dorothy Lamour, the bar singer who can handle the ruder manners of Gilhooley. Elizabeth Allen goes along with the whole playful mood, plenty aware that she's playing the 'straight' role; but she proves to be more than good looks and a solid replacement to Maureen O'Hara (the one Wayne wanted for the part). Take that scene where she puts on the old swimsuit, "Guns" doesn't even realize she's pulling his leg.

And we know the Duke: he might resist good looks, but not a good sense of humor or a "mean Irish temper". Meanwhile Amelia starts to appreciate the man's warmth, believing he took children under his care, ignoring that these are her own father's children and it's a whole scheme to cover the Doc before a father-and-daughter conversation settles things for the best. The deception had noble intentions and fortunately, isn't used as the backbone of the middle act (an attempt from the Marquis to sabotage the love story fails immediately).

But there's an interesting moment where the teenaged daughter Leilani believes she was hidden from Amelia because she's half-caste indirectly making a powerful statement about tolerance and a certain hypocrisy regarding skin-color and highlighting the humanity of the two lead roles. John Wayne admitted he was too old for the part and you can tell he was more at ease in the scene where he plays with the children than the romantic man.

Among the serious vignettes, there's also a a long celebration of Christmas that works as a communion on three different cultures: Occidental, West Indies and Asian, one that a long thunderstorm can't even interrupt. The sequence is so well done it redeems a few dated stereotypes but I can tell which part are more likely to offend viewers today and while I agree that the treatment wo men receive can trigger a few sensitive minds, let's not forget this is a product of its era and that Lee Marvin is last seen staring at his new toy train like a little kid, which tells you where the emphasis should be put.

Fun movie if you can get past the clichés. Ford's use of Marcel Dalio as a French priest is appalling, ditto the Royal Australian Navy coming on like a bunch of Cockneys saying they were born in Tipperary, complete nonsense, but Dorothy Lamour is a delight, as are Elizabeth Allen and Cesar Romero. Wayne and Marvin seem to have been over-encouraged to just play themselves and the results are pretty disastrous. I don't know why John Wayne would really spin wheelies every time he got into his jeep and leave skid-marks on people's lawns. The fight scenes are pretty tedious really.

Good use of landscape and interiors.

Re the music, it seems badly played to me. The band is clearly not a Hawaiian band at all but a bunch of C&W pickers who are in entirely the wrong idiom. And we didn't need a thousand repetitions of the theme song or especially Frere Jacques.