Independent Films, Film Profiles

His Majesty O'Keefe

His Majesty O'Keefe is a 1954 adventure film starring Burt Lancaster. The film was directed by Byron Haskin and Otto Heller and included choreography by Daniel Nagrin. The cast also included Joan Rice, André Morell, Abraham Sofaer, Archie Savage, and Benson Fong.The film is based on the book of the same name by Laurence Klingman and Gerald Green (1952).Captain David O'Keefe (Burt Lancaster), seeking his fortune in the 19th century South Pacific, decides to enlist island natives to harvest copra, but runs into a wall of cultural problems. Backed by a Chinese dentist, he obtains a ship and sets about harvesting copra while fending off cantankerous native chieftains and evil German empire-builders. The natives, happy with their existence, see no reason to work hard to obtain copra, either for a German trading company or for O'Keefe. He finally motivates them by showing them how to produce large quantities of their valued coinage.