(FOR A QUICK LINK, CLICK ON ANY "SOUTH SEAS CINEMA PAGE TITLES" IN BAMBOO PAGE BAR BELOW)

(FOR A QUICK LINK, CLICK ON ANY "SHOW PAGE SECTION TITLES" IN SELECTION BAR BELOW)

J thru R

(Important note: When feature or other titles are italicized and/or not in bold print this means more research needs to be done to determine if a title truly falls within this genre. Also note any question marks "?" this also means more general or specific information is needed on a particular title. The authors of this website invite all to add information with your information via email by using the CONTACTS page listed above in the "Bamboo Title Page Bar".)

JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO (1990) WARNER BROS. Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and Lloyd Bridges star in this cute flick about dying manvolunteering to jump in volcano for villagers who were established early in the film as Polynesian, Jewish and Irish mix with a mixed up culture as well.  Good foreshadowing with use of nostalgic, tacky Hawaiian lamp in Hanks cramped office in first scene and billboard of South Seas Paradise with volcano in a early street scene.  A Steven Spielberg film.  Also memorable image of Hanks in black tux with white Tahitian ginger lei and Ryan in 30s sequin dress with flowered head and wrist band.
JOIN THE MARINES (1937) REPUBLIC PICTS.  In an effort to marry Colonel’s daughter an Olympic javelin thrower and good guy NYC cop joins Marines gets shipped to South Seas island where he prevents a native revolt by winning spear contest.
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1989) CANNON GROUP  Group of kids in Hawaii find cave and fall in a hole to the (see title).  Kathy Ireland is the kids sitter. Ireland is featured on a poster in this low quality film.  Filmed in southern Cal but with mostly British wannabe actors with that eighties look.  Film starts ok with fake Hawaii locations than these teen and young adults journey into a underground city called Atlantis with is located in the center of the earth.  Took about three days to travel thousands of miles to a city that should be in the middle of molted lava?  Should of called it On the Way to the Center of the Earth.  Plot then falls apart the city hidden the existence of “surface people” although everyone has “surface” trash as evidence and a plot to invade the surface then story disintegrates into confusion with no direction and suddenly they are on the surface the end.
JOURNEY 2 THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (2012) NEW LINE CINEMA  Stars Dwayne “the Rock" Johnson and his step son who was in the first “Journey” which is how they tie-in the two titles because these are two different stories.  Both are a devotional to Jules Vern’s works  This one, like the popular 1961 Ray Harryhausen version is set on a South Seas island (they say near Palau) and has the Captain Nemo tie-in.   Classic volcano erupting ending.  Also stars Luis Guzman (Puerto Rican/American) and his daughter Vanessa Hudgens (part Filipino) who play Micronesian tour guides.  Good remake with giant lizard like dinosaurs
JUNGLE HEAT (1957) BEL-AIR/ UNITED ARTISTS  Couple goes to Kaua'i to help settle a sugar plantation's labor problem.  Owner leads local Japanese underground.  Filmed in Kaua'i.  Set in 1941.  Last scene after a set up labor dispute by Japanese spies was thwarted, hero couple romantically settle on beach hearing planes in B.G. man says morning patrol from Hickham AFB but 1st end credit in sand reads Dec. 7th, 1941.  Lei greeting off ship and Hawaiian night club scenes with negative remarks about natives and Asians. One scene in Coco Palm’s bar. Score by Lex Baxter.
JUNGLE PATROL (1948) 20TH CENTURY-FOX  Squadron of fliers, in WWII, hold Pacific Island airstrip until they are almost wiped out.
JUNGLE PRINCESS (1936) PARAMOUNT  Another South Seas like Lamour sarong movie set in Malaysia co-starring Ray Milland. French title is HULA JUNGLE PRINCESS.
JUST GO WITH IT (2011) COLUMBIA  Adam Sandler’s second comedy hit filmed in Hawaii, this time on the island of Maui.  Co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Hawaii born Nicole Kidman who both have a memorable Hula dance off scene at the fancy resort.  Also Tiki bar scene.

 
KAHUNA (1981) LLOYD BERMAN  With Virginia Winter and Luana King. Actually KAHUNA is a video release of SURFERS GIRLS (1978). Possible soft porn, filmed in Hawaii.
KAMAAINA, THE (1929) JUNIOR LEAGUE OF HONOLULU A Hawaii produced romantic comedy that starred Kinau Wilder. Limited release.
KAOLULOLANI (1916) ALOHA FILM CO. Locally produced (with a title like that it had to be).  Drama set in Hawaii.  Need more information?.
KAWA (2010) COBRIO (NZ) In contemporary New Zealand a happy family Māori man comes out to tell his family
Friend and associates that he is gay.  Inspired from the real life of Māori writer Witi Ihimaera (Whale Rider). Stars Calvin Tuteao, George Henare, Pana Hema Taylor.  Also Miriama-Jane Devantier, Patara Berryman, Inia Maxwell and Niwa Milroy.
KILL THE GOLDEN GOOSE (1979) CINEWORLD/USA-R  Low budget martial arts movie starring Hawaiian Ed Parker as Mauna Loa with early bit by Tahitian/Hawaiian Branscombe Richmond. The opening scene was set and shot in Waikiki.
KING KONG (1933) RKO  Classic Fay Wray film: (1976) PARAMOUNT/DE LAURENTIIS Remake with Africans playing South Seas islanders.  Jessica Lange's film debut with Jeff Bridges.  Partly filmed on Kaua'i.
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1963) TOHO/UNIVERSAL (Japan)  Movie starts with scientist on a South Seas island trying to experiment with Kong was gets fed up escapes and heads north while Godzilla trashes Tokyo (again) and heads South.  The title tells you the rest.
KING OF THE CORAL SEA (1955) ALLIED ARTIST PICTS. (Australian)  Set ans filmed on Thursday and Friday Islands in the Torres Straits, which borders Melanesia.  Story of pearl smugglers, an Austrlian hero and a native girl.  Film debut for Rod Taylor.
KINGPIN (1984) NZ FILM COMM. (New Zealand)   Starred Wi Kuki Kaa.  Story of power struggles and personal struggles of a few Maori teens at a boys reform school. Some of the teen cast are real teens from the center.  Follow up to KINGI’S STORY(1981) of bad boy Maori teens
KOMODO VS COBRA (2005) CINETEL FILMS Believe or not, it is not a sequel but sort of a remake.  Instead of Casino crooks landing on the island near Hawaii, it’s a group of environmentalist on a remote South Seas island.  A remake, what’s wrong with the 1st one writer/director Jim Wynorski.  Jim comes back to Kauai to make Super B movie maker’s Roger Corman’s DINOCROC VS SUPERGATOR (2009).
KON TIKI (2012) WEINSTEIN (Norway/Denmark/Germany/Sweden) Well made film fron northern Europe.  Base on the exploits of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his Academy Award winning documentary of the same name.  Heyerdahl and a crew built a raft with Peruean materials and sailed with the natural currents until they reached Polynesia.  Still Heyerdahl has much critism of his theories by western academia but one can’t deny his point was proven right.  Beautfully shot film.  DirectorS pinned to do next PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN film.
KONA COAST (1968) WARNER BROTHERS  Vera Miles, Richard Boone and Joan Blondell with Boone as revengeful boat captain after killers of his daughter.  Also part for Sam Kapu, Jr..  Luau for drunks.  Location shooting on O'ahu and the Big Island's Kona district.
KOMODO VS COBRA (2005) CINETEL FILMS Believe or not, it is not a sequel but sort of a remake.  Instead of Casino crooks landing on the island near Hawaii, it’s a group of environmentalist on a remote South Seas island.  A remake, what’s wrong with the 1st one writer/director Jim Wynorski.  Jim comes back to Kauai to make Super B movie maker’s Roger Corman’s DINOCROC VS SUPERGATOR (2009).
KRIPPENDORF’S TRIBE (1998) DISNEY  Richard Dreyfuss, Lilly Tomlin in story of married scientists who get big grant to study an isolated tribe of New Guinea.  Dreyfuss takes family to New Guinea for a few short years for serious research but wife (who’s the brain of the two) dies and the work dies too.  Later he returns to the mainland and after his arrival he realizes he has nothing to show for it because he has a review coming up with the company that sponsored his large grant.  He then panics and has to make things up to live up to expectations, now the comedy begins.  Highlight of film is when Dreyfuss fakes a serious film documentary by recreating New Guinea in his backyard with his Caucasian children playing natives.  Just using household items the set, native make up and hair wasn’t bad.

LADY TERMINATOR (1988) SORAYA INTERCINE FILM PT (Indonesia) PEMBALASAN RATU PANTAI SELATAN Violent, action, sex, black-magic all ingredients of a bad “B” movie.  A castle on a South Seas island with a magic queen.  Sex and snake mix put people in another world or place.  Aka: REVENGE OF THE SOUTH SEA QUEEN
LAND OF FURY (1954) RANK FILM ORG. (UK) Jack Hawkins & Glynis Johns in period piece of sailor & wife walking a thin line to be on good side of Maori chief in early white man New Zealand.  Seductive dance.  Also Inia Wiata as the native chief. Aka SEEKERS, THE (UK), LA VALLE DEI MAORI (Italy) DAMONEN DER SUDEE (DEMONS OF THE SOUTH SEAS)(German), EL VALLE DE LOS MAORIS (Spanish), LES DEMONS DES MERS DU SUD (French)
LAND HAS EYES, THE (2004) TE MAKA PRODS. Limited released feature about the legend warrior woman that founded Rotuma and a modern teen that is guided by her with her current teen problems.  Written and directed by native Vilsoni Hereniko, all key actors are native and mostly subtitled In English because most dialog is in Rotuman.  A rare SSC class 1 movie (written, produced, directed by real natives, cast, subject matter of real natives and set and shot in real locations in real native language).  Guest star Rena Owens and young teen played by Sapeta Taito. AKA: PEAR TA MA 'ON MAF
LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, THE (1975) AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL PICTS.  Starring Doug McClure.  Like Jules Verne’s MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961) COLUMBIA/CHARLES SCHEER this film starts with a major war. This Edgar Rice Burroughs story begins during WWI in a U-Boat with captures. The sub gets really lost and ends up on a South Seas island with dinosaurs.  Popular movie, effects were good for its time and budget.  Sequel PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT (1977) ) AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL PICTS.  A rescue attempt to same island.
LANI-LOA (1998) CHROME DRAGON (China/US)  Drama in English with local actors Ray Bumatai and Leo Akana.  Artsy film with Asian influences in imagery.
LAST FLIGHT OF NOAH'S  ARK, THE (1980) DISNEY This picture with Elliott Gould, Genevieve Bujold, a young Ricky Schroder.  Gould pilots an old WWII bomber from San Francisco to run from mob.  He takes a missionary, Bujold, two stowaway kids and the animals to a South Pacific Island.  They crash in an uncharted isle where two old and loyal Japanese soldiers are still posted, thinking the war is still on.  They make peace and help turn the wreckage of the bomber into a raft or ark.  Filmed in Hawaii.  No natives only sharks.  They end up being saved off Diamond Head, of Honolulu.
LAST OF THE PAGANS (1935) MGM   Mala and Lotus Long.  American traders break island romance by enslaving groom.  Island raid and bride hunt, underwater battle with giant swordfish, land battle with wild boar and with a hurricane.  Filmed in Tahiti.   Wahine Lagoon swim.  Set and filmed in French Polynesia with real extras and Polynesian dialog w/English sub-titles. The two non-Polynesian leads did a good job on their native speech & cultural nuances. Canoe greeting scene.  The bell.  Hurricane ending.
LAST TATTOO, THE (1994) CAPELLA INTL. (New Zealand)  WWII (New Zealand/USA)  WWII New Zealand when like Honolulu, US service men took over New Zealand.  Filn deals with a muder mystery and the control of venereal disease.  Actor greats Rod Steiger & Robert Loggia as US officers.  Also stars Tony Goldwyn & Kerry Fox with a part for a Maori woman, Michelle Huirama playing Grace Raukawa.
