For those with an IQ above room temperature and for whom reality is important I'll only comment that this John Wayne movie is one of his best. It contains the innocent fun of the US in 1963 and is a straightforward film with a straightforward story and, contrary to those with some sort of liberal axe to grind this film is exactly what it was intended to be, i.e., 91 minutes of fun with a decent look at one of my favorite places on earth Kalapaki Beach, Lihue, Kauai and the Duke in his prime.

DONOVAN'S REEF is an unusual social commentary comedy set on one of those idyllic South Seas islands that you only ever find in old movies. At least there are no cannibals in this one. The story sees a bunch of ex-pat Americans wreaking havoc in the era as they try to keep secrets from one another and court beautiful women.I watched this as part of a John Wayne kick and I have to rank it as one of his lesser efforts. Wayne is his typical self but the film doesn't really do much with his character. Lee Marvin has some funny drunken scenes and Cesar Romero is always a welcome presence in film but the movie as a whole is a bit of a slog, made when director John Ford was on his last legs. It didn't give me much reason to laugh.

We truly like this movie and we view it around the Christmas season every year. John Wayne and Lee Marvin are outrageous and Dorothy Lamour and Cesar Romero were very good as window dressing. Yes, it is not a classic or critically acclaimed movie and all of the Hollywood clichés are in it - but we still enjoy the simple message it contains. The story takes place in French Polynesia (actually Hawaii) where our heroes fought the Japanese (they never made that far). But, no matter, it didn't detract from the premise of the film and the storyline of the present (1963). John Ford did an adequate job of directing and the stars seemed to have enjoyed themselves. The scenery was spectacular and the last scenes were heartwarming.

This is a strange one. John Ford and Wayne's last film together starts out looking like its going to be a typical 'rollicking' fight-fest with he and Lee Marvin trading blows and insults throughout. But after being set up as a potentially major thorn in Wayne's side, Marvin fades into the background to become just another supporting actor. It's a shame, because their first scene together, in which they warily greet each other and gingerly shake hands before inevitably getting down to some no-nonsense fisticuffs is probably the best moment in what is nothing better than an average film.Marvin's screen time is inherited by Elizabeth Allen's stuffy daughter of Wayne's doctor friend who is visiting her father for the first time in the hope of finding that he lacks the requisite morals to inherit the family business she has her eye on. Of course Allen's Amelia isn't really stuffy at all. She's a whole bundle of fun just waiting to be unwrapped, a point made in over-obvious fashion when she peels away the layers of her 20s bathing costume to reveal a lithe figure that immediately hooks Donovan. Wayne was more than twenty years older than Allen when this was made – he was even thirteen years older than Jack Warden, who plays Allen's father – and it is an incongruous pairing to say the least.The film labours towards its climax and, unless I fell asleep for a while without realising – which is an unlikely but not altogether impossible scenario – the ending didn't make a lot of sense to me. Of course, it all ends happily enough but then, given the far-fetched basis of its storyline, the ending is never really in much doubt