Entertaining early 60s melodrama which if made by Warner Bros would presumably have featured Troy Donahue and be directed by Delmer Daves. It has old school storytelling spiced up with location work in Hawaii, colour photography and miscegenation plus some stars, including Charlton Heston in a part meant for Clark Gable.
The work feels flawed - Heston should play Yvette Mimieux's father not brother, Elizabeth Allen should be his wife not sister in law (she has no stakes in the story and just appears to say racist things), Heston should be more villainous - he really should have killed James Darren in anger as opposed to it being an accident.
Frances Nyen does as well as she can in a hopeless role as Heston's ever loving, faithful, dutiful native mistress. George Chakiris ditto as the decent half-white (so it's okay) doctor who is there in reserve for Yvette Mimieux once she gets over the death of Darren.
For a while I enjoyed this - the colour, old time fun of it - but the last third runs out of puff, it throws away plots (Heston running for the senate, Heston having accidentally killed Darren) and just becomes about Heston learning not to be racist. Really he should've died at the end, killed by someone avenging Darren, but after some act of heroism during a storm. Or something. Mimieux is very good - it's one of her best performances.
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