Donovan's Reef
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Movie Reviews of Donovan's Reef
Movie Review: A Comedy in a Tropical Paradise with Beautiful Scenery
Summary: 5 Stars
One striking feature of this light-hearted movie is the footage of its setting (a south Pacific island). There is the sea, the sky, the palms, the mountains, and the beaches. There are the beautiful native costumes and Polynesian songs. The viewer is treated to a Christmas pageant in a tropical setting. Then there are the torrential tropical storms.
This movie has nothing to do with reefs. Donovan (John Wayne) owns a saloon which he calls Donovan's Reef. What would a John Wayne movie be without a saloon and fistfights? A character, Gilhooley, shares the same birthday as Donovan, and they get into an annual fight on that day. They also try to fix a gambling machine. Will the money ever come out?
Allusion is made to the time the island had been occupied by the Japanese during WWII and the island's rule by a native queen. Donovan still travels in a military jeep. Those who enjoy water-skiing can do so.
There is a variety of characters, including priests, nuns, a doctor, a staid visitor, and playful children. One funny character is a priest who won't fix the leak in the roof of his church because, whenever he gets a donation to fix it, he gives it to the poor instead.
Movie Review: You say it's your birthday
Summary: 5 Stars
It's my birthday too
Yes it is a John Wayne movie and has many of his standard cast. This is a Christmas movie and a birthday movie. And, And, And. John Wayne gets to say, "Swing your legs...limbs over" in his John Wane manner.
Cesar Romero (Marquis Andre de Lage) is always scheming to go to Hollywood and is the first to bring up the fact that the offspring of Jack Warden (Dr. William Dedham) are half-cast and may not meet Boston standards. This leads to situations that just keep snowballing. "Oh, what tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."
Everyone gets an appropriate present for Christmas. But I think the best one is the one that Lee Marvin (Thomas Aloysius 'Boats' Gilhooley) receives. And he gets to play King of America at the pageant.
There is not a slow moment in this film and you have to keep up with all the subplots. And the scenery is breathtaking.
Hatari!
Movie Review: The Last Great John Ford-John Wayne Collaboration
Summary: 5 Stars
This film has a lot of endearing and great elements. The film is set in the South Pacific with a rowdy cast of characters - John Wayne, Jack Warden and Lee Marvin. War buddies from World War II and living on the island ever since the end of the war, the Doc (Jack Warden) has a daughter who visits the island. Chaos ensues as the doc's friends cover his back while he's away visiting the outer islands. The daughter, heiress to a huge shipping company, might be offended by her father's marriage to a local native princess and their offspring. They don't appreciate such a relationship in tight-laced Boston. The other actors like Mike Mazurki and Cesar Romero add to the fun lustre of the film.
Movie Review: Donavan's Reef STILL LOTS OF FAMILY FUN
Summary: 5 Stars
OK - this is a mushy-gushy semtimental reivew because I grew up on John Wayne Movies with my Dad. We watched Donovan's whenever it was broadcast on TV when I was a kid. My own children watched it over and over with Dad when they were children and now my grandchildren watch it. It is good clean thoroughly entertaining family fun! To my family, it has deep sentimental value because it has such warm fuzzy memories of Dad tangled up in practically every scene - we can almost hear his laughter every time Lee Marvin spells d-o-t-t-e-r!!! This movie will never grow old. I miss Dad and I miss John Wayne. BUY THE MOVIE and start making our own family memories.Movie Review: My shout for Donovans Reef
Summary: 5 Stars
Something in me identified with this oddity, maybe 5 years in the Navy, or living on a tropical island. Big John was never my favourite, ah but Lee Marvin - I liked him in 'Paint Your Wagon' & Cat Ballou only, but the whole mixture of the cast and the setting - magic, like them Pearly Shells ! The ' Aussie ' sailors are a farce - struth strike me down with a feather, more like a mob of Irishmen !! The story has poignance, comedy, fun, and some romance. I watch it when I'm down, and it always is a upper !! especially when I sing a long to those monkeys from Sam Boanga...