Review of Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.

As I've said before, I will go just about anywhere, cinematically, for a chance to hear Nancy Kwan's charming Hong Kong accent and to see her fabulous zygomatic bones. Case in point: "Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.," a silly but entertaining Disney flick from 1966. In this one, the titular Navy fighter pilot, played by the ever-likable Dick van Dyke, is forced down into the drink of the South Pacific and, like his namesake, washes ashore on a deserted island. In the film's first half, Robin builds himself a house, discovers a decades-old Japanese submarine wreck and finds another castaway: the astro chimp Floyd! In the latter half, he finds an island mate of a more toothsome nature, a native girl who he dubs Wednesday (even though her pidgin English is perfectly fine and she's quite capable of revealing her true name), played by our Nancy, natch. And then Crusoe gets embroiled in a battle between Wednesday and dozens of her gal pals, versus her headhunter father and the devil god Kabuna. Anyway, van Dyke gives a broadly comedic performance, Floyd offers up some of the best simian thesping that I've ever seen (just look at his reaction shots during a poker game!), and Akim Tamiroff, in his role of headhunter Tanamashu, is a caricatured embarrassment. And Nancy? She is just adorable, never cuter than when playing charades in one segment; van Dyke's desire to leave his island paradise with Wednesday as his bride really does stretch the viewer's credulity past the breaking point. Six years after her yummy "Suzie Wong" debut, Nancy Kwan, a gorgeous Eurasian, was still one of the sexiest actresses that ANY continent had to offer; heck, she's still a looker today, at the age of 71! Besides some good performances, the picture provides some situations that are so very stoopid they're actually pretty funny (such as when Robin laboriously builds a sextant to determine his bearings, only to have it report that he's somewhere between Elmira, New York and Muncie, Indiana!), as well as some very attractive scenery (it was shot on the Hawaiian island of Kauai). The fifth-highest-grossing picture of 1966, the film was nonetheless critically drubbed but remains fun escapism 45 years later. It is an absolute must for all fans of Nancy Kwan and a perfect film to watch with your favorite 8-year-old....