Donovan's Reef (1963)

. . . you'll "spoil the child," but DONOVAN'S REEF provides just one more example of John Wayne's take on Family Management, which might be summed up as, "Spare the hand, spoil the wife!" DONOVAN'S REEF concludes with Mr. Wayne's "Mike" character closing his engagement deal with Elizabeth Allen's "Amelia" by turning her over his knee and giving her a few mighty whacks on her rump. A few years later John would reprise this mode of domestic man-handling in his penultimate collaboration with frequent co-star Maureen O'Hara, McLINTOCK! (Perhaps he spanked Mo in all the pictures they made together; my memory is NOT photographic!) Of course, in McLINTOCK!, Mr. Wayne made Whaling on the Wife a multi-generational family affair, as he had one of his Real Life sons redden the rear of the latter's movie mate. When these flicks featuring Battles of the Buttocks were originally released, Wayne's focus on the female derrière probably was considered to be, "Good, Clean Fun." When you ponder over this today, remember that if John had just spent MORE time recreating with ladies' butts and LESS time creating cigarette butts, he might have been able to make more movies!

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.

Donovan's Reef is a most peculiar creature.You might call it a romantic comedy, because that is probably the strongest thread running through it. Then again, there is a large element of knockabout farce involved. At the same time, it makes some quite serious points about racism, albeit it does so in a way which was reasonable at the time but which, seen from a modern viewpoint, almost reinforces a racism viewpoint (the Japanese residents of Haleakaloa, for instance, are very stereotyped). And you might also think of it as a travelogue, because it makes full use of the beautiful Hawaiian locations. It's also worth observing that, viewed from 2010, it is pretty sexist, too - all a woman needs to bring her into line is a good spanking followed by a good kissing, and all that! But for all that, it is a good natured film, and it has a warm heart. Wayne delivers the character we have seen in so many westerns, Lee Marvin and Caesar Romero overact dreadfully (but, to be fair, they are required to), Jack Warden is the conscience of the film, and the sinfully underused Elizabeth Allen (she had a successful TV career, but this was her highest profile film) is its heart. I also very much liked Jacqueline Malouf as Lelani, in a performance of maturity beyond her years, bridging the gap between the inconsequentialities of a child on the brink of adolescence and the dignity of a princess born.I simply enjoy this film very much, and I treasure it for the moment when Amelia shows that she has worked everything out, and welcomes Lelani as her sister, one of my all time favourite movie moments.

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.