Truly Dreadful Film

Touches You

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Not many movies have been made that show Hawaii outside of the Honolulu environs. So, "Diamond Head" is a good film just for its panoramas and depiction of ranching and farming on the outer islands. As others have noted, the movie doesn't have anything to do with Diamond Head itself. But the title is a colorful beacon for the film, much as the crater promontory is a striking backdrop to Waikiki Beach. As others have noted, much of the plot is about the racism that existed at the time. The main character, King Howland, played by Charlton Heston, is conflicted over racial differences. He doesn't appear to look down on native Hawaiians or Asians, and he comments that the whites-only club keeps out the people who make the best company. He has a relationship with a Chinese woman, Mai Chen, played by France Nuyen, who seems to be the love of his life, and he says so. But, he draws the line against interracial marriage in his family. So, he won't marry Mai Chen and he can't accept her having a baby. King's deceased wife's sister, on the other hand, is a hard-nosed racist. King raised his much younger sister, Sloane, played by Yvette Mimieux. She is the catalyst who would bring change into the Howland family by her plans to marry a native Hawaiian whom she has known since childhood. She notes that other mixed marriages take place in Hawaii.Some other factors enter into the plot. King is tabbed to run for one of the first U.S. Senate seats in Hawaii. His mistress, Mai Chen, becomes pregnant with his baby. How all of this plays out is the substance of the movie. The setting is 1959, and Hawaii has just become the 50th state in the United States. The Howlands own their own island in the Hawaiian chain, Lanoalani. They have their own plane to fly to and from their fictitious home. The island is home to a ranch of 250,000 acres that appears to produce pineapples, sugar cane and cattle. The movie is based on a novel by a Honolulu newspaperman, Peter Gilman. But it departs from the book considerably. The screenplay eliminates some major characters who are important in the novel, "Such Sweet Thunder." So, we movie viewers are left without any clear picture of Howland's father, wife and half-brother. We do know that after his parents died, King raised his baby sister. He also married and had a son, and his wife and son were killed in a tsunami some years before. Since then, his sister-in-law came to live with him to help raise Sloane. With that background, I'll leave off comments on how the movie plays out. But I thought movie lovers might be interested in some trivia about Hawaii that relates to the movie plot. The Howland island and ranch are fictitious, but Hawaii did have some large ranches in the past. The largest of those, the Parker Ranch, was established in 1847 on the big island, Hawaii. It has 250,000 acres and is one of the largest and oldest ranches in the entire U.S. The last of the blood and marriage line of Parker owners died in 1992, and the ranch today is operated by a charitable trust. The Parker ranch mostly produces livestock. While the movie was made and released in 1963, its setting is in 1959. In 1960, the world's largest recorded earthquake struck Chile. The 8.8 or 9.5 temblor created a major tsunami. A 35-foot wave struck Hilo Bay on the big island with deadly force. It killed 61 people and destroyed more than 500 homes and businesses in downtown Hilo. The population of Hawaii Island's largest city then was about 25,000, and today it's about 45,000. Other areas of the islands had much less damage. But Hawaii has a history of many tsunamis. The U.S. Geological Survey lists 50 tsunamis in Hawaii since the early 1800s. Seven of those have caused major damage. The tsunami that took the lives of King's wife and son may have been fictitious. Or, the book author may have intended it to be the 1946 tsunami that struck Hawaii. That would have been 13 years before the opening of the movie, and seems to fit with King's loss of his family. The 1946 tsunami was the worst of modern history in the islands. An earthquake in the Aleutian Islands triggered it. But unlike the 1960 event, for which there was considerable warning, the 1946 tsunami struck without warning. It killed 170 people – mostly around Hilo. The bay wave was 30-feet high and the maximum wave reached 55 feet at the northern tip of the island.

