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Pacific Islanders in Film

Bird of Paradise (1932)

Directed by King Vidor. Cast: Dolores Del Rio, Joel McCrea, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Bert Roach, John Halliday, Lon Chaney Jr. (Creighton Chaney). South Seas romantic adventure. Western playboy Joel McCrea falls for native beauty (played by Delores Del Rio, a Latina actress). 80 min. ; Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Cobra Woman(1944)

Directed by Robert Siodmak. Cast: Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu, Edgar Barrier. Upon discovering his fiance;e Tollea has been kidnaped, Ramu and his friend Kado set out for a Pacific isle where all strangers are to be killed on arrival and the inhabitants, who are frequently sacrificed to an angry volcano god, worship the cobra. The island is ruled by Tollea's evil twin Naja, the Cobra Woman, who, besides having designs on her new prisoner Ramu, also desires to eliminate any competition from her benevolent sister.71 min.

Fish Bowl (2005)

Directed by Kayo Hatta. Cast: Mie Omori, Billy Lam, Jordan Mukai, Bill Ogilvie. In 1970's Hawaii, 11 year old Lovey is an outsider with an overactive imagination who must deal with not only a bad perm, but also the snotty yet seemingly perfect leader of the most popular clique at school and her menacing teacher who ridicules her for speaking Pidgin English. 28 min. Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Directed by Frank Lloyd. Cast: Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone, Herbert Hundin, Eddie Quillan, Dudley Digges, Donald Crisp. The time is in the late 1700's and Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on the high seas against the tyrannical disciplinarian Capt. Bligh when the underfed overflogged sailors can no longer take the brutality. DVD Special features: "Pitcairn Island today"--1935 MGM short; 'Mutiny on the Bounty' wins 1935 Academy Award (1936 newsreel); theatrical trailers. 133 min.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

Directed by Lewis Milestone. Cast: Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, Richard Harris, Hugh Griffith, Richard Haydn, Tarita, Percy Herbert. In 1787, the HMS Bounty sets out on a journey that will take it through perilous seas to a tropical paradise--and into history as one of the most ill-fated vessels ever to sail for King and country. Special features: Alternate prologue and epilogue sequences not seen theatrically; New featurette "After the cameras stopped rolling: the journey of the Bounty"; 4 vintage featurettes: "Story of the HMS Bounty", "Voyage of the Bounty to St.

Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942)

Directed by John Cromwell. Cast: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, George Sanders, Frances Farmer, Elsa Lanchester, Kay Johnson, Roddy McDowall, John Carradine. Set in the 19th century, the illegitimate son of a British aristocrat, Benjamin Blake, is forced into servitude by a wicked uncle. As a rebellious young man, Benjamin falls for a beautiful aristocrat and is beaten as punishment. Fleeing his tyrannical uncle, Benjamin stows away on a ship and lands on an idyllic South Pacific island. There he romances an exotic native beauty and earns a fortune diving for pearls with a fellow shipmate.

South Pacific (1958)

Directed by Joshua Logan. Cast: Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr, Ray Walston, Juanita Hall, France Nuyen, Russ Brown. Set in the Pacific theater during World War II, this musical film explores the theme of racial prejudice in two parallel stories; that of a Navy nurse's love for a plantation owner with two Eurasian children, and a Marine lieutenant's love for a native woman. Based on the novel Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener. Adapted from the play South Pacific by Ricahrd Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. 150 min.

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (silent, 1931)

Directed by F.W. Murnau, and Robert Flaherty. Shot in Tahiti, the story tells of a goreous native girl who is declared to be sacred by her tribe, and what happens when she defies them and falls in love with a man. 82 min. ; 999:1243

The Hurricane (1937)

Directed by John Ford. Cast: Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall, Raymond Massey, Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith. The simple, peaceful life on a South Pacific island is disrupted, not only by a vindictive governor but also by a violent typhoon. 103 min. Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
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The Idol Dancer (1920)

Directed by D.W. Griffith. Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Clarine Seymour, Creighton Hale, George MacQuarrie. A drunken Yankee beachcomber befriends a half-caste native girl scorned by the villagers in this Griffith epic set in the South Seas. A tale of love and adventure which ends in a rousing climax. 76 min. Credit and other information from Internet Movie Database