Donovan's Reef (DVD)

I was very surprised to find another film where John Wayne is not playing his usual cowboy! In this film he takes the role of Donovan, a bar owner.

Donovan and a few other men, including Dr William Denham are stranded on the French Polynesian Island of Haleakaloha during the war and after the war ended and they defeated the enemy on the island they all decided that they would stay and help the island people re build their town. The ...
...now runs the bar and Dr Denham has built and is running a hospital. Denham also now has 3 children.

Elsewhere a young lady by the name of Miss Denham finds out that she is been left the remaining shares in the family shipping business but only if she can get her father, who she has never met, to sign them all over to her. This sees Miss Denham setting off for the island to meet her father and get his to sign the shares over.
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I was very surprised to find another film where John Wayne is not playing his usual cowboy! In this film he takes the role of Donovan, a bar owner.

Donovan and a few other men, including Dr William Denham are stranded on the French Polynesian Island of Haleakaloha during the war and after the war ended and they defeated the enemy on the island they all decided that they would stay and help the island people re build their town. The men have soon moved on with their lives and Donovan now runs the bar and Dr Denham has built and is running a hospital. Denham also now has 3 children.

Elsewhere a young lady by the name of Miss Denham finds out that she is been left the remaining shares in the family shipping business but only if she can get her father, who she has never met, to sign them all over to her. This sees Miss Denham setting off for the island to meet her father and get his to sign the shares over.

The news of Miss Denham’s visit to the island soon reaches Donovan and his friends which as the Dr is away on business Donovan takes it upon himself to deal with. He takes the Dr’s 3 children and moves them in with him and arranges for Miss Denham to stay at her fathers house. The arrival of a wealthy young lady also sees the local men getting excited and they all start to plan how they are going to woo her!

Will the arrival of Miss Denham be a big blow for her long lost Dad and will she ever warm to him and realise that she now has a larger family, will any of the men on the island be able to woo Miss Denham or will she and Donovan finally acknowledge the chemistry between themselves?

OK so we all know I am certainly no John Wayne fan but I will admit I did actually find this film quite good. I think it was a refreshing change to see John Wayne not playing the role of a cowboy and I think he did a great job of portraying an ex-Navy man who had taken to island life and was enjoying being there. He worked well with the different character and managed to bring something different to it. The supporting actor which included, Lee Marvin, Jack Warden and Elizabeth Allen were all very good and I think that they all worked well together. The variety of characters in this film was good and did manage to give the film some depth.

I did find that the child actors which were used to play the roles of the Doctors children were a bit wooden which did slightly up an unnatural feel on the film but as 2 of them were only very young then I can forgive them! The character of Tommy, played by Lee Marvin was a big success in this film as he did bring an element of humour and all he ever seemed interested in was making money, drinking and fighting, I thought he did a great job in this role.

The story was good but it did get very predictable towards the middle and I had already worked out the ending before it happened, this really did not bother me though as it meant I did not have to use a lot of brain power to watch the second half of the film.

I found the setting for the film was lovely with it being set on a tropical island, the costumes and settings were all very authentic and I did believe that they were actually on this island. There wee a lot of bad back drops which had noticeably been added at a later date but this can be forgiven due to the age of the film. The views which we were treated to over the mountains and the wonderful waterfall were the highlight of the film for me as they were truly amazing scenes. The music used in the film was good but not at all memorable which was a shame for me as this is the only aspect of the cowboy films which star John Wayne which I do actually enjoy!

The DVD which we have is the 100th anniversary collectors edition which does not have any bonus material,. This is no great loss for me as I am not one for watching these features anyway. The running time of the film is 104 minutes which I felt to be a good length and the certificate is a universal which means that it is suitable for all, and I do agree with this.

We picked this DVD up well over a year ago now for £4.99 but do try and get a copy on line as it will probably be cheaper.

I am going to recommend this film as it shows that John Wayne could in fact do other roles and not just the cowboy and it does have a good storyline and great supporting actors.

 

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