I wonder if the late J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina ever saw this film. He would have understood the character of Charlton Heston in this movie as few others are capable of. As we all know, several years after Thurmond's death in 2003 at 101, a black woman who was his illegitimate daughter came out with a book about the South's long standing segregationist and Dixiecrat candidate for president in 1948.The film is set in Hawaii in 1959 just upon Hawaii's admission as a state and Charlton Heston comes from a family not unlike the Parkers who still have a ranch on Hawaii's big island that takes a lot acreage there and is the state Ponderosa. Heston's being touted as someone who could be one of their first two US Senators. He's a widower whose wife and son were killed years ago in the famous tidal wave at Hilo and lives at the ranch with his wife's sister Elizabeth Allan and his sister Yvette Mimieux.Having visited Hawaii for a glorious week I can speak to Hawaii's reputation for tolerance, but even paradise will have a few racial trolls. Even though he's got a Eurasian mistress, France Nuyen of long standing whom he's just put in a family way, he objects mightily to the proposed interracial marriage of native Hawaiian James Darren and Mimieux. When his objections become the underlying cause of tragedy, Heston's political career is shot to pieces. What might fly in Alabama has no place in Hawaii.During his career Heston also played Thomas Jefferson which came out the same year as Diamond Head. I'm wondering if he didn't channel some of Jefferson into playing 'King' Howland who had a well known backstairs interracial relationship with Sally Hemmings. If Patsy or Polly Jefferson had ever come to father and said they were going to marry some free black man, I imagine Jefferson would have reacted the same way as Heston does with Mimieux.Diamond Head is a nice Hawaiian soap opera which could have made some great prime time Dynasty like viewing with a pineapple twist. But it fails utterly in conveying any serious message about racial tolerance. Still you can't shoot a bad looking film on Hawaii and since the cast shot it on location, they're all ahead of the game if they got to spend time on the islands. Charlton Heston even got to do it again several years later in The Hawaiians.Besides those I've mentioned look for George Chakiris as Darren's half brother, Aline McMahon as their mom and Philip Ahn as a most efficient police inspector. What I liked about what Ahn did with the part is that it could have been played like Charlie Chan and it wasn't.You can never go wrong with a Hawaiian based film. Even the worst films are never bad looking and Diamond Head is far from the worst.

Richard 'King' Howland and his sister Sloane (Heston and Mimieux) live on an island, the only wonderful place that gets bigger every time they saw it from the sky… Sloane has just returned from California graduated but she despises waiting… She has something on her mind to tell her brother about Paul (James Darren). So she asks her brother how did he feel about Paul Kahana? The whole film is about racial intolerance and it sends a strong message, which kept the story interesting… Trade with them, be friends with them, even sleep with them, but don't marry them…This is Hawaii… It can happen here, and it does all the time… For Laura Beckett (Elizabeth Allen), King's sister-in-law, it happens, but not to people of their class… For King, if Sloane marries Paul, her children will inherit Manoalani one day, and all that goes with it… Paul is pure Hawaiian… Their families have been in these islands over a hundred years… They have never mixed their blood… Charlton Heston plays a rich narrow-minded pineapple grower, obstinately and intolerantly devoted to his own beliefs, even though he himself having an affair with Mai Chen (France Nuyen), the woman who doesn't ask questions… Mai knows that most women can make the world go away for a while, but none can make it stay away…Richard Knows that he's in danger of becoming an uncle… His sister and himself are the last of their line…Her son will own Manoalani one day and he has to be the right kid of son… Obviously he could have a child… He might even have a son… But he has no intention of marrying again… But Mai Chen thinks differently… He should have his own son… But King had a son… His name was Richard Howland III… He was 3 years old that day… A tidal wave, 40-foot crest smashed into Hilo and killed him and his mother and 120 others … So he doesn't want another son… Yvette Mimieux achieved stardom in "Where the Boys Are" (1960) and here, she is incredibly fresh, innocent and beautiful… Filmed in Color and Wide Screen, the photography is too beautiful presenting a tropical paradise of turquoise waters, white sandy beaches, waving palm trees, lush tropical vegetation and gentle sunshine

