Drums of Tahiti was one of three 3-D movies made by director William Castle during that short-live craze of 1953-54. Oddly enough, the 3-D effects here are not mostly exploited, beyond some inevitable "comin' at ya" shots during a dance number and a hurricane sequence, plus their half-hearted use in a volcano eruption -- the main innovations are fire in 3-D and lava in 3-D, but not much else. And that points to the main fault of the film -- it's dull, despite the presence of macho hero Dennis O'Keefe and lots of talk of native uprisings and a British fleet on the way. In fact, this may be the talkiest 3-D movie to emerge during that entire craze, a fact made more astonishing since it was shot in Technicolor as well. Now that having been said, given the fact that some of the "excess" talk comes from Francis L. Sullivan, the talkiness is not entirely bad -- he keeps the movie going and interesting, whenever he's on the screen. And with his girth making him almost a walking 3-D effect, and a not terrible script (at least in his scenes), the movie is more than watchable for him, but just not for the reasons one would normally see a film of this kind. Counter-balancing Sullivan's work is a ridiculous sub-plot involving Patricia Medina as an unwilling bride of O'Keefe, and an entertaining if silly interlude depicting her as part of a horse-act with Cicely Brown. Overall, however, Drums of Tahiti comes off as a warmed-over cinematic stew of leftovers from John Ford's The Hurricane and a half-dozen lesser picures.
by Bruce Eder
review
