I'm a great fan of Michener and especially HAWAII. This movie is very pale compared to the sections of the novel it covers and is a much looser adaption than the Max von Sydow movie, but it's entertaining and well-intentioned. I saw it when it came out and I don't think I've seen it again until it turned up on Hulu.
Geraldine Chapman said that she was disappointed the way the movie was cut. She had some scenes that made it clear her character was not just crazy, but dangerous.
Noel Hoxworth (John Philip Law), Purity (Chaplin) and the Kee daughter aren't from the book, and Heston's Whipple Hoxworth has been cleaned up so much he's hardly recognizable. I don't think Heston ever played a real scoundrel; might have been better if they'd gone with a more disreputable leading man.
I'd forgotten how truly horrible John Philip Law was in this. He was more than a pretty face; check out THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD to see him in much better form. He'd done a pretty good job playing von Richthofen before this movie. He had a bad drug problem; maybe he was taking too much nose candy, or trying to come down when he was shooting this one.He died in 2008.