# South Seas genre

The South Seas genre is a genre spanning various expressive forms including literature, film, visual art, and entertainment that depicts the islands of the southern Pacific Ocean through an escapist narrative lens. Stories may sometimes take place in tropic settings like the Caribbean or Bermuda. Many Hollywood films were produced on studio backlots or on Santa Catalina Island. The first feature non-documentary film made on location was Lost and Found on a South Sea Island, shot in Tahiti.
The genre was known for its portrayal of tropical men as savages and cannibals, and women as shapely, innocent, exotic beauties. The genre was seen as financially lucrative by the movie studios in the 1940s, despite criticisms that the genre was unrealistic and not well-informed. Typical examples include 1941's South of Tahiti and White Savage (1943). Island themed films also served as a kind of travelogue for a middle class film going public that could not afford what was deemed the ultimate once in a lifetime romantic getaway. Those that could afford tropical island vacations had to endure a weeks long ocean liner journey. Later in the 20th century and with the advent of jet travel such lengthy treks to island paradises would be more feasible.

## Noted authors

* J. Allan Dunn: The Island of the Dead (1915), Beyond the Rim (1916), etc.
* Robert Dean Frisbie: The Book of Puka Puka (1929), etc.
* Jack London: Adventure (1911), South Sea Tales, etc.
* W. Somerset Maugham: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), "Rain," etc.
* Herman Melville: Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), etc.
* James A. Michener: Tales of the South Pacific (1947)
* Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall: Mutiny on the Bounty (1932)
* Frederick O'Brien: White Shadows in the South Seas (1919)
* Henry De Vere Stacpoole: The Blue Lagoon (1908)
* Robert Louis Stevenson: In the South Seas (1896)
* Charles Warren Stoddard: South-Sea Idyls (1873), Summer Cruising in the South Seas (1874), etc.

## Select films

South Sea stories in film and television :
| Year | Title | Filmmakers | Notes |
| 1914 | Hearts Adrift | Starring Mary Pickford, Harold Lockwood | Based on a story by Cyrus Townsend Brady |
| 1914 | McVeagh of the South Seas | Starring Harry Carey | Based on a story by Harry Carey who also directed |
| 1917 | The Bottle Imp | Starring Sessue Hayakawa, George Kuwa | Based on the short story by The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson |
| 1919 | The Isle of Conquest | Starring Norma Talmadge, Wyndham Standing | Based on By Right of Conquest by Arthur Hornblow, Jr. |
| 1920 | The Idol Dancer | Starring Clarine Seymour, Richard Barthelmess | Based on Blood of the Covenants by Gordon Ray Young |
| 1920 | The Love Flower | Starring Carol Dempster, Richard Barthelmess | Based on a story "Black Beach" by Ralph Stock |
| 1920 | Idols of Clay | Starring Mae Murray, David Powell | Based on a screen story by Ouida Bergère |
| 1921 | Passion Fruit | Starring Doraldina, Edward Earle, Stuart Holmes | Based on a screen story by Carey Wilson |
| 1921 | The Lotus Eater | Starring John Barrymore, Colleen Moore, Anna Q. Nilsson | Based on a novel by Albert Payson Terhune |
| 1922 | Lost and Found on a South Sea Island | Starring House Peters, Sr., Pauline Starke, Antonio Moreno | Based on a screen story by Carey Wilson |
| 1922 | South of Suva | Starring Mary Miles Minter, John Bowers, Walter Long | Based on a story by Ewart Adamson |
| 1922 | Ebb Tide | Starring Lila Lee, James Kirkwood and Raymond Hatton | Based on novel by Robert Louis Stevenson |
| 1923 | The Blue Lagoon | Starring Molly Adair, Arthur Pusey | Based on the novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole |
| 1923 | The White Flower | Starring Betty Compson, Edmund Lowe | written and directed by Julia Crawford Ivers; ...filmed entirely on location in Hawaii |
| 1923 | Where the Pavement Ends | Starring Alice Terry, Ramon Novarro | Based on a screen story by John Russell |
| 1923 | The Ragged Edge | Starring Alfred Lunt, Mona Palma(as Mimi Palmeri), George MacQuarrie | Based on The Ragged Edge by Harold McGrath |
| 1923 | South Sea Love | Starring Shirley Mason, J. Frank Glendon, Francis McDonald | Based on With the Tide by Fanny Hatton |
| 1924 | Sinners in Heaven | Starring Richard Dix, Bebe Daniels | Based on a novel by Clive Arden |
| 1925 | Soul-Fire | Starring Richard Barthelmess, Bessie Love | Based on the Broadway play Great Music by Martin Brown |
