Memories of this film released in 1954 and one I saw at the Odeon in St. Albans are still crystal clear because in those days in the early days of TV which as we all know was in Black and White and on such a small screen, we had seen nothing of the South Sea Islands and here we were transported to Fiji in Technicolor on the giant Cinemascope  screen.

We saw a swashbuckling Burt Lancaster – previously having seen him in The Flame and the Arrow – and the very beautiful Joan Rice.

Joan was a British actress who had just starred as Maid Marian opposite Richard Todd in Walt Disneys The Story of Robin Hood and now had been out to Fiji to film this one. It was directed by Byron Haskin – previously he had done Treasure Island here in England and he was very good with this type of action movie.

                                         The lovely star of this film – Joan Rice.

On a recent cruise holiday, my wife and I had called at Suva in Fiji and during the bus tour our guide asked if anyone had heard of or seen His Majesty O Keefe and I was able to say – Yes I have seen it about 50 times – and he said that the scene in Hong Kong with Burt Lancaster and Joan Rice had actually been filmed in the heart of Suva. He also showed us where some of the action shots were done. It seemed a film that they were quite proud of – and why not. It is a very good and enjoyable film. It wasn’t the first because Jean Simmons had been out to Fiji a year or more before to film The Blue Lagoon. I quite often think about those young actresses going out to Fiji in those days – even now it is a long way but then it must have taken ages – but what an adventure for them !!

Burt Lancaster plays a sea captain / adventurer IN 1870  who plies his trade in the South Seas and in Fiji sees an opportunity of making a lot of money from Copra. He does however fall in love with Joan Rice – who wouldn’t ? – and turns into a hero helping rescue the islanders from unscrupulous people.

Andre Morrell is very good – as he always was – he was something of a stalwart of this era although never in the starring role but pretty dependable. He would have gone out to Fiji also for the filming which was all done on the islands rather than back on studio sets.

Also cast were Abraham Sofaer and Benson Fong in quite good roles.

This is one of my own favourite films – it is exotic, colourful with a good story and a lovely leading lady in Joan Rice. I was never a big fan of Burt Lancaster though but he did well enough in this and he had the name to ensure some success for Warner Brothers with the film which cost around $1.55 million dollars to make in the early fifties – so it would be quite big budget.

After her return Joan Rice’s career just seemed to fade away even after The Story of Robin Hood and His Majesty O Keefe both major films with worldwide distribution. I can never understand this because in both films she was good and very watchable. Something went wrong but what ?

A year or two on from this film came South Pacific which as we all know was a memorable musical  filmed on Tahiti mainly – so by that time we moviegoers had become quite familiar with the South Sea Islands.