Themes: Righting the Wronged, Interracial/Cross-Cultural Romance
Main Cast: Burt Lancaster, Joan Rice, Andre Morell, Abraham Sofaer, Archie Savage
Release Year: 1953
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 92 minutes
Plot
Captain David O'Keefe is a character based on the real-life 18th-century American who introduced modern agricultural methods to the South Seas. Lest you think that His Majesty O'Keefe is merely a feature-length version of your local TV station's agribusiness report, be advised that O'Keefe is played by Burt Lancaster, his biceps fairly bursting out of his period costume. Lancaster's version of O'Keefe is a garrulous mercenary who agrees to help the native farmers in exchange for a fortune in Copra, an oil-yielding form of coconut pulp. In addition to Copra, the island is rich with Rice--Joan Rice, that is, who portrays the dusky native girl with whom O'Keefe dallies. His Majesty O'Keefe arrives at its anticipated slam-bang finale when O'Keefe does battle with greedy, usurping white traders. The film was freely adapted from the popular novel by Lawrence Kingman and Gerald Green. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Benson Fong - Mr. Chou; Tessa Prendergast - Kakofel; Lloyd Berrell - Inifel; Charles Horvath - Bully Hayes; Philip Ahn - Sien Tang; Guy Doleman - Weber; Grant Taylor - Lt. Brenner; Alexander Archdale - Harris; Harvey Adams - Friedlander; Jim Crawford - Rhee
Credit
Edward S. Haworth - Art Director, Daniel Nagrin - Choreography, Dimitri Tiomkin - Conductor, Marjorie Best - Costume Designer, Elizabeth Hennings - Costume Designer, Byron Haskin - Director, Manuel del Campo - Editor, Robert Farnon - Composer (Music Score), Dimitri Tiomkin - Composer (Music Score), Louis Levy - Musical Direction/Supervision, Dimitri Tiomkin - Musical Direction/Supervision, Paul Francis Webster - Songwriter, Stuart Freeborn - Makeup, Gus Drisse - Camera Operator, Otto Heller - Cinematographer, Stanley Haynes - Production Manager, Harold Hecht - Producer, Borden Chase - Screenwriter, James Hill - Screenwriter, Gerald Green - Book Author, Lawrence Klingman - Book Author
Captain David O'Keefe (Burt Lancaster), seeking his fortune in the 19th century South Pacific, decides to enlist island natives to harvest copra, but runs into a wall of cultural problems. Backed by a Chinese dentist, he obtains a ship and sets about harvesting copra while fending off cantankerous native chieftains and evil German empire-builders. The natives, happy with their existence, see no reason to work hard to obtain copra, either for a German trading company or for O'Keefe. He finally motivates them by showing them how to produce large quantities of their valued coinage.
Historical basis
An 8-foot "coin" from the village of Gachpar, on Yap.
The basis for this story is believed to be an actual event[citation needed]. A sailor named David O'Keefe was shipwrecked on Yap in the Caroline Islands, where he found the natives highly prized Rai stones quarried at great effort and danger on the island of Palau. He organized the natives to produce these largest of all coins more easily and then traded them for copra and other items. The carved stones he produced were not valued as highly as those obtained by traditional methods due to the lack of personal sacrifice in their production.
References
Chujoy, Anatole. The Dance Encyclopedia. (Simon and Schuster, 1967)