| 1925 | Never the Twain Shall Meet | Starring Anita Stewart, Bert Lytell | Based on book by Peter B. Kyne |
| 1926 | Moana | documentist film with all Samoan cast | written, produced and directed by Robert J. Flaherty |
| 1926 | Aloma of the South Seas | Starring Gilda Gray, Warner Baxter, Percy Marmont and William Powell | Based on play by John B. Hymer and LeRoy Clemens |
| 1926 | The Savage | Starring Ben Lyon, May McAvoy | Based on a short story by Ernest Pascal |
| 1926 | Paradise | Starring Milton Sills, Betty Bronson and Noah Beery, Sr. | Based on 1925 novel by Cosmo Hamilton and John Russell |
| 1927 | Hula | Starring Clara Bow, Clive Brook | Based on a novel by Armine von Tempski...filmed in Hawaii |
| 1928 | Sadie Thompson | Starring Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore and Blanche Friderici | Based on Rain |
| 1928 | White Shadows in the South Seas | Starring Monte Blue, Raquel Torres and Robert Anderson | Based on the novel of the same name by Frederick O'Brien...directed by W. S. Van Dyke |
| 1929 | Scarlet Seas | Starring Richard Barthelmess, Betty Compson | Based on a story by W. Scott Darling |
| 1929 | The Pagan | Starring Ramon Novarro, Dorothy Janis, Renee Adoree, Donald Crisp | Based on story by John Russell...directed by W. S. Van Dyke |
| 1929 | The Delightful Rogue | Starring Rod La Rocque, Rita La Roy | |
| 1929 | South Sea Rose | Starring Lenore Ulric, Charles Bickford and Kenneth MacKenna | |
| 1930 | Isle of Escape | Starring Monte Blue, Betty Compson, Myrna Loy | |
| 1930 | The Love Trader | Starring Leatrice Joy, Roland Drew, Barbara Bedford |
| 1931 | Tabu: A Story of the South Seas | Starring Matahi, Anne Chevalier and Bill Bambridge | |
| 1932 | Bird of Paradise | Starring Dolores del Río and Joel McCrea | Based on a play by Richard Walton Tully |
| 1932 | Rain | Starring Joan Crawford, Walter Huston and William Gargan | Based on "Rain" |
| 1932 | Mr. Robinson Crusoe | Starring Douglas Fairbanks, William Farnum and Maria Alba | |
| 1933 | In the Wake of the Bounty | Directed by Charles Chauvel, starring Errol Flynn | Semi-documentary |
| 1935 | Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) | Starring Charles Laughton, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone | Based on the novel by Nordhoff and Hall |
| 1935 | Last of the Pagans | Starring Ray Mala, Lotus Long and Rudolph Anders | Based on Typee |
| 1936 | Isle of Fury | Starring Humphrey Bogart, Margaret Lindsay and Donald Woods | |
| 1936 | The Jungle Princess | Starring Dorothy Lamour and Ray Milland | |
| 1937 | Lovers and Luggers | Starring Lloyd Hughes, Shirley Ann Richards and Sidney Wheeler | Set on Thursday Island |
| 1937 | The Hurricane | Starring Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall | |
| 1937 | Ebb Tide | Starring Oscar Homolka, Frances Farmer and Ray Milland | Based on novel by Stevenson |
| 1938 | Vessel of Wrath | Starring Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester and Robert Newton | Based on novel by Maugham |
| 1938 | Her Jungle Love | Starring Dorothy Lamour and Ray Milland | |
| 1938 | The Isle of Pingo Pongo | | Cartoon |
| 1938 | Sinners in Paradise | Starring Madge Evans, John Boles, Bruce Cabot, Marion Martin and Gene Lockhart | |
| 1940 | Road to Singapore | Starring Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby | |
| 1940 | Typhoon | Starring Dorothy Lamour, Robert Preston and Lynne Overman | |
| 1940 | Seven Sinners | Starring John Wayne | |
| 1940 | South of Pago Pago | Starring Jon Hall Frances Farmer | |
| 1941 | Aloma of the South Seas | Starring Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour | |
| 1941 | Some More of Samoa | Starring The Three Stooges, Mary Ainslee and Dudley Dickerson | Short subject |
| 1941 | South of Tahiti | Starring Brian Donlevy, Broderick Crawford, Andy Devine and Maria Montez | |
| 1942 | Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake | Starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney | |
| 1942 | Reap the Wild Wind | Starring John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland | Based on Saturday Evening Post story by Thelma Strabel; directed by Cecil B. DeMille |
| 1942 | Pardon My Sarong | Starring Abbott and Costello, Virginia Bruce and Robert Paige | |
| 1942 | The Moon and Sixpence | Starring George Sanders, Herbert Marshall and Doris Dudley | Based on a novel by Maugham |
| 1942 | The Tuttles of Tahiti | Starring Jon Hall and Charles Laughton | Based on the novel by Nordhoff and Hall |
| 1942 | Beyond the Blue Horizon | Starring Dorothy Lamour | |
