Trey Yancy
This film overflows with Ford's traditional manly cuteness. By the time this film was made however, it had all become utterly corny and totally cliche - for example the drunken bar fight that always must include the traditional bits of friends hitting each other for comic relief and the presence of one guy standing calmly as the fight carries on around him. All that is missing is Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, and Jay Flippen,The story is a bit of a mess. While the main story is a good one, the silliness of the rest of it (which was aimed at society in an age when alcoholism and being falling down drunk was considered humorous) is very hackneyed.In the standard saloon / nightclub scene, had to be in nearly every film of the day, is odd because Dorothy Lamour speaks the lyrics instead of singing them. There are other oddities as well.Overall, the film might have worked in the early fifties, but it doesn't play all that well for modern audiences. As such, it is hard to give it a high rating, particularly in comparison to other films of the day, such as the endearingly funny Cary Grant film, Father Goose, which had a more modern and intelligent style and which shut the door on films such as Donovan's Reef. Considering that the Ford-directed comedy Mister Roberts had been made seven years earlier, it is odd that John Ford would trot out an old-style comedy as late as 1962.
harryundheide
If anyone knows of another movie he is in that takes place during Christmas please post that info. Good scenery, fight scenes, etc.
twilightinthemoon34
Donavan's Reef is a decent film.This is one of John Wayne's best films. He has a strong supporting cast with him and a great musical score.But there is one moment I must note for you. There is a scene that has to be seen to be believed. Lee Marvin ( as a bad guy) is dunking the head of an innocent man into a barrel. Wayne comes over, grabs a piece of wood that resembles a bat, and cracks Kennedy right in the face. It's a moment that causes the viewer great pain as he laughs at how real it looks. The timing is precise here and looks very painful.So by all means watch this film if only for that scene. But you will be well rewarded if you stick it out.
JoeytheBrit
This is a strange one. John Ford and Wayne's last film together starts out looking like its going to be a typical 'rollicking' fight-fest with he and Lee Marvin trading blows and insults throughout. But after being set up as a potentially major thorn in Wayne's side, Marvin fades into the background to become just another supporting actor. It's a shame, because their first scene together, in which they warily greet each other and gingerly shake hands before inevitably getting down to some no-nonsense fisticuffs is probably the best moment in what is nothing better than an average film.Marvin's screen time is inherited by Elizabeth Allen's stuffy daughter of Wayne's doctor friend who is visiting her father for the first time in the hope of finding that he lacks the requisite morals to inherit the family business she has her eye on. Of course Allen's Amelia isn't really stuffy at all. She's a whole bundle of fun just waiting to be unwrapped, a point made in over-obvious fashion when she peels away the layers of her 20s bathing costume to reveal a lithe figure that immediately hooks Donovan. Wayne was more than twenty years older than Allen when this was made he was even thirteen years older than Jack Warden, who plays Allen's father and it is an incongruous pairing to say the least.The film labours towards its climax and, unless I fell asleep for a while without realising which is an unlikely but not altogether impossible scenario the ending didn't make a lot of sense to me. Of course, it all ends happily enough but then, given the far-fetched basis of its storyline, the ending is never really in much doubt
AD
