Tabu

F.W. Murnau, 1931. Good, clean fun in the South Seas. Murnau worked with Robert J. Flaherty (director of famed documentary Nanook of the North) for the first half of the film, so he got away with some skin for purely educational purposes. Flaherty quit, and Murnau forged ahead to make a visually stimulating It’s A Small World meets Romeo and Juliet.

Tragedy befell more than just the film’s characters however, as its director would die a week before its release in a car accident, robbing the world of any additional Murnau films.