| 1943 | White Savage | Starring Jon Hall, Maria Montez | |
| 1943 | Isle of Forgotten Sins | Starring John Carradine, Gale Sondergaard and Sidney Toler | Rereleased as Monsoon |
| 1943 | Wings Over the Pacific | Starring Inez Cooper, Edward Norris and Montagu Love | |
| 1943 | Rhythm of the Islands | Starring Allan Jones, Jane Frazee and Andy Devine | |
| 1943 | Wackiki Wabbit | Starring Bugs Bunny, Jane Frazee and Andy Devine | Cartoon |
| 1944 | Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips | Starring Bugs Bunny | Cartoon |
| 1944 | Cobra Woman | Starring Maria Montez, Jon Hall | |
| 1944 | Rainbow Island | Starring Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken and Gil Lamb | |
| 1947 | High Barbaree | Starring Van Johnson, June Allyson and Thomas Mitchell | Based on novel by Nordhoff and Hall |
| 1947 | Adventure Island | Starring Rory Calhoun, Rhonda Fleming and Paul Kelly | Based on Ebb Tide by Stevenson |
| 1948 | On an Island with You | Starring Esther Williams, Peter Lawford and Ricardo Montalbán | |
| 1948 | Wake of the Red Witch | Starring John Wayne, Gail Russell and Gig Young | |
| 1948 | Forbidden Women | Starring Mona Lisa, Fernando Poe, Berting Labra, Bimbo Danao | directed by Eduardo de Castro |
| 1949 | The Blue Lagoon | Starring Jean Simmons, Donald Houston, James Hayter | Based on the novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole |
| 1949 | Omoo-Omoo, the Shark God | Starring Ron Randell, Devera Burton and Trevor Bardette | Loosely based on the Herman Melville novel Omoo |
| 1950 | Mutiny on the Bunny | Starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam | Cartoon |
| 1950 | Kon-Tiki | | Documentary |
| 1950 | Pagan Love Song | Starring Esther Williams, Howard Keel and Minna Gombell | |
| 1950 | On the Isle of Samoa | Starring Jon Hall | |
| 1950 | South Sea Sinner | Starring Macdonald Carey, Shelley Winters and Luther Adler | Remake of Seven Sinners |
| 1951 | Bird of Paradise | Starring Louis Jourdan and Jeff Chandler | Based on a play by Richard Walton Tully |
| 1951 | China Corsair | Starring Jon Hall | |
| 1951 | Smuggler's Island | Starring Jeff Chandler, Evelyn Keyes and Philip Friend | |
| 1951 | Hula-La-La | Starring The Three Stooges, Jean Willes and Kenneth MacDonald | Short subject |
| 1952 | Saturday Island | Starring Linda Darnell, Tab Hunter, Donald Gray | Based on (from the novel "Saturday Island" by); Alternate title Island of Desire |
| 1952 | Caribbean Gold | Starring John Payne, Arlene Dahl, Cedric Hardwicke | Based on novel Carib Gold by Ellery Clark |
| 1952 | Road to Bali | Starring Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby | Parody of the genre |
| 1953 | Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) | Starring Rita Hayworth, Aldo Ray and Charles Bronson | Based on "Rain" |
| 1953 | Botany Bay | Starring Alan Ladd, James Mason and Patricia Medina | Based on novel by Nordoff and Hall |
| 1953 | South Sea Woman | Starring Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo | |
| 1953 | The Girls of Pleasure Island | Starring Don Taylor, Leo Genn and Elsa Lanchester | |
| 1953 | Return to Paradise | Starring Gary Cooper, Barry Jones and Roberta Haynes | Based on a short story by James Michener |
| 1953 | All the Brothers Were Valiant | Starring Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger and Ann Blyth | |
| 1954 | His Majesty O'Keefe | Starring Burt Lancaster, Joan Rice and André Morell | |
| 1954 | Drums of Tahiti | Starring Dennis O'Keefe and Patricia Medina | |
| 1954 | Beachhead | Starring Tony Curtis, Frank Lovejoy and Mary Murphy | |
| 1954 | The Beachcomber | Starring Glynis Johns, Robert Newton and Donald Sinden | Based on novel by Maugham |
| 1954 | King of the Coral Sea | Starring Chips Rafferty, Charles Tingwell, Ilma Adey and Rod Taylor | Set on Thursday Island |
| 1955 | Pearl of the South Pacific | Starring Virginia Mayo, Dennis Morgan and David Farrar | |
| 1956 | The Revolt of Mamie Stover | Starring Jane Russell and Richard Egan | |
| 1956 | The Women of Pitcairn Island | Starring James Craig, Lynn Bari and John Smith | |
| 1956 | The Proud and Profane | Starring William Holden, Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter | |
| 1957 | Fire Down Below | Starring Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum and Jack Lemmon | Set in the Caribbean |
| 1957 | Hell Ship Mutiny | Starring Jon Hall, John Carradine and Peter Lorre | Television pilot |
| 1957 | The Admirable Crichton | Starring Kenneth More, Diane Cilento, Cecil Parker and Sally Ann Howes | Based on (Based on the Play by) J.M. Barrie; Alternate title; Paradise Lagoon |
