Truly Dreadful Film

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The first thing that hit me about this movie was an appreciation of the wide screens and bright colours that prevailed in movies of that era. Hawaii looks great here. On a large screen, that alone would have been worth the price of admission. As for that other stuff, cast, acting, directing, story, dialogue, etc. Well, this is a soap opera and don't expect too much more except that the plot angles focus on race, ethnic relations and class and this gives them a bit more substance than some other soap operas such "The Picnic" or "Portrait in Black". At the time, it probably skated the line between being edgy enough to intrigue the audience but not so controversial to be scandalous. Today, it comes across as pretty mild although the issues themselves have certainly not disappeared. Nothing and no one is either brilliant or terrible although Philip Ahn's small part is excellent and produces a strong moment. Heston has his huge screen presence but this is not one of his classic roles. There is not enough there for it to possibly become that. Mimieux looks great and her role is as essential as Heston's and is a soap opera archetype. Nuyen also looks great and, as usual for her in the 60s, melancholy.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, glossy soap operas were among Hollywood's most popular offerings – before such melodramatic stuff became standard TV fare, a status which holds up to this day. These are hardly my kind of genre picture – which, perhaps, explains why I've yet to sit through efforts even as acclaimed as PEYTON PLACE (1957)!Incidentally, given the title's similarity to another Charlton Heston vehicle (which actually preceded this viewing) – namely the Western ARROWHEAD (1953) – it's no wonder that this isn't a reference to anything in particular, and certainly doesn't come up at all in the script! Anyway, while the film doesn't have much of a reputation – especially since it came at the height of Heston's epic phase – I found it surprisingly tolerable (apart from some impossibly corny dance routines from the locals: the narrative is set in Hawaii, to which the star would return for the aptly-named THE HAWAIIANS [1970], which I hopefully also intend to check out in time for this ongoing Heston marathon).Interestingly, good ol' Chuck is perhaps at his most unsympathetic here – playing someone who can only be described as selfish, pig-headed and a hypocrite! Besides, given the actor's controversial latter-day political activity (and which seems to have received undue attention at the time of his passing), it's worth noting that his character in the film is persuaded to run for a place in the Senate because of his influence in the community – but the eventual campaign is botched due to personal scandals (having forbidden his kid sister Yvette Mimieux to marry local boy James Darren, is implicated in the latter's violent death, and himself impregnates Hawaiian France Nuyen!).The cast features a number of current 'stars', whose allure would basically vanish by the end of the decade: apart from the afore-mentioned Mimieux, Darren (best-remembered for the blockbuster THE GUNS OF NAVARONE [1961], he would go on to play the bewildered protagonist in Jess Franco's erotic/cerebral masterpiece VENUS IN FURS [1968]) and Nuyen (she was often paired with Hollywood leading men in such Asian-set romantic dramas), there are George Chakiris (as Darren's half-brother, who also gets in Heston's hair by falling for Mimieux himself) and Elizabeth Allen (appearing here as the glamorous sister of Heston's late wife, and naturally secretly harboring emotions for him, she would later graduate to leading lady for another Hawaiian flick – the John Ford/John Wayne comic romp DONOVAN'S REEF [1963]). An important supporting role, however, is that of veteran Aline MacMahon as the typically indomitable mother figure (of Chakiris and Darren's characters).If handled properly, such histrionic stuff can be reasonably entertaining (especially given their predilection for confrontation scenes): this one's well enough done under the circumstances (with Darren's untimely demise being handled in a particularly inventive manner) but, for good measure, includes a Freudian dream sequence towards the end! Guy Green was a Brit who, after a career as a cinematographer (winning an Oscar for David Lean's classic adaptation of GREAT EXPECTATIONS [1946]), graduated to directing: he seemed to specialize in just this type of slick 'entertainment' – one of these, LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA (1962; also with Mimieux), is being shown on Cable TV for the nth time this very week-end and which I intend to record – though his work could also go from Oscar-worthy 'message pictures' such as THE MARK (1961) and A PATCH OF BLUE (1965), perhaps his most popular effort but which I've yet to watch (I do own a recording of it, though), to the notorious gimmicky-yet-indecipherable puzzle THE MAGUS (1968)

The title sounds like some James Bond-type adventure but it's typical melodrama circa 1959 in Hawaii (Heston would return to the locale in an earlier century in "The Hawaiians" in '70). Heston's character hearkens back to his rich landowner of "The Naked Jungle"(54), so it's as if the same character is a decade older. The theme of race relations (white vs. brown here) is played over the plot in a ham-handed manner, though a couple of characters get to voice an almost-profound observation regarding no 'pure-bred' people existing in some future generation. Heston's character, though predictably arrogant & stubborn, starts out as a fairly liberal easygoing chap for a powerful rich white man of the time but quickly learns he can't apply those nice attitudes when it hits close to home: his sister (Mimieux) plans to marry a Hawaiian (Darren) and Heston won't have it.There follows a hint of incestuous undertones and, at some point, it almost looks like Heston plans to marry his sister himself to keep things 'all in the family' - an obsession he reveals as the story progresses. But this is over 40 years ago and nothing goes beyond just some cheap suggestion and titillating the dirty minds of some audience members. By the end, we realize it's the often-used saying of 'money can't buy happiness' which prevails over the sometimes maudlin scenery-chewing. Speaking of scenery, though, the landscapes of Hawaii are very nice here, especially on a widescreen DVD version. And Heston shows why he's a bigger star than the rest of the cast, but the story itself is pretty much forgettable and uninspired.

This movie illustrates why racists who insist on not allowing racial intermarriage are dead wrong.It blocks the natural evolution of humans and stunts development due to an incestuous kind of gene pool self restriction.This line of thought was nicely depicted particularly with the cold incestous sexual tension which started to develop between Heston and Mimieux towards the end of the movie.Very artfully done and to people with good mental capacity,the messege comes across well.Very good drama.The cinematography and direction was very good,as well as the acting.The story was simple but bold in tackling these sensitive issues.Not for people who do not like drama and certainly not for racist seperatists.....