Donovan's Reef (1963)

That was an excellent one.

Overrated and overhyped

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

DONOVAN'S REEF is an unusual social commentary comedy set on one of those idyllic South Seas islands that you only ever find in old movies. At least there are no cannibals in this one. The story sees a bunch of ex-pat Americans wreaking havoc in the era as they try to keep secrets from one another and court beautiful women.I watched this as part of a John Wayne kick and I have to rank it as one of his lesser efforts. Wayne is his typical self but the film doesn't really do much with his character. Lee Marvin has some funny drunken scenes and Cesar Romero is always a welcome presence in film but the movie as a whole is a bit of a slog, made when director John Ford was on his last legs. It didn't give me much reason to laugh.

This movie is a lot of fun to watch, the scenery is great, the singing lovely, the people beautiful, the characters interesting and the performances are very good too. My major problem with this movie is the casting of the two youngest children of 'the Doc' and Manulani - Sarah and Luki were in no way children of the Doc and Manulani - Leilani looked the part and played it well but Sarah and Luki each had at least one Chinese parent. They could not have had an Hawaiian mother and a Caucasian father. The visual clash really interfered with their being presented as Leilani's siblings. The two child actors did well - but couldn't overcome their appearance. Trying to pass them off as half Hawaiian and half Caucasian was really an insult to them and their own heritage. My other problem with it was the spanking scene - I know, those kinds of scenes were in several movies of that time period but even then I found the 'it's okay to spank a woman to get her to behave the way you (the man) want her to behave' was objectionable. Other than those two issues .. an entertaining movie.

Once again, director John Ford and star John Wayne make a picture together, as Wayne plays "Guns" Donavan, who, along with his friends "Boats" Gilhooley(played by Lee Marvin) and Dr. Dedham(played by Jack Warden) who lead an easygoing life on their Pacific island reef. One day, Dedham's daughter(played by Elizabeth Allen) comes to visit her father from their native Boston. Being a proper woman, she is appalled by the free-living(and often drunken) state her father lives in, so has decided to use his lifestyle against him in order to acquire his share of their lucrative shipping business for herself, but doesn't count on the determination and charm of Donovan...Overlong and frivolous film isn't really hard to take, but is easy to forget, with a totally predictable plot that unfolds far too lackadaisically.

This is one of my favorite John Wayne movies; and that's saying a lot considering I think almost all his movies are terrific.The one thing I wish to add to the various reviews that have been made is that this movie has nothing to do with racism, which many claim it does. I see it as Donovan, Gilhooley and Andre trying to hide from Amelia that her father has other children with a woman not her mother, after her mother's death. The mother of the three children was Polynesian, but that's not the point; the point was that he had other children than Amelia.It's lots of fun, lots of laughs, great music, great scenery. I think it's great.