LAST VOYAGE (1960) MGM   Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, George Sanders, Woody Strode and Edmond O'Brien.  High drama on the high sea when a luxury liner is sinking in the Hawaiian waters.  A Hawaiian fishing boat comes to their aid but the producers made a poor effort to show any evidence that they were even in the Pacific.  Par for this genre, great disaster effects.  Note of interest; Woody Strode, famous for his part and physique as the African fighter in SPARTACUS married a Hawaiian.
LAST WARRIOR, THE (1989) ITC PRODS.  Gary Graham in low budget WWII rehash of one American soldier and one, soon to become nun, on a Pacific Island inhabited by a small Polynesian village.  Japanese raided island and only the American, who is a sea watcher, and nun survive with three die hard Japanese soldiers left to finish him off.  They fight in the bloody and graphic "80"s style.  Compare plot with HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON.  Filmed in South Africa.            
LE PRINCE DU PACIFIQUE (2001) UFD (French)  Directed by Alan Corneau.  Stars Thierry Lhermitte and Marie Trintignant.  Romantic story of two French Adventures.  Shoot in Tahiti, on the island of Huahine in 1918.  Tahitians Anituavau Lande (the Prince), Thierry Marani, Benjamin Atiu and Michael Faatamo have parts.  Beautifully shot adventure/comedy.  Pearl diving scene.  Set not sure with Maori dances and Fijian roles? Also parts for Arnold Mataurua & Tero Temauri.
LEATHERNECKING (1930) RKO  Early talkie with Irene Dunne and Ken Murray.  Marine stationed in Honolulu tries to impress daughter of English planter by marooning her on isle inhabited by "savages".  Early Rogers and Hart work, probably no Hawaii shooting. Compare ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU.
LEGEND OF JOHNNY LINGO (2003) INNOVATIVE FILM GROUP  Based on cult hit short morality film JOHNNY LINGO and kept the same famous line “Mihana you ugly!”  All Polynesian cast.  Same producers as OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN as well as most of the same cast.  Cute story for family though not as good as the short, did not last long in theaters.
LEGENDS OF THE FALL (1995) TRISTAR/COLUMBIA   Brad Pitt.  Filmed in Canada and Jamaica the later doubling as 18th century New Guinea for one scene only.
LEOPARDESS, THE (1923) PARAMOUNT/FAMOUS PLAYERS-LASKY CORP. (Silent) This Romance/Drama was set in the South Seas with lots of native roles played by people of european.  Millionaire finds a South Seas maiden who is half Scots and believes in indiginous island religion and customs. Montagu Love plays the millionaire who wants to marry and tame the wild hapa (half-caste).  The captain of his yacht, Edward Langford doesn’t like this forced marriage but he gets thrown overboard.  Later on in NY Langford catches up to them but Love releases his pet leopard on Langford but the pet attacks Love instead.  They both return to the island.
LET'S GO NATIVE (1930) PARAMOUNT  Jack Oakie in musical/comedy.  Oakie and his company shipwrecks on island inhabited largely of "hula girls".  They escape when island vanishes in earthquake and volcanic explosions.  It seems the set is off the east coast of South America but "hula girls".
LET'S GO NAVY (1951) MONOGRAM  The middle aged Bowery Boys with Leo Gorcey.  The Boys join the Navy and in their travels they stop in Honolulu, where at a souvenir shop they encounter a hula dancer and buy a talking parrot.
LIEUTENANT WORE SKIRTS, THE (1956) 20TH CENTURY-FOX (originally RETREAD) Tom Ewell, Sheree North and Rita Moreno.  Wife gets accepted in Air Force while husband is rejected. He follows her to duty in Hawaii.  Shot at Hickam and Los Angeles.
LIGHT OF VICTORY (1919) BLUE/UNIVERSAL (Silent) Betty Compson in this WWI drama of a navel courier who gets drunk as German spies get to his official papers.  After a court martial he maroons himself on tiny Pacific island where he ends up helping spy on U-boats. Wonder what part of Pacific had the U-boats?  Role of Luhua by Beatrice Dominguez.
LILLO OF THE SULU SEAS (1916) AM. FILM CO./MUTUAL FILM CORP. (Silent) By the title it sounds like an early sound stage production with bad research.  Mega drama of a story of amputation of husband, murder, run away wife, evil new husband and now pretty grown up daughter (who's a great pearl diver) all end up on same small South Seas island where faithful Polynesian servant named Pahui kills second evil husband. Daughter and real father are reunited. Stars May Allison.
LITTLE HUT, THE (1957) MGM (British)  Stars Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger and David Niven.  Ava is married to rich Stewart who does not pay attention to her and for years has flirted with foolish David.  The three get washed up on a deserted atoll near Fiji after a hurricane sinks Stewart's yacht.  No natives but Ava's grass skirt is actually designed by Christian Dior himself. What Ava wants Ava gets.
LITTLE ROBINSON CRUSOE (1924) MGM  Jackie Coogan as small boy shipwrecked on an uncharted Pacific island with Africans playing cannibal South Seas natives who at fist try to kill little Coogan but the kid puts up a good fight and the natives instead make him their god of battle.  Made in Hollywood, which may explain the Polynesian misrepresentation with African/American extras.  Other Americans shipwreck on the island and our little hero finds a “working” radio and gets an American destroyer to rescue them all.  Directed by Edward F.Cline, who later directed HAWAII CALLS.   HAWAII CALLS also involved a young boy on a Pacific island.
LOCKED LIPS (1920) UNIVERSAL  Tsuru Aoki, in thriller, as a Hawaii school teacher who marries then the man deserts her.  The man remarries on the mainland but then tries to silence his still legally married wife by poisoning her incense but instead succumbs to it and dies.   Set in Hawai‘i then the mainland but not sure where shot?
LOST AND FOUND ON A SOUTH SEA ISLAND (1923) GOLDWYN Captain Blackbird's wife takes daughter and deserts him for island governor.  Wife later dies and the captain is in for revenge.  Set is Tahiti with their dress and seductive dances, beachcomber, native Kahuna, and battles.  Filmed in Tahiti.
LOST CONTINENT, THE (1951) LIPPERT PICTS.  Cesar Romero in his full character, leads an expedition to the top of a taboo South Seas mountain to find a missing rocket.  They seem to find everything else like dinosaurs.
LOTUS EATER, THE (1921) ASSOCIATED FIRST NATIONAL Stars John Barrymore and Anna Q, Nilsson.  In a bad marriage Barrymore temps to cross the Pacific in an airship but crashes on an island of peaceful adapted islaners who were onced shipwrecked.
LOVE AFFAIR (1994) WARNER BROS.  Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, and Katharine Hepburn story based on the movies: LOVE AFFAIR (1939) and its remake, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957).  In this 1990s version Beatty as a famous ex-pro football player and sportscaster who recently gets engaged to a high profile TV news anchor.  Than he flies off to Sydney, Australia for work but on the plane he becomes himself and flirts with the Bening character.  Without much luck two of the plane's engines malfunction and they are forced to land on a remote Cook Island.  There they have a choice to get on ships to Hawaii, Fuji, and Tahiti.  They both choose Tahiti and his pursuit continues.  On the first Tahitian Island stop he tells her that he is going to visit an aunt on the other side of the island and asks her to go with him, she doesn’t believe him but goes anyway.  The aunt (Hepburn) is true, she‘s lovely and the affair begins.  Beautiful scenery and a bit part by Manu Tupou who plays the aunt’s house help.  Later on the plane home they set a date in three months to break their current relationships and meet if its meant to be at the top of the of the Empire State Building. One doesn't show but you have to watch the real movie to find out what happens. Sadly, Hepburn's last role before her death.
LOVE AFLAME (1917) UNIVERSAL  (Silent) Love and cannibals on a South Seas Island. Man makes bet he can go all the way to Constantinople without money or the help of a woman. At the same time a woman wants out of an engagement in New York and she runs away disguised as a guy. The two meet and are off together. One major stop for the pair is on a South Seas island. The man eventually finds out the other guy is a women they fall in love and marry even though he lost the bet. The woman's fiancee who kept chasing her from New York stayed on the South Seas island of cannibals where they made him king which includes a harem of native women.
LOVE FLOWER (1920) UNITED ARTISTS / D.W.GRIFFITH Innocent man returns from trip only to find wife with lover.  He kills lover and flees with daughter to the South Seas where they meet wealthy young plantation owner who falls for daughter.  Meanwhile a famous detective tracts them all the way to the island, comes to a dead end but ironically runs into daughter's lover who unwittingly tells dick where they live. They finally convince the detective that the father died falling off a cliff.  The story worked.
LOVE IN THE PACIFIC (1968)  INTERNATIONAL FILM ENTERPRISES  A “mondo” movie: part documentary and part dramatization, of “love” in Polynesia, Melanesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan and other locals.  Probably more of an excuse to show topless native women than anything else.  Written, produced and directed by Zygmunt Sulistrowski.
LOVE ISLAND (1953) ASTOR  Mostly set in Bali with Eva Gabor playing a native.  With a low cut dress all men are after her, native and non-native, including our hero played by Paul Valentine.  Valentine is a Navy pilot who starts off from Hawaii in this plot.
LOVE TAHITI STYLE (1962) ROYAL FILMS INTERNATIONAL (Italy) Directed by Franco Rossi.  Stars Enrico Maria Salerno, Delores Donlon and Hawaiian Elizabeth Logue. Also a part for Tahitian Charles Mauu Need more information?Seems like a typical Italian sexploitation movie of the 60s to get some innocent topless action by South Seas women. Aka: ODISSEA NUDA (NUDE ODYSSEY 1962 US), A DIARY OF A VOYAGE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC, AVENTURE A TAHITI (Belgium), .
LOVE TRADER, THE (1930) TIFFANY  Leatrice Joy as a puritain wife of a puritan sea captain in the South Seas.  Husband moors boat off shore to keep wife from “indecent” natives.  One day a half-caste native hears beautiful singing from the ship and he investigates.  They fall for each other.  Next day, in a native plot, they sneek her on shore to witness a celebration to their shark god and a night in the half-caste hut.  She returns to the ship before husband but she can’t stand being away from her native lover and she finally jumps overboard but unfortunately she jumps right outside of Bedford, New England.  He who hesitates.  Reverse interracial romance.
LOVERS & LUGGERS (1937) CINESOUND (Australia) where a concert pianist goes to a South Seas island to find a giant pearl for his girlfriend than the trouble begins. Re-released as VENGEANCE OF THE DEEP (1940).
LOVERS IN HAWAII'S PARADISE (1937) ??? (Japan)  First Japanese talkie filmed in Hawaii.
LT. ROBIN CRUSOE, USN (1966) BUENA VISTA / DISNEY Dick Van Dyke, Nancy Kwan in delightful WWII story about lost Navy man in love with South Seas native girl played by Kwan.  Filmed on Kaua'i.  Large, Wizard of Oz-like, Tiki God scene.
LUCIFER COMPLEX, THE (1978) GOLD KEY ENT.   Stars Robert Vaughn as an agent, surprise! Who discovers a new Nazi plot to take over the world.  The narrator of the movie is on an island that was once inhabited by Polynesians.
LURE OF JADE (1921) RC PICTS.  Crime melodrama, starring Pailine Frederrick.  Set on a South Seas Island but on a naval base.  Story of ruin by gossip, revenge and accidental murder.  Native police due take away guilty Frederick at the end.
LURE OF THE ISLANDS (1942) MONOGRAM  Robert Lowery, Kahala & Odetta Bray & Santini Puailoa with Gale Storm and former stripper Margie Hart as hapa Tano O’Shansey who is taboo.   Federal agents posing as shipwreck survivors land on jungle island to expose a criminal war gang. Fictitious island’s name is Tanaukai. Two songs: Tahiti Sweetie and Lure of the Islands plus some hula and a Tahitian number, similar to the Bugs Bunny number in WACKIKI WABBIT.

MA AND PA KETTLE AT WAIKIKI (1955) UNIVERSAL  Marjorie Main & Percy Kilbride in funny series of "Kettle" movies. This one Pa is supposed to rescue pineapple company. Competitors think he's a genius and kidnap him to outer island.  Hilo Hattie and Charley Lung play a local Ma and Pa.  Filmed in Hollywood.
MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND (1968) HEMISPHERE PICTS. Starring John Ashley, which means made in Philippines “B” movie.  The island is a remote Pacific one with a headless monster stalking natives.  Need more information?  Sequel was made: BEAST OF THE DEAD (1970).  
MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET, THE (1942) UNIVERSAL  Doctor using Pacific islanders in mad research.  Mala, Al Kikume  “Every time traders come people die.”  Shipwrecked with a man that could save their lives from natives by revealing he’s mad doctor/murderer.  He saves queen’s life and natives are his slaves to repay him.  Other white survivors trick King/Doctor after finding drowned dead native (Mala) and challenge the mad Doctor to raise him). He couldn’t and the natives kill him.
MAEVA (1961) CASCADE Stars Tumata Teuiau who plays Maeva “young and pretty but she brings out the fury between men”.  Lobby card shows dead guy.  Horror in paradise.  AKA: Pagan Hellcat & Wahine & Terror en Tahiti (Mexico).  Directed by Umberto Bonsignori. Possible sexploitation.
MAID’S NIGHT OUT (1938) RKO  Allen Lane & Joan Fontaine in romantic/comedy where Lane’s rich father won’t pay for his son big South Seas scientific expedition unless he works blue collar for a set period of time.  He meets humble girl, trouble starts, but Lane makes his goal and also adds a honeymoon to his South Seas trip. Do they go in the film?
MALE AND FEMALE (1919) PARAMOUNT  This is Cecil B. DeMille’s version of THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON but racer with Gloria Swanson.  Part for a Kamuela Searle.
MAN AND WOMAN (1920) FISCHER/JANIS FILM SERVICE (Silent) Drama set in Tahiti with leprosy and beachcombers in plot.  Also known as: ANOTHER CHANCE.  Young Gordon Standing playing an up and comming engineer who has a bridge collapse, he than mentally collapses and runs to a South Seas island and becomes a beachcomber. Later one of his former supervisors lands on the same island to repair a lighthouse. The forman brings along his daughter who bets the local Governor that she can just dress up a beach bum and pass him off as a civilized person. Of course she picks Gordon but he catches on and to teach her a lesson he takes her to a leprosy island where there they treat her like dirt dspite her fine upbringing and proper manners. After the lesson they end up together on the island and his old forman gives him a job at lighthouse.
MAN OF HONOR, A (1919) METRO PICTS. (Silent) Also known as: PARADISE ISLAND (1919).  Silent screen srars Harold Lockwood (his final film) and Bessie Eyton.  Lockwood plays a manager of real estate scam on a deserted South Seas island and he can not take his boss’s tactics anymore but he is in love with the boss’s daughter.  No natives.
MAN OF THE MOMENT (1955) RANK ORG. (UK)  British low rank becomes favorite friend of South Seas island ruler while the British are trying to add island to Common Wealth. Inia Te Wiata plays King of Tawaki.  Good fun movie.
MAN TO MAN (1922) UNIVERSAL/JEWEL (6 reeler- silent)  Stars Harry Carey. Son of a wealthy Arizona rancher is a beachcomber on a South Seas island. He ends up caring for a daughter of a native whose parents died young. Then his rich dad dies and leaves his giant ranch to him. He returns home with the child to an indifferent grandfather and an evil foreman. Harry exposes the evil foreman, gains respect from grandfather and gains the heart of a neighboring female rancher. Posters show a cowboy roundup with leis. 
MAN UNCONQUERABLE, THE (1922) PARAMOUNT (Silent)  Stars Jack Holt and Sylvia Beamer.  Holt comes to the South Seas to run his uncle’s pearl diving company but all is not well in paradise.  Apparently besides a rival company with questionable ethics, there is much internal problems with his employees, with fighting, thievery and even murder.  Holt battles it all and never gives up.  He eventually wins control of the business and wins the heart of another American woman (Beamer) is also a victim of the island pearl driven violence.
MĀORI MAID'S LOVE, A (1916) VITA FILM CORP. (Australia/NZ) (Silent) by Raymond Longford.  Lost silent film about a unhappy surveyor who is sent to New Zealand to work on a project.  There he falls in love with a Māori young woman, stays and she has his child but mother dies giving birth.  The father gives baby to a Māori man who kills the father.  This is an early film with the racial prejudice of miscegenation, native mother dies giving birth and father in killed later.  Biracial children were more common in NZ.
MARINE RAIDERS (1944) RKO  Pat O’Brien and Robert Ryan in this WWII Guadalcanal picture.  Set in the Solomon Islands w R&R in Australia.  Action in Guadalcanal & Bougainville.  More info if natives are present?
MARNIE (1964) UNIVERSAL  Directed by Alfred Hitchcock and stars Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery in this heavy psycho-drama of a gorgeous secretary who is actual a big time thief who steals from every company she works for until she gets caught by cleaver, handsome and rich new boss, Connery.  He forces her to marry him, then takes her on a cruise to Fiji, she has intimacy problems, he forces sex on her THEN realizes she has real deeper problems.  He takes her to a shrink where they find out she had a big problem as a child.  Critics wonder why the important set of the ships cabin is small with only a one porthole window when the guy is rich, they’re going to the South Seas for heaven’s sake.  It’s a Hitchcock ploy with the audience.  The big irony, the setup, going to paradise but ending up in a hole of the ship, where like in the tiny little shower set in his movie PSYCHO all hell breaks loose.  The dramatic focal point of the film.  We never see paradise, Tippi sees, and we all see, hell instead. Import for the director that their destination is paradise for the irony.
MAROONED HEARTS (1920) NAT. PICTS. (Silent) Conway Tearle and Zena Keefe.  Shipwrecked on a South Seas island. Promising young surgeon misses an operation due to his meddling fiancee. To regain his reputation it is suggested that he do research on a South Seas island and he does but soon after he leaves it is rumored that he died in a shipwreck. Fiancee doesn't believe it and goes to find him. She shipwrecks and ends up on the same island where the doctor is studying and sort of hiding. He actually breaks off the engagement until she is attacked by a drunken beachcomber. They go back together to get married ever after. A Selznick film.
MARRIAGE CHEAT (1924) FIRST NATIONAL PICTURE/THOMAS INCE  A presentation by Thomas H. Since. Missionary (Perry Marmount ) on a South Seas Island only luck with converting natives is with a young wahine ( played by American Laska Winters) who is enamored with the missionary.  Rich wife of a drunken cheat tries to commit suicide by going overboard. Natives rescue her and missionary tends to her recovery. The two fall in love. The now jealous native girl tell rich husband that wife is alive and where she is located. To complicate things wife is actually pregnant so they agree she should return to husband. Soon after storm hits yacht onto reef, missionary tries to save both then husband realizes he is scrub and the other two are meant for each other so he purposefully slips into the ocean and drowns.
MARRIAGE RING, THE (1918) PARAMOUNT/THOMAS INCE Enid Bennett and Jack Holt star in story of German spy and his American contact who set fire to a Hawaii sugar plantation. Drunken gambling husband with gun fights with wife, gun goes off, husband is shot, she runs away to the nearest cruise ship heading to Hawaii. On bard she meets a young future plantation owner with his mother. They hit it off and she thinks she has a good new life but husband evil husband did not die and he finds her along with a German spy friend in Hawaii. He is about to return with him but evil husband and evil German spy plan to burn plantation. The fire is already started before she can warn the owners. She and natives almost put out fire but she collapses while the son comes to her aid. The wind shifts and kills the evil husband and spy.
MARS ATTACKS (1996) WARNER BROS. Tim Burton’s tribute to 50s sci-fi movies of space invaders.  During the attack the film cuts to an actual scene from RAPA NUI (1994) from the chief’s reaction of disbelief than the film cuts to a mean Martian saucer knocking over a bunch of Moai (Tikis) with a giant ball like a bowling alley.  Ha ha. Compare THE SIMPSONS cartoon when aliens invade their beach of world monuments including moai and of course the White House.
MARTIN EDEN (1914) FAMOUS PLAYERS Hobart Bosworth in a sort of semi-autobiographical account of writer Jack London as South Seas beachcomber, successful writer and suicide at sea while returning to Hawaii.  Remade as: ADVENTURES OF MARTIN EDEN, THE (1942) COLUMBIA.  Aka: HIGH SEAST
MATARIKI (2010) NZ FILM COMM.  Named after Māori New Year and festivities (similar to Hawaiian Makahiki) this is a film of contemporary in New Zealand involving Pacific Islander, Pakeha and Asian during the Matariki.  Involves car thieves, rugby star, street fight, and birth of a child
MATANGO:ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE (1963) TOHO (Japan)  Stranded on a Pacific Island, hungry vacationers eat mushrooms which are actually toadstools.  They in turn, turn into giant toadstools.
MAUI (1980) ??? Low budget TV like feature film.    Starring a young Lisa Hartman as one of four teens meeting at the Maui airport and getting in trouble and falling in love.  Also stars Robert Hegyes of TVs WELCOME BACK, KOTTER and June Lockhart and her daughters Anna and Lizabeth. Aka: JUST TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME and HAWAII HEAT.
MAURI (1988) AWATEA FILMS/NZ FILM COMM.  Early film by Maori film director/writer Merata Mita.  Involves young Maori cops but need more information.  Stars Anzac Wallace and Temuera Morrison.
MCHALE'S NAVY (1964) UNIVERSAL  Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway, George Kennedy, Claudine Longet, Bob Hastings, Billy Sands and Gavin MacLeod in funny feature version of popular TV show. The Naval gang lose a lot of money on a horse race, Borgnine is forced to marry with a lady that will pay off their debts.  Another horse race in New Caledonia and the PT-boart crew capture Japanese sub shelling an island and the cosmopolitan modern natives are joyful and reward them..
MCHALE’S NAVY: Joins the Air Force (1965) UNIVERSAL  Only Conway poses as an Air Force pilot because of too much to drink but the pilot is a four-star Generals son who wants to see his boy.  As usual bumbling Conway become a war hero twice in the Air Force uniform he barrowed and all is forgiven.  No McHale in this picture but all the usual South Seas set locations (back lot).  Only natives attack the real General’s son who is on a raft trying to be rescued.
McVEAGH OF THE SOUTH SEAS (1914) PROGRESSIVE MOT. PICTS. silent  aka: BRUTE ISLAND. Confusing love story set in the South Seas. a faux island in the Solomons but poor art direction. Some African Americans playing natives and whites with brownface playing lead natives.  Filmed in Southern Cal.  McVeagh is a bad guy who runs from guns to gin.   Local native girl who likes McVeagh. Meanwhile McVeagh's first mate lusts after the same native girl and causes a native upraising to kill his boss. All this while McVeagh's fiancee sails in to reform and take McVeagh away. At end they sail off to San Francisco, without any remorse that he's leaving his native girl behind..
MEET ME TONIGHT (1953) GFD (UK)  Originally entitled: TONIGHT AT 8:30.  Actually three playlets from writer Noel Coward.  One is set in the South Seas.  Need more information?
MEET THE DEEDLES (1998) DISNEY  Super rich surfer boys from Hawaii gets sent by angry dad to a strict Utah boarding school to learn that there’s more to life than surfing.  There is?  They end up trying to work as park rangers.
MEET THE GIRLS (1938) 20TH CENTURY-FOX  June Lang, Gene Lockhart and Lynn Bari in film about a pair of "entertainers" who lose jobs and their money in Honolulu.  They stowaway on ship to San Francisco where they indirectly get involved with jewel thieves until they prove their innocence.
MELODIA PROHIBIDA, LA (1933) FOX  (Spanish)  One know star, in the English world, was Conchita Montenegro.  All Spanish acting South Seas story of love triangle between the Island prince and his native bride to be, but they day before wedding, ship arrives with rich white passengers.  One the newcomers is a beautiful haole of which the Prince falls for.  He flirts with her, sings to her a sacred native song and from then on his life falls apart.  He ends up dying alone in San Francisco after recording his now hit sacred song.  AKA: LA CANCIN PROHIBIDA
MEN OF WAR (1995) DIMENSION FILMS  Dolph Lundgren as an ex-Special Forces hired with others to force natives of a South Pacific island to sale land rights but Dolph and some of his men change their mind.  Need more information? South Seas or South China Seas? Film in Thailand.
