[1920 - Richard Barthelmes - black&white - silent with music - 91 minutes]  Did you ever wonder how all those terrible movie stereotypes got started? Well here's the Great Grandaddy of them all from film legend D.W. Griffith! An alcoholic beachcomber and an invalid from New England fall madly in love with White Almond Flower; a "loose" Island girl who refuses to wear muumuus, worships her "devil-devil", and does a native dance of amazing gyrations. Then there are slave traders, cannibal headhunters, self-righteous missionaries, and another native girl who has "hootchie-kootchie" fits when she's around men. Native parts obviously played by caucasians in bad wigs and "brown face". 

[1926 - Ta'avale, Fa'angase, Tu'ungaita - black&white - silent - 65 minutes] A docudrama about the social life, customs, ceremonies, and tabus of Western Samoa, where it was filmed with native Samoans. Authentic scenes of everyday life including dancing, tapa making, food preparation, kava ceremonies, and the ritual knee-to-navel tattooing to initiate a young boy into manhood. Directed by Robert Flaherty ("Tabu") Very well made!

[1927 - Clara Bow, Clive Brook, Duke Kahanamoku - black&white - silent with music and subtitles - 64 minutes] Based on Armine Von Tempski's novel about a vivacious "it" girl of the roaring 20's raised on a ranch near Hana in Hawaii. She is the idealized "flapper"; a woman who remains true to herself amid her artificial, irresponsible friends and family. She swims nude, and in a grass skirt does a dance that appears to be some strange combination of the hula and the Charleston.

[1929 - Monte Blue, Raquel Torres - silent with music and sound effects - black&white - 84 minutes] A drunken ship-wrecked doctor falls in love with a chief's daughter and lives in "paradise" until the greed of white traders and the encroachment of Western ideas ruin it. Beautifully filmed in the Marquesas Islands with native islanders in scenes of pearl diving, dancing, food preparation, etc. Partially directed by Robert Flaherty("Tabu" ). Winner of the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

[1930 - Kenneth Arlen, Marceline Day, Will Stanton - black&white - 66 minutes] The owner of the "Tonga Gardens Bar" on a south sea island keeps nearly everyone under his control through gambling debts, liquor and loose women, including the local plantation owner. Then the plantation owner's fiancée sets out to reform her intended and a group of sailors arrive singing A Girl in Every Port and searching for pearls. Classic Hollywood style idyllic island scenes of grass shacks, languid sarong-clad wahines, and natives who have nothing better to do than strum guitars, dance, or sleep.

[1931 - Warner Oland, Sally Eilers, Bela Lugosi, Robert Young, Violet Dunn - black&white - 67 minutes] Legendary Honolulu police detective Charlie Chan (Oland) is called in to solve the murder of a movie star who is stabbed while making a film in Waikiki. A visiting psychic (Lugosi) is the number one suspect. The film begins with travelogue-type footage of Hawaii and includes location shots of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (exterior and interior), Waikiki Beach, Kailua Beach, Diamond Head, and Punchbowl.

[1932 - Douglas Fairbanks, William Farnum, Maria Alba - black&white - 70 minutes]  A rollicking adventure in the South Seas! A man makes a bet with his friends that he can survive for a year on a deserted island without any tools or weapons. Luckily he finds a native girl "Friday" to help him. It's amazing what he can do with bamboo and coconuts! Filmed in Tahiti.