The Massie Affair

The year 1931 saw a controversial gang-rape trial in the United States, but the Scottsboro case was not the only such trial; on the island of Hawaii - which to this day is regarded by many people as a paradise in the Sun - a group of natives were accused of the rape of the wife of an American naval officer. Unlike the two alleged victims in the former, Thalia Massie was not a prostitute, neophyte or otherwise, but she was most definitely a head case, and by most accounts not the most likable of women, even by her husband!

This documentary tells the story of her false rape allegation and of the murder trial that followed which resulted from her mother's attempt to impose Southern justice on the alleged violators. If this documentary has one serious fault it is viewing this sad affair from a racial perspective. However, it is clear that in spite of the guilty verdicts, justice was not done, even though the prosecuting authorities - if not the police - did everything by the book.

It includes archive footage and commentary from the usual talking heads, one of them an accredited historian.