METRO (1997) TOUCHSTONE/CARAVAN  Eddie Murphy as a San Francisco cop puts a mad man away but wants to play it safe by buying two tickets to Tahiti for him and his girlfriend when the killer threatened her life.  The mad man escapes and kidnaps her, Eddie saves the day but they go to Tahiti anyway at the end.  The Tahiti set was shot in the bay area.
MEXICAN SPITFIRE AT SEA (1942) RKO  Second honeymoon or a business trip?  Couple on cruiser to Hawaii.  Comedy.
MIDWAY (1976) MIRISCH/UNIVERSAL  Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Hal Holbrook, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Wagner and early bit by Tom Selleck.  Last of major WWII big picture until 1998 and computer imaging..  Big cast and good use of real war footage.  U.S. Naval war started and the "turned around" of Hawai'i.  Good “tiki bar” scene.
MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES (2016) FOX  Stars Zac Efron,. Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza.  As the title explains Mike (Devine) and Dave (Efron) have a wedding date in Hawai’i.  Whole move filmed on O‘ahu.  The two brothers wear a lot of leis and aloha outfits.  Devine explains to Plaza that “Hawai‘i is such a sexy place” as a hint to get it on.  At the wedding rehearsal of their younger sister we fined more leis, a Samoan fire dancer and lots of tikis.  Polynesians Branscombe Richmond,  Paula Fuga, John Cruz, Henry Kapono Ka‘aihue and Brother Nolan appear.
MILLION DOLLAR WEEKEND (1948) EAGLE LION Man takes company money and heads to Hawaii.  On plane he meets pretty widow and her blackmailer who later steals his company money.  Lots of O'ahu shooting including stock of Diamond Head surfing.  Starred Gene Raymond.  They rendezvous but not atop the Empire State but back to a terrace at the Royal Hawaiian overlooking Diamond Head.  James Craven and the Royal Hawaiian Serenaders perform. 
MINAMI TAIHEIYO NO WAKADAISHO (1967) TOHO (Japan) Translates “Young Guy in the South Pacific”  Filmed in Hawaii.  One star, Bibari Maeda who was the sarong beauty in SON OF GODZILLA.  Need more information?
MISS CAST AWAY & THE ISLAND GIRLS (2004) SHOWCASE ENT.  Straight to video low budget bad comedy spoof about plane crashing on a deserted Pacific island with beauty queens, Noah’s ark and Jurassic pig.  Cameo by Michael Jackson.  Also parts by Eric Roberts, Jerry Lewis, Pat Morita and Bob Denver in his last film.
MISS ROBIN CRUSOE (1954) 20TH CENTURY-FOX   Amanda Blake, George Nader and "native" Rosalind Hayes.  Female version, shipwrecked on a Pacific island. Miss Crusoe saves native girl.  Nader also shipwrecks and later with Blake swims for passing vessel while Hayes fights off other natives. Natives seem African but are they supposed to be Melanesian, who could be cannibals. From Here to Eternity kiss scene.  Female Friday touches female Crusoe in her sleep, making love triangle complicated for the 50s.
MISS SADIE THOMPSON (1953) COLUMBIA   Rita Hayworth in classic as wild girl in a South Seas island layover along with a preacher, Jose Ferrer, and inhabited by soldiers this background makes for a dramatic story.  Hanalei pier. Filmed mostly on Kaua'i. Sadie character former Honolulu bar girl. Remake of SADIE THOMPSON (1928) and RAIN (1932).  Also a bit by a Charles Buchinsky, who later changed his last name to Bronson.
MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS (1948) PARAMOUNT  Robert Stack in story of idiot heir disappears from keeper in Hawaii the keeper than hires look-alike to see family in L.A..  Look-alike falls in love with heir's sister, real heir shows up with Hawaiian wife and hapa haole (half white) kids.  Hilo Hattie appears.  Filmed in Hollywood. Interracial marriage.
MISTER ROBERTS (1955) WARNER BROS.  Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon and William Powell in WWII naval classic based in the Pacific.  Filmed at Midway Island with scenes shot at Kaneohe M.C.A.S. with Duke Kahanamoku.  Duke's scene was set as the South Seas with Duke playing a native chief.  Canoe greeting scene.
MOANA: A ROMANCE OF THE GOLDEN AGE (1926) PARAMOUNT/FAMOUS PLAYERS-LASKY Early docudrama classic about Samoa with Samoan lifestyle and values produced and directed by Robert Flaherty. The first of three South Seas Films directed by the famous Flaherty but the only one he completed.  Also of interest John Grierson of the New York Sun while reviewing this title is credited with coining the word “documentary” but Moana has a fictional romance plot along with native life shots of a contemporary documentary style so in reality it is a “docudrama”, a more modern term. Filmed in Samoa.
MOBY DICK (1930) WARNER BROS.  John Barrymore; (1956)WARNER BROS. Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart pick up native, possibly a Maori, and go hunting for legendary great white whale near the Bikini Atoll.  This classic was directed by John Huston with Huston and Ray Bradbury writing the screenplay.  Orson Wells played preacher on land.  John Barrymore played in silent version SEA BEAST, THE (1926) WARNER BROS.
MOLOKAI (1959) EUROPEA de CINE (Spain)  Biography of Father Daimen.
MOLOKAI:THE STORY OF FATHER DAMIEN (1999) ERA FILMS (Belgium) Big guest cast: Peter O’Toole, Sam Neill, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Wilkinson, Derek Jacobi, Leo Kern and Alice Kruge with then unknown lead David Wenham from Australia.  Actually filmed on the Kalaupapa peninsula.  Theatrically released only in Europe but released on tape & disc elsewhere in fall 2000. Also lots of Hawaiian cast; Keanu Kapuni-Szasz, Verona Tiki, Curtis Crabbe and many more. Also popular part Hawaiian Australian singer Kate Ceberano.
MONSOON (1943) ATLANTIS PICTS. aka ISLE OF FORGOTTEN SINS John Carradine, Sidney Toler and Gale Sondergaard star in this South Seas saga of two treasure hunters and the owner of a brothel planning to get gold off a sunken ship. Then complications follow along with an approaching monsoon.
MOON AND SIXPENCE (1942) UNITED ARTISTS  George Sanders in Maugham story of westerner leaving it all to paint in Tahiti, after being influenced by a small Tahitian tiki he bought in Paris.  He marries native girl, paints masterpieces and dies of leprosy.  Twist at the end he makes the native wife burn all his works.  Native feast scene, Tahiti stock footage the rest on sound stage  Shot in black & white but Tahiti scenes are interestingly shot in sepia tone and one scene is in color where they finally show the artist Gauguinish work.  See TVM of same name (1959). 
MOONLIGHT IN HAWAII (1941) UNIVERSAL  Musical/comedy about singer who brings tour group to Hawaii, two pineapple kings pursuing wealthy female visitor.  Songs: Hawaiian War Chant, Lovely Hula Hands, Aloha Oe. a fun poi song, a tap dancing hula and others.  Wedding luau scene with real Hawaiian Band and hula dancers.  Shot in L.A. with stock footage of Aloha Tower, Moana Hotel and a backward shot of Diamond Head to open up the movie but star Johnny Downs does say Honolulu is around the point so it should be sort of backwaeds.  Maria Montez plays a mainlander posing as a native with a Spanish accent.  Two Kanakas have bit speaking parts but no credits. Also stars Johnny Downs.
MOST DANGEROUS GAME, THE (1932) RKO-RADIO and remakes; GAME OF DEATH (1946) RKO-RADIO  All both about humans being hunted on a remote isle.  Where set?
MOTHER INSTINCT, THE (1915) BISON Cleo Madison and Joe King star in this survival drama. Shipwrecked on a Pacific island they eventually give birth to a love child.  It was not easy for Madison who was recently betrayed by a former lover and men were the furthest from her mind.  Later the former lover shows up after an exhaustive search to reclaim her and return her to civilization.  A fight peruses King wins and Madison truly loves him.  Did they stay on the island?
MOTHRA (1961) TOHO (Japan) Here on a South Seas Island Mothra is worshiped by brown painted Japanses natives with 12 inch twin girls.  Was remade later as: REBIRTH OF MOTHRA (1996) TOHO with possibly no natives.  Need more information?
MOVE OVER DARLING (1963) 20TH CENTURY-FOX Doris Day, James Garner, Polly Bergen, and Chuck Connors star in remake of MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940) RKO-RADIO.  Wife gets lost at sea than on a beautiful and remote Pacific Island with a Connors for five years.  She remains faithful and returns to now remarried husband on his honeymoon.  Note of interest: MOVE OVER DARLING is also the remake of Marilyn Monroe’s last picture by FOX which she never finished.  It was titled, SOMETHING’S GOT TO GIVE and it co-starred Dean Martin.
MR. PIP (2012) NZ FILM COMM.  Stars Hugh Laurie and Papuan Xzannjah as Pip who loves the imagination of her new teacher and his reading to the class of Charles Dickson’s Great Expectations all during the war of cooper mining and land rights of Bougainville during the 1990s..
MR. ROBINSON CRUSOE (1932) UNITED ARTISTS/ELTON CORP.  Douglas Fairbanks Sr. betting he can survive on South Seas island like the real Mr. Crusoe and he does a great job. Soon a Polynesian beauty finds him while running away from her betroth and later after a bit of heaven the boyfriend returns angry and with some fellow angry natives.  Filmed in Tahiti and in the United Artist lot..
MR. WINKLE GOES TO WAR (1944) COLUMBIA  Edgar G. Robinson in WWII comedy of soldier in the Pacific.  
MT. ZION (2013) NZ FILM COMM.  Stars Maoris Stan Walker & Temuera Morrison. Story of a young singer who forms a group whos goals is to be the opening act for a Bob Marley tour in New Zealand.  Age old conflict araises when hard working father wants his boy to work hard on the farm.  Farm or Fame Luke Skywalker’  Good Maori images.  Directed by Tearepa Kahi.    
MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY (1916) CRICK & JONES (Australian) (Silent) by Raymond Longford.  First (of 5) movie version of this famous story. Need more information?  Wilton Power who played Christian was the only Christian who did not become a mega star and it wasn't because he was Australian because two of the four future Christians were discovered in Australia: Eroll Flynn and Mel Gibson. Word is film does not exist anymore.
MUTINY ON THE BLACKHAWK (1939) UNIVERSAL  Blackbirders bribe Hawaiian chief to take his subjects to California than the Hawaiians mutiny en route.  They then join U.S. effort in fighting Mexico.  Mamo Clark had a part in this 1840 story.
MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935) MGM  Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Mamo Clark, Movita & Francis Tone.  *Important notes: Oscar for best picture & only time three actors were nominated for best actor from one movie, none of them won.  Also it is said the James Cagney & David Niven were extras in this classic; (1962) MGM  Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, Richard Harris and Tarita all starring in classic story of mean captain and crew who make mutinous plans while stopping over in Tahitian paradise.  Robert Surtees cameraman.  Canoe greeting, native kiss, seductive dance and conch shell scenes.  .  Also see: IN THE WAKE OF THE BOUNTY (1932) and THE BOUNTY(1984). Movie connection with MGM films is Marlon Brando of the "62" film was married to Movita of the "35" film. More trivia; Movita is a faux Tahitian name that Mexican/American actress Maria Castaneda used because like most Mexican/American actresses of the time made a half career playing (w)tahine (Polynesian female) rolls. Part three of trivia; after Movita, Marlon married a real tahine and lived happily on a real Tahitian private island with real family dramas.
MY ENEMY THE SEA (1963) ISHIHARA (Japan) TAIHEIYO HITORI-BOTCHI  A young Japanese man sails an 18-foot craft, alone, from Osaka to Honolulu then on to San Francisco. Aka ALONE ON THE PACIFIC.
