Donovan's Reef
1963, Comedy, 1h 49m
13 Reviews 5,000+ RatingsYou might also like
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Movie Info
Three World War II Navy veterans -- Donovan (John Wayne), Doc Dedham (Jack Warden) and Gilhooley (Lee Marvin) -- converge on the French Polynesian island of Haleakaloha and team up to deceive Dedham's prim daughter (Elizabeth Allen), who has just learned of her father's existence and his inherited stock from the company of which she is chairman, and hopes to find just cause to reclaim his shares. Dedham's marriage to an island woman serves to further threaten his share in the company.
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Genre: Comedy
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Original Language: English
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Director: John Ford
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Producer: John Ford
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Writer: Edmund Beloin, James Edward Grant, James Michener, Frank S. Nugent
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Release Date (Theaters): original
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Cast & Crew
Critic Reviews for Donovan's Reef
Audience Reviews for Donovan's Reef
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Yeah some elements haven't aged well but I think the movie mostly still works because there is something of Shakespeare in it's plot of low key deceptions and bickering romance.
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The writing is a little sloppy, and overall things are silly and everything is meant to be light entertainment-but I rather enjoyed this. It was funny, even if things seem very dated and silly, but still, a good laugh or two or three never hurt anyone-especially when the intentions are good. It is weird (but cool) seeing Lee Marvin as comic relief though.
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Donovan's Reef was the final collaboration between Johns Wayne and Ford, and features manly men doing manly things such as swill booze, chomp on cee-gars and hit each other with furniture. It can best be seen as a kind of attempt to make a masculine romantic comedy. However to me it just seemed like a western set in the south seas with all but the bar room brawls, sentiment and romance removed. In other words, with all the good bits removed. It's not dreadful as such, but it's gender politics are very dated (as if a young Boston sophisticate would be attracted to an middle-aged, brawling, beer sodden school boy) and it's just not that funny. Not a fitting epilogue to a partnership that produced some of the cinematic greats. Or maybe I'm just not "manly" enough...
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Good funny with John Wayne and Lee Marvin, but I see heaps of mistakes in saloon brawl scenes.
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