James Garner is Costain, a Texas cowboy who gets shanghaied in San Francisco, jumps ship and winds up floating off the shore of Hawaii.
He’s rescued by Hawaiian farmers working for Henriette McAvoy (Vera Miles), who’s farming 10,000 acres of potatoes, not very profitably.
It doesn’t help that wild cattle keep trampling her crops. Her maid Liliha uses boiling water to chase them away.
And once in a while, her farmhands roll out a homemade cannon to try to scare them off.
Costain convinces Henrietta that the cattle could be more profitable than potatoes.
That’s if someone can teach her farmhands to be cowhands.
And if someone can device a means of getting the cattle from the shore to the ships that have to anchor out in the ocean.
Costain agrees to try and quickly befriends Henrietta’s young son Booton (Eric Shea), though he has a heck of a time pronouncing the youngster’s name.
Watching all this play out is a well-off businessman names Bryson, who’s been loaning Henrietta the money she needs to stay afloat.
He’d like to buy her land. More than that, he’d like Henrietta’s hand in marriage. Which means he doesn’t exactly welcome Costain’s presence.
James Garner as Costain, back into Texas cowboy gear in The Castaway Cowboy (1974)
Vera Miles as Henrietta MacAvoy, rejecting Bryson’s marriage proposal in The Castaway Cowboy (1974)
Review:
Garner’s easy-going charm helps make this an enjoyable, if undeniably lightweight, Walt Disney production.
Garner’s attempts to turn Hawaiian farmers into “pineapple cowboys” provides most of the “laughs.” The filming of cattle being hauled off into the ocean and loaded onto ships is impressive.
But you might find yourself groaning when a Hawaiian native casts a deadly spell on Henrietta’s foreman. Garner has to track the native down to a cave of death in hopes of reversing the spell. Oh, my.
A year prior, Garner starred in another Walt Disney film, “One Little Indian.” Child actor Eric Shea, who plays Booton, also had roles in “Yours, Mine and Ours” starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda, “The Poseidon Adventure” and another Western, “Menace on the Mountain.”
Eric Shea as Booton MacAvoy, checking in on the stranger who washed ashore in The Castaway Cowboy (1974)
Robert Culp as the well-off businessman who keeps loaning Henrietta money in The Castaway Cowboy (1974)
Directed by:
Vincent McEveety
Cast:
James Garner … Lincoln ‘Linc’ Costain
Vera Miles … Henrietta MacAvoy
Robert Culp … Bryson
Eric Shea … Booton MacAvoy
Elizabeth Smith … Liliha
Manu Tupou … Kimo
Gregory Sierra … Marrujo
Shug Fisher … Capt. Cryy
Nephi Hannemann … Malakoma
Lito Capina … Leleo
Ralph Hanalei … Hopu
Kim Kahana … Oka
Lee Woodd … Palani
Luis Delgado … The hatman
Buddy Joe Hooker … Boatman
Patrick Sullivan Burke … Sea Captain
Runtime: 91 min.
Gregory Sierra as Marrujo, henchman for the businessman Bryson in The Castaway Cowboy (1974)
Nephi Hannemann as Malakoma, the native Hawaiian who resents Costain’s presence in The Castaway Cowboy (1974)
Memorable lines:
Henrietta MacAvoy to the rescued Texas cowboy: “You’re lucky you survived, you know?”
Costain: “Well, you can’t drown if you were meant for something worse.”
Booton MacAvoy: “Costain, do you think you could ever like it here?”
Costain: “Oh, no. Nah, this fruit bowl ain’t for me.”
Costain: “It’d be easier to make a cherry pie out of barbed wire than to make a cowboy out of the best of them (Henrietta’s farmhands).”
Henrietta MacAvoy: “Booten says they’re really trying.”
Costain: “That’s what’s frightening. They are.”
Henrietta: “Well, if they’re showing progress …”
Costain: “They’re not showing progress. They’re just tryin’. It ain’t the same thing.”
Elizabeth Smith as Liliha, trying to get Costain used to Hawaiian cuisine in The Castaway Cowboy (1974)
Manu Tupou as Kimo, foreman on Henrietta’s potato farm in The Castaway Cowboy (1974)
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