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1929) MGM  Lionel Barrymore; (1961) COLUMBIA/CHARLES SCHEER PROD. (British)  From Jules Verne novel and stars Herbert Loom.  Confederate prison escapees blown off course in their balloon.  They then land on an uncharted Pacific isle (36 south, 153 west) inhabited by giant animals (crabs, bees, bird) and Captain Nemo.  Also giant squid and catastrophic volcano ending. Effects by the famed Ray Harryhausen.  Got to check out the giant turkey like bird eating scene.  Also of note: although not the original but this movie set the standard of “evil rulers volcanic lair” settings. Remade see: JOURNEY 2 THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (2012) NEW LINE CINEMA 

NAKED AND THE DEAD, THE (1958) RKO-RADIO PICS.  All-star Army actor cast: Aldo Ray, Cliff Robinson, Richard Jaeckel, Raymond Massey and Joey Bishop.  Movies starts in "Jungle Bar-Honolulu 1943" with all haole female strippers or woman of questionable past, who doesn't strip and tons of rowdy soldiers.  Some of these soldiers or some of our cast are shipped to the South Seas to battle socially friends on a South Sea isle, one seduces other's wife, leaves, the other kills himself. From a Norman Mailer novel.           
NAKED PARADISE (1957) AM. INT’L  Island settings are vague but reading the character names helps with the geography; Lanai (Lisa Montell), Kieone (? spelling) played by Johnny Kieoni, Hula Dancer and Man at Luau.  This film was lens in Hawai‘i and stared Richard Denning and Beverly Garland.  Also producer Roger Corman had the part of office worker.  Story of bad guy and gang just robs a plantation’s payroll and hire Denning’s boat to hide out on a remote island.  Big fight and Denning ends up with the girl Garland who was the gang's unwilling secretary.  Later renamed Thunder Over Hawaii(1957) which also helps with geography.  The new title was released with one of the most provocative posters in Hollywood history.  A drawing of Denning hooking Garland’s blouse, with a big fish hook, JUST above her well sized, cleavage exposed breasts as she falls overboard in her short sarong.
NAMING NUMBER TWO (2006) NUMERO FILMS/MIRAMAX  Written and directed by hapa Fijian Toa Fraser partly about his own life later being raised in a suburb of Auckland, N.Z..  Problem with film is not story, Fijian grandma thinks it time for her family to throw her a feast so she can name her successor, bur casting.  Grandma is played by African/American actress Ruby Dee and other family members are played by Polynesians, Rene Naufahu, Taungaroa Emile, Pio Terei, Joe Folau and Nathaniel Lees.
NARROW CORNER, THE (1933) WARNER BROS.  Stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Patricia Ellis and Ralph Bellamy.  Set on a small South Seas island Fairbanks is hiding from the law because he is accused of a murder in a love triangle back in the states.  He’s enjoying his paradise, swims nude and accidently runs into a pretty white girl on the beach, he hides behind a large rock but they have an engaging conversation anyway. Sparks fly, problem is that she is the daughter of the platation owner on the island and she’s engaged to his manager.  She is worth fighting for but Fairbanks remembers that this is why he gotten into trouble in the first place.  Good story by Somerset Maugham. White love triangle.
NATE AND HAYES (1983) PARAMOUNT  (U.S./ New Zealand) Michael O'Keefe, Tommy Lee Jones as Bully Hayes in lite pirate adventure with fat Polynesian king and killer natives in killer canoes.  Also volcano sacrifice scene. Filmed in Fiji and New Zealand. AKA: Salvage Islands. Lots of similar scenes to years later giant hit PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (2003) DISNEY.
NATION'S PERIL (1914) MACRAE/BISON/LURIN MFG. CO.  Early silent detective adventure starting in New York and ending in Hawaii.  Pali locations and downtown, with William Crawford.
NAVIGATOR, THE (1924) METRO-GOLDWYN (silent)  Buster Keaton classic where he and girlfriend are cast adrift on an empty ship which ends up in the South Seas off an coconut covered island full of fierce Melanesian warriors.  Film in Southern Cal with fake Melanesians and coconut trees.  Polynesian outrigger canoe greeting scene by non natives where canoes go all over the place and there not greeting but attacking.
NAVY BLUES (1941) WARNER BROS.  Ann Sheridan, Jackie Oakie, Martha Raye, Jack Haley, Jack Carson & Jackie Gleason.  Four of a kind Jacks. On a layover in Hawaii two sailors lays bets that their ship will win the Marksmanship trophy.
NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS, THE (1966) STANDARD CLUB OF CALIF./JACK BRODER PRODS.  Mamie Van Doren, Bobby Van and Pamela Mason in "B" as in bomb movie of man-eating trees transported from the ice of Antarctica.  After the trees kill passengers and co-pilot of a military transport the shocked pilot lands the plane at his scheduled stop on a the fictitious South Pacific isle of "Gull" where its inhabitants, Navy and its civilian workers have to deal with the killer trees.  No natives on the isle.  Only genre with killer mushrooms, two different trees and a giant moth.
NAVY WIFE (1935) 20TH CENTURY-FOX  Ralph Bellamy and Claire Trevor in story of devoted wife in Honolulu base.  Dock lei greeting scene, luau with Polynesian dance. Backward Diamond Head rear projection off cruise ship.  Some O'ahu location shooting.
NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET (1925) COSMOPOLITAN/MGM Consequences of interracial marriage even though island princess was already a hapa (half Polynesian).  In this version white husband retuns to island with his Princess wife but there he turns ill with rock fevor.  Soon his friend and former fiancée comes to the island.  The husband leaves with former fiancée and friends stays back to comfort the distraught native Princess. Miscegenation thwarted; ; (1931) MGM Talkie with Conchita Montenegro and Leslie Howard.  Directed by W.S. Van Dyke. Filmed in Tahiti with feast, dancing and waterfall/lagoon scenes.  Good drama with proper Howard with proper fiancée, is in charge of taking care of his dad’s friend’s hapa Tahitian daughter. Howard gets caught up in her raw sexually, directness and simple ways.  He drops everything and goes back to live with the hapa in Tahiti only to find the food and life style is too hard for him and most importantly his Tahiti dream girl continues to be sexually liberal with the native men.  He gets internally angry, hits native girl, becomes a drunken beachcomber until old fiancée comes to rescue him.  Howard, in turn, rescues a fellow drunken beachcomber who he swore earlier he would never become.  Ironically, earlier the beachcomber warned Howard he would be trapped in paradise and become a drunken beachcomber also.  Classic Paradise is hell plot.
NEW GUINEA: ISLAND OF THE CANNIBAL (1974) DIA INTL. FILMS (Italy) NUOVA GUINEA, L’ISOLA DEI CANNIBALI  Italian poster shows topless New Guinea women and two very close men.  Need more information?
NGATI (1987) NZ FILM COMM./PACIFIC FILMS (New Zealand) Directed by Barry Barclay, written by Tama Poata and stars; Tuta Ngarimu Tamati, Iranui Haig, Tawai Moana & Wi Kuki Kaa. Story of a young doctor visiting a remote Māori village, he brings with him some predjudices of the natives but all that changes when he finds out his mother was a Māori from the village.  Story is also framed around a Māori boy who dies of Lukimia.  Much traditional prayers throughout for the dying boy and touching traditional funernal for the youth at the end.  Also land conflict with pakeha (Euro-New Zealander) company.
NIGHT SHIP, THE (1925) LUMAS Shipwrecked on a South Seas island for six years Robert Gordon’s character returns to a home in shambles.  Mother has died, bad guy took her house and Gordon’s girlfriend.  The revenge takes place on the mainland.  No natives on the island.
NIM’S ISLAND (2008) FOX  Gerald Butler and Abigail Breslin as Jack & Nim Rusoe (get it Crusoe) who live on an isolated South Seas island near the Cook Islands.  Gerald leaves her daughter alone for the first time to go collect undiscovered micro plankton samples and is caught in a storm without a sail.  Meanwhile Abigail emails her favorite macho adventure writer for help who in reality is a female agoraphobic Jodie Foster.  Jodie forces herself out of her home to help lonely Nim and has an adventure of her own which includes Rarotonga and flying in an old helicopter with Jay Laga’aia as the pilot.  Also an Australian Company tries to exploit island as a private Polynesian beach for Australian Aloha shirted tourist with Hula dancing but exploding volcano chases them away.  Tania Pari and Nami Itonaga credited as Cook Islanders.
NO MAN IS AN ISLAND (1962) UNIVERSAL  Jeffery Hunter in true story of soldier trapped on Guam during WWII.  Shot in the Philippines and Guam’s Chamorro weren’t happy.  Film also portrays a native love affair with hunter and Chamorro native played by Philipina Barbara Perez.  PR poster says “She risked her life to give him food, shelter and love.”  Not sure if this is a Hollywood sexual embellishment. 
NO MAN'S LAND(1918) METRO (silent) with Bert Lytell and Anna Q. Nilsson.  Lytell unjustly goes to jail.  Girlfriend marries a German man who takes her to a South Seas Island.  There she finds out her husband is a German spy.  Lytell get out for good behavior and goes to the island to rescue her but only to find out the husband is dead anyway.  
NO PLACE TO GO (1927) FIRST NATIONAL Big star Mary Astor in this South Seas comedy.  Mary is daughter of banker and she likes a hansome teller so she invites him on her yacht with other friends and they sail down to a romantic South Seas island, which is always been her dream.  But on the island the couple realize they are not alone for it’s an island inhabited by cannibals who chase them.  They are saved by her friends back in yacht.  They do get married back at home but Astor freak out by a electronic sign of cannibals and she falls into her new husband’s loving arms.
NOA NOA (1974) ??? (Italy) Starring Mariana Camara and Diogenes Castrillo in this Bounty follow up on Pitcairn Island.  This Italian version was written and directed by Ugo Liberatore contains lots of violence and blood due to English mutineers fighting Tahitian men over their wives. Filmed in Puerto Rico.
NON-STOP FLIGHT, THE (1926) EMORY JOHNSON PRODS./R-C PICS. Fiction of historic flight to Hawaii but plane runs out of fuel, crashes and drifts to uncharted isle.
NONE BUT THE BRAVE (1965) WARNER BROS.  Frank Sinatra, Clint Walker and Tommy Sands in WWII drama of troop plane crashing on remote Pacific isle inhabited by a stranded patrol of Japanese soldiers.  Good conflict with the overriding thought of senseless killing since everyone is stranded anyway.  Compare HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968).  Filmed on Kaua'i.
NORTH (1994) CASTLE ROCK ENT. Filmed by Rob Reiner, starring future Frodo Baggins, Elijah Wood and a non-credited Bruce Willis.  It's about a boy who is searching for new parents which even brings him to Hawaii to try out locals.  Hawaii segment filmed on Kaua'i.  Local but none Hawaiian Keone Young plays Gov. Ho.
NORTH SHORE (1987) UNIVERSAL  Arizona surf king learns Hawaii isn't easy, loves local girl played by part-Filipino mainlander after Californian part-Hawaiian was fired.  Gregory Harrison plays retired surfer with local Hawaiian, Loke Lau as his wife. Compare Ride the Wild Surf.
NOTHING BUT WOMEN (1950) PICTURES ASSOCIATES (Philippines) Stars huge Filipina actress Carmen Rosales and American Robert Neil.  Carmen is a Queen of a South Seas island inhabited by only wahine natives.  Carmen gets first choice. 
NUDE ODYSSEY (1962) PCM/FRANCINEX (Fra./Ital./US)  An Italian filmmaker heads for Polynesia to shot but ends up helping American woman find husband, has hot romance with Tahitian women, lives with two women in mansion, then befriends boy and priest feels quilt and returns home.  Hawaiian Elisabeth Logue plays Matae. Aka: LOVE TAHITI STYLE.

OCEANO (1971) PEA (Italy)  Adventure/Romance possibly set in South Seas.  Need more information? Foreign CD covers of soundtrack reveal a very South Seas image.
OMOO OMOO, THE SHARK GOD (1949) SCREEN GUILD PRODS./ ELSA PICS.  Loosely based on book of same name and written by Herman Melville.  Set on the isle of Taviti where a cursed captain returns to retrieve giant black pearls he stolen off the eyes of a sacred Shark God Tiki and buried it nearby.  His even more greedy first mate kills the captain for them while a good sailor and the captains daughter want them return to the natives.  The curse is passed on to the daughter when the captain is murdered. This complicates things because she is the only one who knows where the pearls are buried.  Monkeys, snakes, tigers in this low budget film.  Also native rituals. 
ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU (1948) MGM  Ester Williams, Peter Lawford, Jimmy Durante, Cyd Charisse, Ricardo Montalban, Xavier Cugat in musical/love story in Hawaii while filming a South Seas movie.  Filmed mostly in Hollywood.  Cellophane hula in tropical club, pagan dance number, flamingos, toucans, painted bodies and Cugat music.  Montalban plays a Spaniard playing a native and Cugat plays Cugat. On set Ester has brown paint, Cugat carries a Chihuahua wearing a hula outfit.  A South Seas movie about a South Seas Movie. Lawford kidnaps star Williams and flies her to another island.  Compare LEATHERNECKING.  Al Kikume bit part.
ON THE ISLE OF SAMOA (1950) COLUMBIA  Jon Hall who is part Tahitian and usually plays a native but in this film he plays a white man who falls in love with a native girl.
ONCE WERE WARRIORS (1994) FINE LINE FEATURES/COMMUNICADO  Stars Maoris; Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison and Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell and directed by Lee Tamahori.  This highly acclaimed and highly rewarded film portrays a very modern, poor, dysfunctional, Maori family in a powerful and graphic way (lots of violence and profanity).  The warrior theme ran throughout the movie with the macho father, the Maori tattooed eldest boy with his fellow tattooed “Toa” gang members and the younger teen son who in reform school learns “Hakas” as part of his rehabilitation.  But the true stars of the film were the women who struggle to survive with the drunkenness and violence of their lives which is almost international.
100 CULTURED YEARS (1940) ??? (New Zealand)  Film about New Zealand’s History which includes the Pakea’s dealings with the Maori.  Need more information?
ONE WAY PASSAGE (1932) WARNER-VITAPHONE  William Powell and Kay Francis.  Doomed criminal on cruise liner meets dying rich girl.  Plans to escape in Honolulu where boys are diving for coins (stock shot), lots of steel guitar music in b.g. (including Aloha Oe) and romantic moonlight beach scene.  Remade: TIL WE MEET AGAIN (1940).
ONE WAY WAHINE (1965) UNITED SCREEN ARTS  Two large breasted, runaway, teenage girls get involved with stolen money, violence and robbery.  Filmed and set on O'ahu.  Edgar Bergen plays a beachcomber.  Also stars Anthony Eisley. Two Hawaiian dance numbers.
OPERATION BIKINI (1963) AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL   WWII action/drama with Tab Hunter, Frankie Avalon, Jim Backus and Gary Crosby.  Story starts in "South Pacific August 1944" with U.S. submarine picking up a special underwater demolition team.  This team is made up of former bikini beach cast and taken up for a serious mission to the Bikini Atoll.  There, they are to destroy a sunken U.S. sub that is equipped with a prototype of Navy's latest radar device. The sub is surrounded by a huge Japanese fleet but with the help of natives made up of a confusing mixed race, they accomplished their goal.  Though a serious movie Avalon does sing twice, both times in dreams with Hawaii and Tahiti backgrounds and colored filtered tints aka. SOUTH PACIFIC.  And amazingly at the end the movie shows atom bomb testing at the atoll with narrator remarking: "...chances are Bikini will be remembered for something else; not a bomb, not a battle but (pause) a bathing suit".  Fade in color scenes of beautiful bikini clad women on the beach with very upbeat music in background as end credits roll.  Totally out of sync with the rest of the movie.  Sign of the times I guess or the Producers did not want to disappoint the audience who were waiting for Annette and big waves to appear.
OPERATION PACIFIC (1951) WARNER BROS. John Wayne, Patricia Neal in WWII navy action/drama.  Submarine action strong but shore leave drama weak with the Duke trying to win over ex-wife, nurse at Aiea Heights Naval Hospital. Tiff between rowdy and drunken naval crew and some Hawaiians at luau, all was fine until hula dancers left. Aftermath scene at brig with Hawaiians wanting compensation for broken ukuleles and other damages.  Terms were met when peacemaker Wayne found out that the Hawaiians sold illegal and potent okole'hau. Hawaiian were lead by Al Kikume. Sub crew wore leis, couple hula outfits and not many shirts. O'ahu location shooting.  Sub based at Pearl Harbor. Funny scene on board watching another Warner sub film DESTINATION TOKYO (1942) with Cary Grant captaining a sub in Tokyo Bay which never happened. CPO rolls his eyes the Lt. leaves the room because he can’t take the Hollywood version of the war any more.
OPERATION PETTICOAT (1959) UNIVERSAL  Cary Grant, Tony Curtis in comedy about a WWII submarine's wacky adventures in the Pacific from the Philippines to Australia.  Luau scene on submarine's deck.  Filmed in Key West, Florida. Curtis says he joined the Navy and became an actor because he saw Cary Grant in DESTINATION TOKYO. Asked by studio what movie he would like to do? Of course he answered: "...a service movie with Cary Grant." He got his wish on OPERATION PETTICOAT.
ORATOR, THE (2011) NZ FILM COMM. AKA: O LE TULAFALE  Stars Fa’afiaula Sagote, Tausili Pushpara, Salamasina Mataia & Ioata Tanielu.  Set in a small village in Samoa Saili (Sagote) born a small person in a macho world of Samoa must find himself and except who he is and go beyond.  Directed and written by Tusi Tamasese.  Associate producer Maiava Nathaniel Lees.
ORIENTAL VANITIES (1952) PACIFIC PICTURES   Filmed on O’ahu in Honolulu, Waikiki and in a strip joint.  Two comedians run around town mimicking the hula and “missing the boat” so they have to work at the strip club.  No Orientals involved.  Another title used: Burlesque in Hawaii.
OTHER HALVES (1984) FINLAYSON HILL (New Zealand)   Love breaks color, age and class barriers in urban, contemporary Auckland.  Cast includes Mark Pilisi as the young and violent Polynesian and Lisa Harrow as middle class housewife who has a break down. In the mental ward she meets drug addict and 16 yr. old gang member Pilisi.  She is attracted to him and upon their release they live together.  Maybe she should have had more treatments because it is not about race but age and class with one still growing up and from a rough neighborhood.  Two problems, one Pilisi treats her worse than her husband which besides being non-sensible it portrays a one sided stereotype of Māori men, especially along with hit film Once Were Warriors.  The other concern about the age difference can be better understood with a question of age in a sex reversal role.  What if a 30 something pakea (Euro-New Zealander) man with a mental history took home a young Polynesian street girl of 16 to have an affair?  Temuera Morrison has a small part.
OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN, THE (2002) EXCEL ENERTNMT. GROUP/DISNEY  Small indie but big hearted true story of an early Mormon missionary out in the fringe islands of Tonga.  Great photography, charming acting by locals as well as the missionary.  If one doesn’t have a hang up with Mormonism then this can be entertaining for all.  Hurricane scene.  DVD & VHS distributed by DISNEY. Young stars Christopher Gorham and Anne Hathaway as well as many native cast notably Joe Folau, Nathaniel Lees and Alvin Fitisemanu.
OUT OF THE PAST (1927) PEERLESS PICTS. Stars Mildred Harris, Robert Fraser and Ernest Wood in this complicated and sad love drama. First in the plot Harris is truly in love with Fraser but Fraser suddenly disappears and all think he is dead.  In a rebound Harris marries a humble financier but the financier feels he cannot capture a true relationship with Harris.  The marriage fails and he leaves a suicide note.  In reality the husband sails off to the South Sees.  There the husband his intrigued by the local natives and the thoughts of suicide vanishes, if there were ever these thoughts in the first place.  Meanwhile back at home the former lover Fraser returns and the love is renewed with Harris.  The husband quietly returns and witnesses this love and without announcing himself he quietly disappears, leaving the lovers to themselves.

PACIFIC BANANA (1981) SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FILM CORP.  Two Australian pilots, working for a small South Seas airline try to find love on different Polynesian ports. Only one major Polynesian female cast member listed, Manuia Taie.
PACIFIC DESTINY (1956) BRITISH LION FILM CORPS. (British)  True story of British officer trying to quell native disputes.  Inia Te Wiata in cast.
PACIFIC LINER (1939) RKO-RADIO  Barry Fitzgerald in formula plot on epidemic aboard ship.  Compare KILLER ON BOARD (1977).  Ship sails from China to San Francisco. Need more information?
PACIFIC RENDEZVOUS(1942) MGM / LOWE’S INC.  Jean Rogers in WWII spy drama.  Although the main character in the story doesn’t fight in the Pacific like he wants to but he does end up a Pacific hero by breaking Japanese code.  Some cutaways to Pacific action.
PAGAN, THE (1929) MGM  Ramon Novarro in hit movie of hapa (half-breed) youth sunning, swimming, love making and singing, with an operatic voice:The Pagan Love Song.  Filmed in Papeete.  Directed by W.S. Van Dyke.  Part talkie, part topless. Nice film with love drama with another hapa native girl from another island but with a mean whitepreacher (also care giver) takes advantage of Ramon's easy go lucky mind and his big coconut plantation that Roman inherited. Seems like handsome Novarro is get as many fans today as he did back then. Preacher slyly takes Ramon's plantation and forcefully marries his half-caste ward.
PAGAN ISLAND (1961) CINEMA SYN./CENTURY  A Nani Maka plays the character Nani Maka who is a princess on an all girl island.  Man shipwrecks there where the women hate all men. Maka is to be sacrificed to Tiki sea god but she and man escape.  She gets killed by a giant clam.  Underwater scenes shot in the Seaquarium in Miami.  Another bell. "B" movie filmed in Florida now a cult-classic want-a-be with the worse looking tiki in filmdom but Miss Maka looks part Polynesian.
PAGAN LOVE SONG (1950) MGM  Ester Williams being romanced in Tahiti also Rita Moreno and Howard Keel.  Plantation owner, native sword dance, of course, a water ballet and brown painted Ester diving for coins.  Exteriors filmed on Kaua'i. Freddie Letuli fire knife dancer.
PAID BACK (1922) UNIVERSAL (Silent)  Compilcated story of backmail and love.  Stars Gladys Brockwell who is a wealth young woman.  Her parents die and suddenly she is married hastingly to the estates older trustee.  She realizes soon that there is no love in her marriage.  At the same time her friend is being blackmailed so to save the friend she comprises herself and the husband is not happy with Brockwell.  Then the blackmailer focuses on her.  Brockwell takes matters into her own hands and leads the blackmailer to a South Seas island and there he is taken care of.  There on the island Brockwell finds her true love and upon her husband’s death the true lovers marry.
PAINTED WOMAN (1932) FOX  Spencer Tracy on a South Seas island and in a drama involving a woman of questionable past.  A sea captain finds out about her past and just dumps her on the beachcomber Tracy’s island.  Tracy ends up marrying her but later captain comes back to marry her also.  The captain gets killed, everyone blames the woman, even Tracy.  Heavy. No paradise for Tracy nor the captain nor the woman.
PARADISE (1926) FIRST NAT. PICS. Stars Noah Beery and Milton Sills. Sills is a pilot war hero and his father rewards him with “Paradise” his father’s South Seas island.  He take his new bride there only to find the caretaker (Beery) of the island mistreats the local natives and wants the island to himself.  Big fight follows. 
PARADISE FOUND (2003) ADELAIDE MOTION PICTS/LIONS GATE (Australia/UK) Newer story of famous painter Paul Gauguin but this time Kiefer Sutherland playing Gauguin like character with Nastassja Kinski. Not much Polynesians found or listed in cast. Film in Czech Republic and Queensland, Australia. One scene has the artist Kiefer fighting over the destruction of Tikis idols with the local Tahitian priest.
PARADISE, HAWAIIAN STYLE (1966) PARAMOUNT  Elvis Presley runs charter air service with girl in every island. Can't beat the mix of Elvis and Hula. They both can move those hips.
PARADISE ISLAND (1930) TIFFANY Musical/romance with typical American love triangle in the South Seas.  “Natives are lazy”  Native women speak Spanish.  “You know any white girl on the island?” Natives are portrayed lazy and they flee a fight unless it's acock fight.  All the white men after one white girl. Set in Tonga.
