Lt. Robin Crusoe USN (1966) – Nostalgia Central

This modern-day take on Robinson Crusoe was based on a story by Walt Disney himself and starred Dick Van Dyke as a US Navy flyboy named Robin Crusoe, who has to bail out of his plane when it catches fire.

He drifts at sea for several shark-haunted days in a rubber raft until he finds a deserted island – or so he thinks.

He builds a bamboo house, finds an abandoned decades-old Japanese submarine with lots of gadgets that he can use, and also finds Floyd – a marooned chimp from the American Mercury space program.

The two take to each other and spend many happy hours together at poker, golf and other activities for which Floyd shows a greater aptitude than his human companion.

Even with the presence of the highly talented Dick Van Dyke, the film heads into boredom until the arrival of beautiful and funny Nancy Kwan as a native girl whom he names ‘Wednesday’. She has run away from her tribe to escape an arranged marriage.

Crusoe then gets embroiled in a battle between Wednesday and dozens of her pretty wiggly-hipped tribal sisters and cousins (who call him “Admiral Honey”), versus her tyrannical headhunter chieftain father, Tanamashu (Akim Tamiroff), and the devil god Kabuna.

The majority of the film was shot on location on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The Aircraft Carrier in the movie is USS Kitty Hawk.

Lt. Robin Crusoe
Dick Van Dyke
Wednesday
Nancy Kwan
Tanamashu
Akim Tamiroff
Umbrella Man
Arthur Malet
Captain
Tyler McVey
Pilot
Peter Renaday
Co-Pilot
Peter Duryea
Crew Chief
John Dennis
Native Girls
Nancy Hsueh
Victoria Young
Yvonne Ribuca
Bebe Louie
Lucia Valero

Director
Byron Paul