This movie was a good one for showing another view point in racism with a wealthy young white heiress who lives in Hawaii getting engaged with a native of the island that she grew up with. Her brother who always thought he was unbiased until it came to his little sister's beau has a big problem with it. Although, all along you get the feeling that she's only fond of him, after his death she goes on a binge. Not because she's sad, but because she's not sad. She states to his brother, Dean, (who she carries a torch for, and he also has wanted her for years) that his brother must of loved her but all she felt was a blank, she doesn't know how to love. She makes him leave her alone, but not long after she collapses from drinking an calls out for him. He comes to get her and takes her to his home where they come to terms with there feelings toward each other. Just when another wedding is being planned they fight and don't see each other for months. Until the birth of her brother's baby (that he doesn't want) when Dean realizes he can't go with out her anymore and comes for her. She apparently comes to realize she could love all along it just had to be the right man and agrees with a kiss. Then her brother, King sees and throws a fit, telling Dean to take her and riding his horse into the ground. At this point he seems to wake up. And endears himself by going to get his son.There is mention about a incestuous undertone between Sloane and King. There wasn't any sexual tension between them, just plain tension. King had go use to her always being is baby sister, his pet. He didn't have anyone else in his life, didn't want anyone else, he just had her. Racism was a big part of his actions, selfishness at the forefront. The scene where Sloane is dreaming about skinny dipping (reference to an earlier remark made by Dean about the time she jumped into the water buck naked and urged him to join her, but he didn't) and motioning to Dean to join her and then Dean turns into Paul, who runs in and kisses her. When he pulls away he is still Paul and she's smiling, but when she opens her eyes he has turned into King and she jerks away in misery and desperation and starts going under the water as if she is drowning. I don't believe this was suppose to be in response to some incestuous feelings that may have existed between the two siblings. It was to point out that King pushed himself into every part of her life. He set out to live up to his name and dominate and rule every part of his life and Sloane couldn't escape him even in her sleep, he had become her nightmare, never giving her peace. She had feelings of at least a young crush on Dean at an early age and he wanted her as well, but, from comments he makes later, he knew that deep down King was a racist and would not take to the idea of him becoming involved with his sister and it could only cause trouble with the still too young Sloane. She grows up, get's with Paul when they are returning from college. She never loved Paul, though. Was just attracted to him and the idea of marrying him. King objects to her marrying an island boy. He became violent about is objections, Paul is accidentally killed and Sloane is upset because she's not upset. King pushed in between her and Paul and on some level it locked in her mind. King pushes himself into everything in her life, even a dream. She can't escape him.I find Dean enthralling and loved the actor's performance. I don't think his upset was because he knew his brother would get trouble from the racial aspect, it was because he had feeling for Sloane. I'm sure he was worried for his brother, sure. But in a part of his mind he had marked Sloane for himself, even though he made up his mind to never have her. It just hit home when he found out about Paul and Sloane. You don't get a time stamp on these events, you just know it's been years. He cared about her regardless and when they were thrown together he only put up a slight hesitation before giving in to his feelings. Then of course they both had to be stubborn and fight, not talking for months until they were forced into proximity. Which was good in my opinion. Gave Sloane the time to work some stuff out in her mind (Dean said there was a war going on in her head and she had to decide who win's) and grow up. He realized that what he felt for her was too strong to ignore and he went to get her. I loved his arrogance, though it may not have been arrogance, maybe he just knew that she would be ready to take his hand if he held it out. He went to get her and it seemed almost a formality to go through the motions of apologizing and declaring his intentions out loud. He even told her "You know why I'm here". All he had to do was show up and he did. She wouldn't make the first step so he did. He knew all along it would be that way and she seemed to be waiting. Waiting on herself, mostly. She had to be ready. When he took her in his arms and held her tight she seemed happy for perhaps the first time in her life. Like coming home.