PARADISE ISLE (1937) MONOGRAM With Movita, blind painter is shipwrecked on South Sea island, native girl saves him and dives in shark-infested waters for pearls to bring eye doctor to him.  Jealous but understanding native boyfriend. Shot in Samoa.  Later retitled as; SIREN OF THE SOUTH SEAS. Two credited native roles for Tau Mana & Malia Makua.
PARADISE LAGOON (1957) COLUMBIA   Based on classic book by James Barrie titled and movie's original title: ADMIRABLE CRITCHTON, THE.   Story of resourceful servant who helps his rich, helpless, shipwrecked co-passengers. 
PARDON MY SARONG (1942) UNIVERSAL  Abbott and Costello in musical/comedy. They are lost on a South Seas island with jewel thieves ripping-off naive natives.  Lots of fake greenery, hulas and brown painted natives.  Also a big bell, fake volcano and sacrifice, feast, shark and swordfish attack.  The film features "A Chorus of Jungle Junior Misses" and the intoxicating effect of kava Song “Lovely Luana”.  Also bad Universal costumes and dances, one jazz.  Chief wears feathered Art Deco outfit.  Lions and a zebra?  Number 2 in box office for 1942. "With the Saronga dancing girls".
PARIS PLAYBOYS (1954) ALLIED ARTIST  Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and the rest of the Bowery Boys. Huntz is mistaken for a missing French scientist look-a-like who is almost finished with inventing a new rocket fuel.  An NATO Agency whizzes Sach back to Paris.  Good and bad, the real scientist has a babe French girlfriend bad news bad guys want to kidnap him.  What happen to the real scientist? He’s stuck on a Pacific island in a hammock surrounded by native beauties.  Poor Huntz who plays both roles.
PASSION FRUIT (1921) METRO Stars Doraldina (Dora Sanders of San Francisco), a "hula hula" stage dancer in the Frivolities of 1920 and Road to Mandalay, plays a half-caste Hawaiian daughter of a plantation owner who is murdered by evil manager who also wants to marry Doraldina to complete his plans to own the island.  He also stirs the natives to revolt.  Location shooting on O'ahu.
PEARL HARBOR (2001) DISNEY  Michael Bay directs a Jerry Bruckheimer film which has the largest pre approved budget in film history, $130 million.  Stars Ben Afflict, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Alex Baldwin.  Good 40 min. attack sequence but bland love triangle that surrounds the attack.  Visuals are great but no sub-plots of the prospectives of local islanders. Perhaps the next movie on Pearl Harbor.
PEARL OF PARADISE, THE (1916) MUTUAL (Silent) Stars Harry Pollard with Margarita Fischer.  Pollard returns to the South Seas but this time he shipwrecks on an island controlled by a Spaniard and Margarita his daughter.  Controlled means he is controlling others, like natives.  Of course, the island raised Magarita, falls in love with the only white guy on island, even swims nude and asks him to join.  A drunken captain soon arrives and falls for the daughter, not any female islanders.  He then kidnaps Pollard and Margarita’s father and abducts Margarita with the aid of the natives.  What happen to the captain crew?  I guess father was a bad ruler for the natives to comply.  Margarita escapes and frees the other two and they all escape on his yacht.
PEARL OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC (1955) RKO  Virginia Mayo stars in sarong and in murder plot of treasure of black pearls guarded by giant octopus.  Tikis, canoes, sarongs, luau, native dancing and Al Kikume as a spear chucking extra – all the ingredients of a good South Seas flick. What more can one ask for? Reverse native gender love.
PERFECT GETAWAY, A (2009) UNIVERSAL  A nature couple on a hiking trip to Hawaii find out that there is a killer on the island of Kauai that preys on hikers.  They are very suspicious about a couple they meet on the trail. Good ending.  Filmed mostly in Puerto Rico & Kauai.
PERFECT SNOB, THE (1941) 20TH CENTURY-FOX  Lynn Bari, Cornel Wilde and Anthony Quinn in plot of girl finding, in Hawaii, husband of her dreams, loving and rich.  She finds, instead, poor loving guy who later turns out to be a rich plantation owner.
PIANO, THE (1993) MIRAMAX FILMS   Highly acclaimed film starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill.  Holly received People's Choice, Golden Globe award and an Oscar that year for best actress playing a mute English lady in the mid 1800s. She had a properly arranged marriage to a New Zealander pakea (white) and she travels to this exotic and remote location with her two prized possessions, her daughter, another Oscar winner, and her piano.  The plantation owner bridegroom trades the piano to a neighbor because he doesn't want to make the effort to retrieve the now abandon heavy piano on a distant beach which devastates the new bride.  Lots of interaction with native Maori, some as subservient, beautiful scene of large Maori war canoe hauling piano and interesting note of Neill's plantation character which is that he dedicates most of his time staking out more and more land while the natives rest.  Note of interest:  Young actress Anna Paquin, who won the other Oscar for her supporting role as the daughter, at that time she was the youngest winner. Interesting movie connection in 2003 the even younger Keisha Castle-Hughes was nominated for Best Actress in WHALE RIDER. Castle-Hughes didn’t win but it pays to play a young girl in a Maori film.   
PICASSO TRIGGER (1988) A. SEDARIS  Low budget spy flick.  Set and filmed partly in Hawaii.
PICTURE BRIDE (1995) MIRAMAX  Story of Japanese picture brides who through long distance arranged marriages were brought to Hawaii to work in the hot fields and marry insensitive husbands who can only get jobs working in foreign fields. Filming was tough with a rookie director, little pay and rough hot long working days, it seems the actors, extras and crews got a touch of the real conditions of the picture brides. Filmed mostly in the cane fields of Wailua.
PINKY (1949) 20TH CENTURY-FOX Starred Jeanne Crain.  Still has her in a hula outfit even though the story is set in the south. Need more information?
PIPPI IN THE SOUTH SEAS (1974) N.W.RUSSO (Swedish/German)  Unbelievable story of Pippi Longstocking single-handedly fighting off pirates in the "South Pacific".  Lions, crocodiles, pirates, volcanoes, sharks and steel guitar music in b.g.. Dubbed in English.  No natives except brown-painted guy on pirate ship.  Filmed in Europe and Bahamas.
PIRANHACONDA (2012) NEW HORIZONES Confusing background of ledendary giant snake.  Actors mention it a Polynesian legend, but the scientist dad was killed by the monster’s ancestor in South America, so how did it get to Kaua‘i.  A lot of straight to video or straight to Syfy monster movies seem to make it to Hawai‘i.  There were never indigenous snakes in Hawai‘i.
PIRATES' ISLAND (1990) GRUNDY TV/TELE ESPANOLA (Australia/Spain)  Young, Australian teens fly a balloon into a storm which takes them into a Pacific Island where descendants of Blue Beard, who still live in the past, have enslaved the native villagers and continually hunt for buried treasure. Also giant monsters live on the island. Made for youth market. 
POPCORN: AN A/V ROCK THING (1969) ???   Hippie pop cultural flick with lots different entertainers
PORT OF MISSING GIRLS (1938) MONOGRAM  with Harry Carey and a part for silent star Betty Compson.
Judith Allen plays the women of questionable past stows away on a freighter heading to a Hong Kong from San Francisco but first they stop at outside island known for harboring fugitives.  A crew member falls for Allen, a couple recognizes the wanted Allen at the island BUT Allen also learns of a plot to rob the good ship that just dropped her off.  She saves them by risking her freedom.
PORTS OF CALL (1925) FOX Stars Edmund Lowe and Hazel Keener.  Shy Lowe loses his girl to a more confident plantation owner.  Lowes than sails off to another South Pacific island, there he meets Keener who helps build his confidence by helping him stand up to two evil robbers.  Later the two find out that his ex and plantation owner husband are about to be attacked by the natives.  Lowe and Keener warn them and help them defeat the natives.  Husband dies, the now widow ex wants to go back with Lowe and she now comes with a plantation but Lowe choses Keener.
PORT OF HATE (1939) TIMES PICTS. Carleton Young (Lorretta’s sister) and Monte Blue.  Group of Americans discover bed of black pearls of a South Pacific island.  All is well until one is murdered.  A native girl is listed.
PRIDE OF THE MARINES (1945) WARNER BROS./1ST NATL.  John Garfield and Eleanor Parker in true story of Al Schmid a Guadalcanal WWII hero who lost his sight and struggles to readjust after the war.  Set in Solomon Islands and the states.  No time for paradise here, just war drama. PRINCE OF THE PACIFIC (2000) UGC-FOX (French/Spanish)  Family/adventure film where stuffy French naval officer falls for mixed islander and chases after a young French Polynerian boy.  Filmed in Huahine, Tahiti with lots of native actors: Anituavau Lande, Thierry Marani & Benjamin Atiu. AKA: LE PRINCE DU PACIFIQUE.
PRINCESS KA‘IULANI (2009) MATADOR PICTS.  Low budget indie film with low production values.  Had a bad start shooting when the non-Hawaiian producers, against the wishes of the indigenous Hawaiians, wanted to call it the “Salvage Princess” even though the real Princess was very refined.  Casting of a non-Hawaiian, minimally talented Princess was also controversial.  Brain child of a British first-time director.  Nevertheless an important story of the unjust and illegal loss of Hawaiian sovereignty.  Limited distribution. 
PRISONER OF JAPAN (1942) PRC  Early WWII film of an American civilian caught on a Mid Pacific island where the Japanese have taken over and use to spy and destroy American ships.
PRIVATE NAVY OF SERGEANT O'FARRELL, THE (1968) COLUMBIA  Bob Hope, Gina Lollobrigida and Phyllis Diller.  Hope tries to import beautiful nurses for his sailors but gets Diller instead.  Some critics claim this comedy is one of Hope's worst.  Hope is stationed in Hawaii and on a fictional South Pacific Island named: Funapee.  Connection with spoof of FROM HERE TO Eternity’s famous "kissing on beach" scene but here Hope almost drowns.  Steel guitar score and monkey.
PRIVATE WAR OF LUCINDA SMITH (1990) REVCOM (Australia)  Three ladies take revenge on a man.  Set and filmed in Samoa.
PROUD AND THE PROFANE (1956) PARAMOUNT  William Holden and Deborah Kerr in another one of her very dramatic WWII pictures.  This time, as a recent war widow, she joins the Red Cross and serves in New Caledonia where she meets a dashing, brash, and harden marine colonel who finally gets her to fall in love with him and gets her pregnant.  She than finds out that he is married but they haven’t loved each other in years and she's on her death bed.  Kerr is later transferred to Guadalcanal where they meet again.  No apparent location shooting and natives are only mentioned and shown as poor.  The art direction was very wrong but there are tikis. Compare Kerr’s character here with her role in From Here to Eternity.
PT-109 (1963) WARNER BROS.  Cliff Robertson in John F. Kennedy story about his fighting in the WWII Solomon Islands.  Also starred Robert Culp and Robert Blake.
PUBLICITY MADNESS (1927) FOX  Lois Moran as PR man who devises a contest with huge prize money for the first person who flies nonstop to Hawaii then he does it himself to save his job and gets the boss' daughter. Compare Bing as PR man in WAIKIKI WEDDING.
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002) COLUMBIA Adam Sadler looking for love.  Some scenes shot in Hawaii & set in Hawaii also. Royal Hawaiian Hotel is featured. Mostly set in Utah. 
PUPLE HEART DIARY (1951) COLUMBIA  Stars and is about Fransis Langford’s years of service in the USO.  Of course there are scenes in the South Pacfic and elsewhere.
PURSUED (1934) 20TH FOX  Nice young native woman, Mona, from a South Seas island is saving her money to move to San Francisco.  Meanwhile young nephew of plantation owner arrives to save the farm.  The two fall in love, a bad land grabber tries to kill nephew twice.  She shoots the bad guy at the end and they lived happily ever after.

QUICK BEFORE IT MELTS (1964) MGM  Stars Robert Morse who is a so so photographer with a so so assignment to the south pole but on the way he runs into a Maori girl namedTiare Marshall. also a bar scene fight in New Zealand.
