Jungle Heat (1957)

Set in the days prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, an American (Glenn Langan) is sent to Hawaii to oversee labor disputes between plantation owners and workers. He assumes the disputes are the work of a political agitator (Glenn Dixon) but a local doctor (Lex Barker) suspects it is the work of Japanese fifth columnists preparing the way for a Japanese invasion. Although made in 1957, the film has the air of a WWII propaganda movie made some 15 years earlier. What sets it apart is the film's more contemporary look at the American's racism toward the island's non Caucasian inhabitants, who he sees as lazy and needing a strong authority figure to push them. There's also an interesting look at an interracial marriage between a white policeman (Rhodes Reason) with a Japanese wife (Miyoko Sasaki), who are shunned. But it all boils down to being a "B" programmer with ambitious aims that are never realized. There's a nice underscore courtesy of Les Baxter. Directed by Howard W. Koch. With Mari Blanchard as Langan's unhappy wife and James Westerfield.