His Majesty O'Keefe

Through the early part of his career, Burt Lancaster was a movie star more than an actor in many of his roles. That of course is a big blanket statement because with roles like The Killers, Brute Force, and I Walk Alone, he clearly showed he can act. I've got to write about something though so give me a break, okay? By the early 1950s, Lancaster went through a bit of typecasting where he was required to play similar roles in big movies where he got to let his big personality shine.

The most well-known of these movies -- and for good reason, it's a lot of fun -- is The Crimson Pirate.  Before Lancaster started acting in movies, he actually worked in a circus as a trapeze artist.  So for much of his career, he impressed audiences with an ability to handle most, if not all, of his own stunts.  His parts were big in these pirate/rogue/adventurer movies where he got to flash that giant smile, run and jump through the action, and be eternally smooth with the ladies who stood no chance against him. While not as well known as The Crimson Pirate, 1954's His Majesty O'Keefe certainly qualifies as one of those flicks.

A sea captain in the South Pacific in the 1870s, David O'Keefe (Lancaster) is left to drift in a small rowboat on the open seas after his crew mutinies. He washes ashore on an island ripe with coconuts, worth their weight in gold because they can be harvested into copra. O'Keefe has a problem though, the island natives only allow a certain amount to be harvested and shipped out while tons of the coconuts hang in the trees. The company agent on-island, Alfred Tetins (Andre Morell), tries to tell O'Keefe there's nothing he can do to convince the natives to allow more to be exported, but this highly-motivated (and possibly greedy) captain has other plans. No matter what it takes, he's going to make his millions.  More than the troublesome natives though, rival companies are trying to move in on the lucrative island.

This is an escapist movie if there ever was one. Made in 1954 as movie studios were still coping with how to handle the new television market, 'O'Keefe' and director Byron Haskin aren't trying to make some ground-breaking new movie that blows an audience away with a crazy new story. Part of the appeal of this South Pacific adventure comes from the Technicolor filming, making the Fiji locations look...well, like the beauty of a tropical island in Fiji. Sequences show the lifestyles, cultures and day-to-day goings on in these islands for the natives. These scenes go both ways. They're cool to see, but also have a knack for grinding the story down to a snail's pace. Just wanted to get this all out there. The movie is meant to entertain, and to a point it does, but there's potential for more and better.

What I'm going for with that statement is that the story -- while escapist, popcorn fun -- is pretty dark all things considered. Lancaster's O'Keefe is our hero and narrator, and because it is Burt Lancaster we like him. But let's face it. He's facing off against these rival, "evil" trading and shipping companies looking to exploit these natives for all their worth.  Take 'em down, Burt! Oh wait, you're doing the exact same thing. So yeah, it's Burt Lancaster, but he's exploiting them too. My idea (with all my feature film directing experience) would be to make a significantly darker story that embraces that idea; two opposing sides, neither particularly likable, battling for control of this island with no regard for what happens to the natives. To a point, that's where the story does go in the second half, but it never goes all the way there.  The story is fine enough as is, it just could have been much, much better (read: darker and more effective).

But as is the case with so many of my movie ideas, that's not what happened. This is the movie at hand so let's talk about it. Regardless of the story or its tone, Burt Lancaster is still one of the coolest and most talented actors to ever grace the movie.  His narration as Captain O'Keefe isn't the best thing going, needlessly restating things that didn't need to be restated at times.  The character though is interesting no matter how much limitations the story places on him. Lancaster -- especially early in his career -- played some pretty bad dudes, and that's what frustrated me here. As good as he is playing the roguish adventurer, it could have been so much more effective if O'Keefe was given more of a mean streak, like he did alongside Gary Cooper in Vera Cruz, released the same year. He's still having a lot of fun, bouncing across the screen with that instantly recognizable smile and strut so it's not all bad, just not what it could have been.

The rest of the movie is pretty typical of the early 1950s movies that were more interested in showing a cool-looking story rather than telling that story. Morell is good as Alfred, a veteran agent who's grown frustrated working with the island natives but who instantly gets along with O'Keefe. As the love interest, it's a good thing Joan Rice is cute because she is not a strong actress, struggling to pull off some odd quasi-island accent. Some of the natives -- hit or miss in their portrayals -- include parts for Abraham Sofaer as the medicine man and Archie Savage as the warrior chief. Philip Ahn and Benson Fong do their best to rise above their stereotypical Asian roles. So while I liked the movie, I felt disappointed in the end. It could have been better.

His Majesty O'Keefe <---TCM trailer (1954): ** 1/2 /****