White Shadows in the South Seas (1928) - W. S. Van Dyke 

Well from the sound of this it almost appears to be a Robert Flaherty project, and bears a great deal of similarity to Moana. So I wasn't too surprised to find that Flaherty was the original filmmaker for the project. However his time consuming process of making movies proved to wear down the patience of MGM so they replaced him with assistant director Van Dyke who was known for getting things done extremely fast. The film maintains a great deal of Flaherty's feel, and the cinematography is noticeably excellent and is visible even in a crappy, deteriorated VHS print. In fact the film won an Oscar in 1928/29 for its cinematography. The story itself is of a white man who comes to shore on an untouched south Sea island. He is revered as a "white god" and endears himself to the village winning over the chief's daughter and saving the chief's young son. He quickly comes to love his new home and tries to fight off a group of white men who sale up attempting to exploit the island. He winds up a martyr for his cause and is still unable to ward off the impending destruction. Made in 1928, the film has a few sound effects incorporated into the soundtrack and apparently there was even an attempt to shoot some talking scenes, most of which are not included. Van Dyke was quickly promoted in the MGM world and would be one of their most reliable directors in the 30's.