d6a2afd33b In 1870, the ambitious Captain David Dion O&#39;Keefe leaves Hong Kong to seek the valuable copra in the South Seas. He pushes his crew too much and faces a mutiny. When the crew assumes the ship, they leave Captain O&#39;Keefe in a small boat in the middle of nowhere. O&#39;Keefe is found on the shore of the Island of Yap and is saved by the German agent from the company that has the monopoly in Yap, Alfred Tetins, and the native Fatumak. When O&#39;Keefe is recovered, he finds stranded in an island with a large quantity of coconuts and he sees the possibility of raising a fortune exploring the natural resource. However the natives do not like to work and O&#39;Keefe returns to Hong Kong. Captain O&#39;Keefe tries to raise a loan to buy a new vessel, but he does not find any sponsor but the Chinese dentist Sien Tang that offers his old vessel, crew and supplies to O&#39;Keefe to become his partner and share his profits. O&#39;Keefe accepts and begins his dangerous journey through the South Seas. In 1870, Yankee sea captain O&#39;Keefe finds himself stranded after a mutiny on the Micronesian island of Yap, where the financial potential of copra (dried cocoanut) excites him. But a German company already has a monopoly…and very low production because hard work is alien to dwellers in paradise. On a later voyage, between affairs with island maidens, O&#39;Keefe struggles to find the key to the wealth of Yap. But before he can carve out the empire of his dreams, he must also contend with assorted villains… The last of Burt Lancaster&#39;s adventurous star vehicles is easily the weakest: bland, dreary and unmemorable yet contriving to be a colorful and pleasant diversion nevertheless; apparently, he plays an actual larger-than-life adventurer who became the ruler of a Fijian island. Andre&#39; Morell and Abraham Sofaer round up a rather unremarkable casta German trading agent and the native (and benign for once) witch doctor.<br/><br/>The film has an excessive quota of local color via a succession of tedious native ceremonies but only a handful of the expected action sequences although, what little there is, is adequately enough staged (including a hand-to-hand combat between Lancaster and a rebellious native chieftain who eventually comes to accept O&#39;Keefehis sovereign). An unusual element to the narrative which is, however, never brought to fruition is the native&#39;s reverence for a local stone they call &quot;Fei&quot;. Needless to say, the strapping (and frequently bare-chested) Lancaster turns the girls&#39; heads wherever he goes in particular that of an Afro-sporting native girl and his future wife, Asian Joan Rice.<br/><br/>The film was released on DVD by Warnerspart of a rather undistinguished &quot;Burt Lancaster Signature Collection&quot; but I still intend to get my hands on the rest of them in the future; for the record, I already have the best of this bunch i.e. Jacques Tourneur&#39;s THE FLAME AND THE ARROW (1950). The cinematography is often quite beautiful and the dances and ceremonies of the Pacific Island natives are fascinating. The story moves along at a brisk pace with lots of surprises and Burt Lancaster gives a vibrant, relaxed and fun performance. The only problem is the overt racism toward the islanders in the film. O&#39;Keefe (Lancaster) is the good guy because he only wants to exploit the natives, while the bad guys want to exploit and enslave the natives. There is a very interesting and sweet moment when O&#39;Keefe reconsiders his exploitation of the natives and asks, &quot;Where did I go wrong?&quot; If the film didn&#39;t contain this reflective moment, I would have probably been more critical of the film&#39;s racism which reflects the prevalent ideology of 1950&#39;s Hollywood. But does a fairly progressive anti-exploitation message excuse the racism in the film? Burt Lancaster fans and adventure fans should enjoy the film. Those who see racist ideologya sickness might have problems getting through the film
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