Shot in lush Technicolor on location in Kauai, this tale of two brawling Navy buddies evokes a seemingly Utopian society cut off from the rest of the world only to slowly reveal the cracks and fissures in its façade when the appearance of a young Bostonian, the daughter of the island doctor, wrecks chaos upon the isolated community. The stranger’s arrival stirs the racist contradictions of Wayne’s bar owner, who tries to hide the existence of the doctor’s island children from the woman who slowly captures his salty heart. A rousing, action-filled comedy, Donovan’s Reef’s relaxed rhythm was an important inspiration for Scorsese’s Mean Streets.