QUIET EARTH, THE (1985) ANCHOR BAY ENT. (New Zealand)  From the “Dooms Day” sub-genre of the “Sci-fi” genre comes a Zealand version.  The lone white male survivor of a nuclear holocaust finds that he’s not alone.  Low and behold also surviving is a beautiful white girl and a dark Maori young man.  Typical Harry Belefonte triangle treatment.  I did not know interracial relationships were that tabu in Aotearoa because lots of Maori’s have English blood.
QUEST, THE (1915) AFMC/MUTUAll Interesting silent.  Director and star Harry Pollard plays a millionaire lone survivor of a shipwreck in the middle of the Pacific.  He lands ashore of an island filled with a Polynesian like  tribe of white survivors of a previous wreck some generations before.  Needless to say these white islanders have adapted Hollywood Polynesian island ways including names, customs, chiefs and an island priest.  Also needless to say Pollard falls in love with an island girl (Margarita Fischer) who is betrothed to the islands assistant chief.  The success of film had the studio put Pollard landing on another Pacific island with Fischer the following year in Pearl of Paradise, The (1916).

RACE THE SUN (1996) TRISTAR  Based on true story of Konawaena High students building and racing a solar car.  Stars Halle Berry and Jim Belushi with a real Hawaiian student Moki Cho, who plays a big, sly but smart Samoan.  Other Hawaiian students have parts.
RAGGED EDGE, THE (1923) DISTINCTIVE PICT./GOLDWYN  Silent film now lost.  Man heads to South Seas and finds his love.  Need more information?  Stars Alfred Lunt.
RAIN (1932) FEATURE PRODS./ LEWIS MILESTONE  Joan Crawford and Walter Huston version of SADIE THOMPSON (1928) and MISS SADIE THOMPSON (1954). Filmed in Catalina, CA.
RAINBOW BRIDGE (1972) TRANSVUE PICS.  Rock concert docudrama of hippies leaving L.A. to live in Hawaii and set on a upcountry Mau'i pasture.  Jimi Hendrix plays himself (note: Hendrix died in 1970)  A soundtrack album features Hendrix's Pali Gap.
RAINBOW ISLAND (1944) PARAMOUNT  Good cast of Mexican-American actresses playing natives with stranded merchant marines.  Dorothy Lamour in sarong and her tongue in cheek.  Also starring Eddie Bracken, Olga San Juan, Elena Verdugo and Yvonne De Carlo.  Sounds like a South Seas must See.  Navy men plane wrecked on an island of thinly clad women. Lagoon scene.  Dorothy plays a haole believe it or not who had shipwrecked there earlier and has been taken in by the natives who of course give her sarongs.  Costumes by Edith Head.  Bad Art Direction, women have classic look but the men?  Tikis. Maori and Aztec designs.  Luau feast. Hawaiian & Samoan words.  Couples running off. Mistaken identiki.

RAPA NUI (1994) WARNER BROS.  Starring Part-Hawaiian Jason Scott Lee in a pre-whiteman love story.  Set and filmed in Easter Island with an almost all Polynesian cast.  Most roles were played by Maoris. Story is of the possible downfallof the giant & mysterious moai tikis.
RAROTONGA (1978) ACUARIO FILMS (Mexico) AKS: LA ISLA DE RAROTONGA This “R” rated Mexican movie starred Raul Ramirez and Gloriela.  This now cult classic in Mexico has a spin off comic book version.  Shot in Mexico with more than normal nudity even for Mexican standards with Latin beauty Gloriela wearing an afro wig to play a Micronesian sexy woman.
RED MORNING (1935) RKO Steffi Duna & Raymond Hatton in adventure/drama set in New Guinea with a “shipwrecked white girl” and mutiny. Duna plays tomboy daughter of sea captain. Crew mutinies, Duna ends up on island (New Guinea) sheds most of her clothes to adapt to her environment and then she's no tomboy anymore. Soon she discovers non-friendly natives on same island but her fiance rescues her just in time.
REGENERATION (1923) NORMAN FILM CO. Stella Mayo in "A Romance of the Southern Seas".  Filmed in Jacksonville, Florida with an all African American cast.  “A girl, a man cast upon an unchartered island, a Garden of Eden then the serpent came”.  1 sheet says “Romance in the South Seas”.  Some still have grass shacks on a beach. Our hero couple and a pair of villainous men are all after treasure and our heros win out.  Even with an all black cast our hero couple is much fairer then the bad guys.
REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR (1942) REPUBLIC PICS. Fun loving G.I., Don Barry, feels guilty about indirectly causing the death of one of his compadres in the Pearl Harbor attack era of Honolulu. He more than makes up being the hero in other Pacific theatre battles. A fictional and recycled storyline from Republic.
RESCUE, THE (1929) GOLDWYN/UA  (9 reeler silent)   British adventurer hide island prince and his sister from restless natives.  He tries to help prince reclaim island but get sided tracked by rich English couple arriving on their yacht.  He then has an affair with wife.  Soon angry natives attack yacht, wife escapes to get help from the adventurer, lust takes over, husband is killed, yacht destroyed.  Guilty adventurer sends wife away and spends rest of life as a beachcomber.  Part for Duke Kahanamoku.
RESCUING ANGEL,THE (1919) FAMOUS PLAYERS A young woman, Shirley Mason, visits her uncle in Hawaii and meets an older wealthy admirer, who follows her back to the U.S. mainland. They marry but the happy husband is told Mason only married him for his money and he gets mad  but Manson proves she really does love him.
RETURN OF GODZILLA (1984) TOHO (Japan)  Raymond Burr as special guest of this American version of GOJIRA.  Burr is a reporter who witnesses the destruction of Tokyo by this South Seas monster.  Damn, the Japanese just rebuilt the city from the last movie he was in. 
RETURN TO PARADISE (1953) UA/MGM Gary Cooper falls in love with South Sea native girl. Filmed in Samoa.  From James Michener's book.  Moira MacDonald, a half breed, played Copper’s hafa kasi daughter with good reviews.  The mother. Maeva played by Roberta Haynes who also played a Polynesian named Mareva in HELL SHIP MUTINY (1957) was the only fake, brown-painted native while many real native Samoans had speaking parts and did a good job.  Also credited; Chief Mamea Mutatumua, Herbert Ah Sue & Felice Va’a all Samoan locales.  Mr. Ah Sue named a daughter after Roberta a short time later.  Great role for Cooper. One of now veteran Cooper's best performances.
RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON (1991) COLUMBIA  Sequel to popular BLUE LAGOON, THE (1980) with new young actors.  Again filmed in Fiji but this time on the island of Taveuni.  Fijians where again present in this version but not identified as such. Future star Milla Jovovich.
RETURN TO TREASURE ISLAND (1954) WORLD FILMS  Tab Hunter in a modern sequel of Stevenson's classic with more selfish people going after treasure.  People never change. This story places the secret island west of Nicaragua.
REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER, THE (1956) 20TH CENTURY-FOX  Jane Russell, Richard Egan, and Agnes Moorehead in story of aggressive woman with a questionable past was driven by police out of San Francisco, lands in Honolulu than buys up land in aftermath of Pearl Harbor but gives it all away and returns to mainland sadder and wiser.  Mostly filmed on O'ahu.   Director Raul Walsh. Great Honolulu brothel scenes with Russell doing a hula number on stage with four dancers as backups with cellophane skirts, great image.  Good Pearl Harbor attack scene from civilian point of view.
REWI'S LAST STAND (1925) HAYWARD PICS. (New Zealand)   Drama/romance based on famous incident during the Maori Wars of 1860's; (1940) HAYWARD PICS.  Sound version.  Must see movie for Maori and everyone like the Alamo the Maori’s “Last Stand” has the natives being out numbered 6 to 1 but they would not surrender. AKA: The Last Stand (1940) a shorter version.  
RHAPSODY IN AUGUST (1991) FEATURE FILM ENTP. (Japan) Hachi-gatsu no kyôshikyoku Starring Richard Gere in Japanese produced movie written and directed by Akira Kurosawa.  Richard plays a hapa (half breed) Japanese from Hawaii who visits his aunt in Japan.  They did shoot in Hawaii where Richard's Japanese father immigrated changed citizenship and married a European/American wife.
RHYTHM OF THE ISLANDS (1943) UNIVERSAL  Musical/romance.  Two Americans men sell a Pacific island to other Americans than natives arrive to reclaim their island.  Funny scenes where the first haole owners trick tourist & possible buyers with brown paint and dressing their black servant and his friends (the Step Brothers) to help entertain as natives. Eventually bad feelings blow over and two haole (white) couples are happily married in native ceremony.  Chief settles land depute among whites even though chief who is final judge never rules that the island is still own by the natives?  Note: prologue title states that film should be seen as taking place before the war.  Good Hollywood turning point from happy escapism to serious life.  Andy Devine stars.      
RIDE, THE (2003) INDIE  Made for TV because the aspect ratio but was well enough made for and was released in some theaters.  Did tour film festivals.  Top three stars were first time film actors and did a professional job.  Two of the three were Hawaiian Sean Kaawa & Mary Paalani.  Sean played a young Duke Kahanamoku as the other main character played a Haole pompous world champion surfer who near drowns back in time and meets the Duke and also learns to humble himself.  The film and characters are much better than the plot.                      
RIDE THE WILD SURF (1964) COLUMBIA  Fabian, Tab Hunter set in Hawaii for their beach party.  Hunter ends up with local hapa-haole girl. Highly valued film for surf movie fans.
RIVER QUEEN (2005) SILVERSCREEN (NZ/UK) Story o a young Irish woman who immigrated to Aotearoa (NZ) in the middle of the Maori English Wars with a father fighting for the Britsh army and having fallen love with a Maori teen and mothering a half cast son out of wedlock. Stars Samantha Morton,  Rawiri Pene, Cliff Curtis, Temuera Morrison, Wi Kuki Kaa, Kiefer Sutherland and Stephen Rea.
ROAD TO BALI (1952) PARAMOUNT  Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour team up again in this "South Seas" isle  Geography is sketchy, the Bing and Bob find themselves northwest of Australia.  The costumes say South China Seas but the cliches are South Seas Cinema with Hapa princess who swims in a serene lagoon, a giant squid, and volcano god and eruption.  Connection note: sign on the guest bedroom door reads; “Sadie Thompson Slept Here.”
ROAD TO SINGAPORE (1940) PARAMOUNT  Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour.  Two Pacific traveling bachelors meet girl in "Southern Sea" island called Kaigoon which lies west of  Australia.  Their stop before was Hawaii but we only see them in a post card.  They never reach Singapore.  Natives are a Asian, Polynesian mix.
ROBINSON CRUSOE (1952) OSCAR DANCIGERS (Mexican)  Shot in English and Spanish by famous Mexican/Spanish director Luis Buñuel.   See ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE need information on setting of story? Also (1927) by M.A.Wetherell writer/director/star also need more information?
ROBINSON CRUSOE (1996) MIRAMAX Pierce Brosnan stars in remake of what started to be a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV special.  But because it looked so good Miramax shot new footage and used additional stock footage for the big screen.  Was originally shot in New Guinea by Australia in the spring of 1994.  This time Friday was a Maori and it was set in the South Pacific.
ROUGH TOUGH AND READY (1945) COLUMBIA  Two home town rivals fight at home, fight during training, and fight over same girl, but when it’s time to fight the Japanese in the Pacific, they are on the same side.  One actually saves the other in real battle and rivalries disappear.  Compare Aeral Gunner (1943).
ROUGHNECK, THE (1924) 20TH CENT. FOX (8 reeler silent)  Romantic/Adventure set in the South Seas.  Stars Harvey Clark and George O’Brien. As a boy O'Brien is set ashore after evil boyfriend/captain of his mother says it's was a sea accident. Boy grows up a tough street fighter, thinks he kills a guy in fight, runs to an island with help of a young women who wants to paint in the tropics. A native girl helps O'Brien while mom's ex boyfriend now wants to ride off with the young female painter. All is exposed at the end with mom finding son O'Brien alive, he beats up old boyfriend, rescues painter, takes her back to mainland with mom and yes they all live happier eve rafter because the guy he thought he killed was actually still living.
RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP (1958) UNITED ARTISTS  Clark Gable and Bert Lancaster in WWII Pacific submarine drama with opening scenes set in Pearl Harbor but shot in Hollywood.  Very dramatic with these two actor legends in conflict