Königin von Tahiti

In 1877, Tahitians under the rule of aging Queen Pomare (Frances Brandt) dislike their position as a French protectorate and quietly plan a new war with assistance from Britain.

Mike Macklin (Dennis O'Keefe) a resident American, imports arms for the natives in a vague rebellion vaguely attributed to outside British support. He also spends a great deal of time eluding a foxy, overly polite police prefect (Francis L. Sullivan) and learning to appreciate his own new bride.

As an excuse for sailing to San Francisco, he must enlist a "wife" of convenience; enter gold-digging showgirl Wanda Spence. Will Mike tame her or ignore her in favor of inauthentic dancer Mawaii?

The gold digging show girl is played by Patricia Medina who can make any viewing experience enjoyable- shes a real beauty, however, she doesn't feature enough for her to save the film from mediocrity. It's a too talky, dull and too short for the plot to be fleshed out. Even the natural disaster at the end failed to ignite excitement into a flatlined plot. Surprised that William Castle directed as I have seen a fair few of his films and he's quite competent.

Another 3-D potboiler from producer Sam Katzman, this one quite good, as B-movie's go, with Dennis O'Keefe involved in smuggling guns into Tahiti to fight the French, and finding romance along the way. Some nice scenery.

Only Sam Katzman, Columbia's king of cheap, could have created a 3D movie as flat, boring and set bound as this one. Overlong at 73 minutes, Drums of Tahiti hardly takes advantage of the 3D process. Instead we're bored numb by a lackluster romance between Dennis O'Keefe and Patricia Medina.

I did not watch this movie from William Castle from a long time. If you know this unusuall director's career, you'll notice this is not his best material, he obviously made it to pay his bills, in waiting for a better opportunity to shine. It will happen for him less than several years later, for his fantastic horror films, gimmick features, period that will make him famous. The Sam Katzman's influence in this adventure drama is not so obvious, actually I did not recognize his bad influence. It remains a good time waster, and rather hard to find. Dennis O'Keefe as bland as usual. We have to take it or leave it. Not bad, no, I have seen far worse.

This is a delightful little adventure/romance which could just as easily have fit Bogie and Bacall, though I doubt if they could have done better than O'Keefe and Medina. O'Keefe is great as the tough American merchant in Tahiti who turns out to be a sucker for the underdog, and joins Queen Pomare's attempt to import guns from San Francisco in order to start a revolution against the French. In order to allay the French Commissioner's suspicions, he states that he is only going to Frisco to get married, but the Commissioner unexpectedly decides to accompany him, in order to be best man at his wedding. The shenanigans that occur as O'Keefe tries to find a woman to play the part of his intended bride while he is secretly obtaining guns, and the love/hate relationship that develops between he and Medina. under the watchful eye of the suspicious Commissioner are delightful, and Francis L. Sullivan deserves a lot of credit for his performance as the lovable but shrewd Commissioner, as well. Very entertaining!