"Donovan's Reef" was to be the last proper movie that John Wayne and John Ford made together and compared to some of their earlier collaborations it is undeniably weak. But it is also fun with Wayne and Ford basically recycling character types and story elements from their various other movies and delivering them in a simple, action packed, romantic comedy. It is very much a movie for those who just enjoy watching John Wayne being John Wayne because there is no depth to it, no stunning cinematography and you could almost describe it as being a throw away movie. But with Lee Marvin delivering a scene stealing performance as Thomas Aloysius 'Boats' Gilhooley "Donovan's Reef" does what it sets out to do and that is make you laugh.

Mike 'Guns' Donovan (John Wayne - How the West Was Won) has a simple life on the island of Haleokaloa and enjoys nothing more than drinking and getting rowdy with his friends including old war buddy Thomas Aloysius 'Boats' Gilhooley (Lee Marvin - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) who shows up to carry on a tradition of celebrating their joint birthday. But when Ameilia (Elizabeth Allen - Cheyenne Autumn), the high society daughter of Dr. William Dedham (Jack Warden), shows up on the island Donovan's easy going life gets shaken up as whilst falling for the feisty Ameilia he also ends up trying to hide the fact that her father has three more children on the island that she knows nothing about.

"Donovan's Reef" starts with it being Michael Donovan's birthday and the island of Haleokaloa being slightly concerned because that means Thomas Gilhooley will show up and they will end up brawling. The point of this as we learn is that they share the same birthday and for the past 22 years they have had a tradition of fighting on their birthday despite being old friends who served together during the war. All of which gets explained during the course of the movie and makes for a rather amusing intro as we watch Lee Marvin given us another drunk as the beer loving Gilhooley. But other than introducing us to Donovan and Gilhooley and their rather comical friendship it has little to do with the actual main story.

Instead "Donovan's Reef" really revolves around Ameilia, the daughter of Dr. William Dedham, coming to the island because she is concerned about her inheritance in the Dedham shipping company. And so the doctor's friends, Donovan and Gilhooley, try to disguise the fact that he has 3 children on the island. It's a bit more complex than that as it turns out the Doctor married the islands Princess but basically revolves around Ameilia not discovering that she has half brothers and sisters. And all of this leads to Ameilia falling for Donovan who is pretending to be the children's father and the unlikely romance which blossoms between them especially as the island's governor is also trying to woo Ameilia because she has money. It's all very slim and very obvious because you know by the time things come to a close she will be happy for her father, love her new brothers and sisters, not care about the money and have fallen for Donovan.

But whilst obvious it is also good fun especially because of the chalk and cheese relationship between Donovan and Ameilia. As a John Wayne movie it is similar to other movies such as "The Quiet Man" with the arrogant Donovan forcefully wooing the feisty Ameilia but there is some fun in it. And so being similar to other John Wayne movies we have John Wayne playing another version of himself that slightly amusing, easy going, popular big guy whose idea of flirting is to spank a woman across his knees. At the same time Elizabeth Allen delivers the same familiarity as she has the proper ness of Katharine Hepburn yet with the sexy, feistiness of Maureen O' Hara. And to be honest they work well together, never really achieving any believable romantic chemistry but sparking off each other well enough to deliver plenty of amusement.

And "Donovan's Reef" pretty much revolves around the unusual courtship of Donavan and Ameilia the array of other characters provide a nice touch of variety. Cesar Romero as the islands governor the Marquis Andre de Lage may not hit the heights of truly being a nefarious womaniser but the smarminess and skulduggery is amusing. The same can be said of Dick Foran who plays the islands resident beer swilling naval officer Sean O'brien a character intentionally similar to that of Sgt. Quincannon which he played in "Fort Apache". And Lee Marvin pretty much steals every scene he is in with his comically rowdy behaviour, in a way it's a shame that Marvin doesn't get more to do as "Donovan's Reef" is at its best and most humorous in the scenes he appears in.

What this all boils down to is that "Donovan's Reef" whilst fun is a very average movie and very familiar with characters and storylines ending up similar to those that have appeared in other John Wayne movies. But it is fun and whilst it's all very obvious how the chalk n cheese relationship between Donovan and Ameilia will end up it has plenty of amusing scenes especially those which feature Lee Marvin who steals the show.