| 1957 | Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison | Starring Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr | |
| 1957 | Naked Paradise | Starring Beverly Garland, Richard Denning and Dick Miller | Filmed on Kauai by Roger Corman back to back with She Gods of Shark Reef |
| 1958 | Lost Lagoon | Starring Jeffrey Lynn, Lelia Barry | |
| 1958 | Island Women | Starring Marie Windsor, Vince Edwards, Marilee Earle | |
| 1958 | She Gods of Shark Reef | Starring Bill Cord, Don Durant and Lisa Montell | Filmed on Kauai by Roger Corman back to back with Naked Paradise |
| 1958 | The Stowaway | Starring Martine Carol, Roger Livesey and Arletty | |
| 1958 | Twilight for the Gods | Starring Rock Hudson, Cyd Charisse and Arthur Kennedy | |
| 1958 | South Pacific | Starring Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor and John Kerr | Based on the musical made from James A. Michener Tales of the South Pacific |
| 1958 | Enchanted Island | Starring Dana Andrews, Jane Powell and Don Dubbins | Based on Typee |
| 1959 | Forbidden Island | Starring Jon Hall, Nan Adams and John Farrow | |
| 1959 | The Restless and the Damned | Starring Edmond O'Brien, Richard Basehart and Andrea Parisy | |
| 1961 | The Devil at 4 O'Clock | Starring Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra and Kerwin Mathews | Based on novel by Max Catto |
| 1961 | Blue Hawaii | Starring Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman and Angela Lansbury | Based on novel by Max Catto |
| 1959-62 | Adventures in Paradise | Starring Gardner McKay | Television series |
| 1959-63 | Hawaiian Eye | Starring Anthony Eisley, Robert Conrad, Connie Stevens and Poncie Ponce | Television series |
| 1962 | Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) | Starring Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard and Richard Harris | Based on novel by Nordoff and Hall |
| 1962 | Tiara Tahiti | Starring James Mason, John Mills and Herbert Lom | |
| 1962 | No Man Is an Island | Starring Jeffrey Hunter, Marshall Thompson and Barbara Perez | |
| 1963 | Donovan's Reef | Starring John Wayne, Lee Marvin and Elizabeth Allen | |
| 1964-67 | Gilligan's Island | Starring Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells. | |
| 1966 | Hawaii | Starring Julie Andrews, Max von Sydow and Richard Harris | Based on novel by Michener |
| 1966 | Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. | Starring Dick Van Dyke, Nancy Kwan and Akim Tamiroff | |
| 1970 | The Hawaiians | Starring Charlton Heston, Tina Chen and Geraldine Chaplin | Based on novel by Michener |
| 1979 | The Hurricane | Starring Jason Robards, Mia Farrow and Max von Sydow | Based on the novel by Nordohff and Hall |
| 1980 | The Blue Lagoon | Starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins | |
| 1981 | Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure | Starring Terence Hill, Bud Spencer and Sal Borgese: | |
| 1982 | Paradise | Starring Willie Aames and Phoebe Cates | |
| 1983 | Nate and Hayes | Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Michael O'Keefe, Max Phipps and Jenny Seagrove | Also released as Savage Islands. Story of Bully Hayes |
| 1984 | The Bounty | Starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins | |
| 1990 | Joe Versus the Volcano | Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and Lloyd Bridges | |
| 1991 | Return to the Blue Lagoon | Starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause | |
| 1998 | Six Days, Seven Nights | Starring Harrison Ford, Anne Heche and David Schwimmer | |
| 1999 | Molokai: The Story of Father Damien | Starring David Wenham, Kate Ceberano and Jan Decleir | |
| 2001 | South Pacific | Starring Glenn Close, Harry Connick Jr. and Rade Sherbedgia | Adaptation of musical |
| 2002 | Whale Rider | Starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene | Based on the novel The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera; directed by Niki Caro |
| 2003 | Paradise Found | Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Nastassja Kinski and Alun Armstrong | Biopic of Paul Gauguin |
| 2011 | Rebellion | Starring Mathieu Kassovitz, Iabe Lapacas and Malik Zidi |
| 2012 | The Legend | Starring Barry Primus, Thierry Helaine and Mi Kwan Lock | |
| 2012 | Blue Lagoon: The Awakening | Starring Indiana Evans, Brenton Thwaites and Denise Richards | Television film |
| 2012 | Kon-Tiki | Starring Pål Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen and Tobias Santelmann | |