Neatly Done

This movie was a bit of a risk for me, as I never usually associate John Wayne or Lee Marvin with comedy films.However, I have found this film to be a real treasure and one which always makes me smile, no matter how often or recently I've seen it. Truly a small risk that paid off big!

A Comedy in a Tropical Paradise with Beautiful Scenery

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.

its no quiet man, but its still fun

a year after his last true masterpiece ("the man who shot liberty valance") director john ford reunited with two of his stars, john wayne and lee marvin, for the final comedy of his career. while wayne is terrific as the brawling owner of a south pacific bar, and marvin has fun in the role victor mclaglen would have essayed at an earlier time, the movie is hurt irreparably by the stilted acting of elizabeth allen, in the role that would once have been played (and splendidly) by maureen o'hara. too many cliches of hula girls and the like, but then again there is also the wonderfully touching christmas pageant sequence, set in the perpetually leaky-roofed church. is this great john ford? not by any means. but it IS john ford, and thus deserves to be seen.