Ambowina is a small island off the coast of Sumatra in the East Indies, whose chief natural resources are beautiful native girls.
This tropical paradise is also the base for Lato Airlines – a single Grumman Goose seaplane owned by Sandy Wade (William Reynolds) and Zack Malloy (James Philbrook), two argumentative partners who share billing as president of the company on alternate months.
They paid $35,000 for the plane and have another partner, a beautiful but scheming woman named Wilhelmina
(‘Steamboat Willy’) Vandeveer (Diane Brewster), who manages the business (“I’ll be your treasurer”) for 15% of the profits.
Sandy and Zack were once friends who flew for the same airline. Both left after a dispute. Sandy drifted up and down the islands for five years while Zack ventured into the business world. Their mutual friend Willy thought they were both going nowhere and needed a business of their own, so conned each into investing $17,500 in the Goose.
Neither knew about the other’s investment until they went to claim the plane.
Their bickering was set aside long enough to save Willy’s life when she became the target of a killer and some drug smugglers. The adventure united the trio, and Willy convinced them to run the airline.
Jim “Shipwreck” Callahan (Roy Wright) runs Shipwreck Callahan’s American Bar on Ambowina. He served on the destroyer USS Houston during World War II, and his favourite drink to serve is a Bamboo Bomb. The Bank of Jakarta holds the mortgage on the bar.
Willy lives in Room 32 of the small hotel that is part of the bar. She was born in Holland, and her family was one of the biggest plantation owners in the Dutch East Indies. When the war broke out, they fled to the States.
Her father managed to get back to Holland but died before Willy could join him. She is now fighting back and trying to salvage what was stolen from her. Islanders call her “Steamboat Willy” because after a con, “she always catches the next steamboat out”.
Naja (Daria Massey) is a gorgeous 20-year-old Balinese girl who works in the American Bar as a dancer. She previously worked as a switchboard operator at Macaser Imports in Singapore. Naja looks more European than Balinese (“My father was Portuguese but more of an Islander than my mother”) and loves to dance.
Sandy was born in Cincinnati, and he and Zack served in Korea together during the war.
Before deciding on the name Lato Airways (for “latitude zero” – the location of Ambowina), the trio planned to call the company Malloy and Company, but Sandy objected. Willy then suggested Southern Cross (“It’s too much like double cross,” said Zack). So Sandy suggested Lato Airways, which they all liked.
