South Pacific

Though it is only the second longest running of Rodgers&Hammerstein's musical shows, South Pacific I believe contains the best score with The King and I running a close second. On Broadway it opened in 1949 and closed 1925 shows later in 1954. It gave Mary Martin her career role on Broadway and made a pop star out of Metropolitan Opera basso Ezio Pinza.

Opening on Broadway only four years after VE Day, South Pacific found a ready made audience with the American public who believed in the rightness of the cause just fought for. The show is based on two short stories from an anthology of stories entitled Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener. The success of South Pacific boosted Michener's reputation as a novelist in no small way.

It's only too bad that South Pacific was not made with the original Broadway leads because it took so long to come to the screen. Ezio Pinza had died in 1956. He had done a couple of films in Hollywood that didn't do that good, but Pinza scored another great success on Broadway in Fanny. Too bad he didn't get to do that film either.

Mary Martin was also getting a bit long in the tooth by 1958 to be playing young Ensign Nellie Forbush. Also in a previous sojourn in Hollywood she hadn't done that good for some inexplicable reason. Mitzi Gaynor stepped very nicely into Mary's shoes and being more of a dancer than Martin, Gaynor's part had more dancing than on Broadway. Check the routine she has when she sings and dances about that wonderful guy she's just fell in love with. It's a shame that Mitzi Gaynor did not come along when musicals were at their height. How great she would have been in some Busby Berkeley epics.

Pinch hitting for Pinza is Rossano Brazzi and for Pinza's voice, Giorgio Tozzi. The big hit of South Pacific, probably the greatest hit from Rodgers&Hammerstein is Some Enchanted Evening. The popularity of that song made the South Pacific original cast album a big seller. And a whole slew of singers recorded it. Bing Crosby and Perry Como had big selling records in 1949 and Al Jolson as well.

The comedy is supplied by Ray Walston who was fresh from Broadway and Hollywood playing Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees. He plays Luther Billis, sailor and conman extraordinaire. On Broadway the part was done by Myron McCormick.

In fact Walston's big scene is a reminder of how film can do things that on stage you can only imagine. He accidentally falls out of a plane with a parachute fortunately just off a Japanese held island. He's thrown a rubber life raft and has to paddle like mad to get out of range of the enemy weapons. And then sits back and enjoys the show as a whole slew of fighters pound the Japanese on that island. It's described on stage, but here you can enjoy it first hand.

The primary story is the romance between nurse Nellie Forbush from Little Rock, Arkansas and French expatriate planter Emile DeBecque, Brazzi's character. The secondary story line concerns marine lieutenant Joseph Cable, nicely played by John Kerr with dubbed singing voice. Juanita Hall who is from the original cast is Bloody Mary is trying to match Cable with her daughter Liat played by France Nuyen in one of her first screen roles. She's quite the operator herself, Bloody Mary and more than a match for Walston.

Three young players who made it big later and had bit parts in South Pacific were James Stacy, Doug McClure and featured prominently is Tom Laughlin, the future Billy Jack.

It's too bad that we don't have a nice technicolor version of Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, but this is a pretty good group of players who worked hard and made a wonderful movie.

Having taped this off HBO nearly 22 years ago, I finally got to see the 1958 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific just now (I had also seen the PBS Great Performances Carnegie Hall version with Reba McEntire, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Alec Baldwin last year). Mostly wonderful film version although I agree with most posters that the color filters during the songs can be a little distracting. Mitzi Gaynor is fine as Nurse Nellie Forbush in singing, dancing, and especially acting that I don't understand the criticism against her. Rossano Brazzi is likewise (although his singing, like the other cast members, was dubbed) as paramour Emile de Becque. John Kerr does indeed seem stilted and the dubbed singing of him is so obvious and I can't believe completely his love for France Nuyen. Ms. Nuyen is luminous, by the way. Juanita Hall and Ray Walston (who I first encountered as Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemount High) also lend fine support. That all said, this is classic R & H all the way in line with The Sound of Music, The King and I, Oklahoma!, and Carousel. P.S. Thurl Ravenscroft was the singing voice of Stewpot in the "There is Nothing Like a Dame" number. You might know him best as Tony the tiger and the singer of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

The Broadway version of South Pacific was an amazing breakthrough in confronting attitudes that today's politically correct culture would consider completely racist. According to Mary Martin and others, she received death threats and the play was picketed regularly, which is hard to believe now.

I have to hope the Broadway version moved along a bit faster than the movie version, or there would have been a massive exodus from the unforgiving New York crowd. I can only guess that Josh Logan was feeling the humid heat of those islands, because the pace of the film is not just temperate, it's downright slow. I know it's hard to fit in songs when you're not used to doing musicals, but it only got worse from here for him (Camelot and Paint Your Wagon were just dreadful). If we're trying to get across that the machine of the military moved inexplicably slow, I got it, but I don't think that's it. I think it's Josh.

The music, of course, is wonderful. And I loved Mitzi Gaynor. I think she's perfect as light-hearted, silly Nellie, who lives within boundaries she's never even thought about, but suddenly finds some strength of character when she realizes that she loves someone without reservation. I'm not a fan of choosing the actor and having him lip sync, but Rossano certainly did so with feeling. Ray Ralston played his usual belligerent/con artist character. And who knew Tom Laughlin could act like a human being instead of just Billy Jack? Nice appearance there.

The colored filters are unfortunate. Good thing all the other directors saw Josh's mistake and didn't head down that rainbow road.

And I still find the job that Oscar Hammerstein III did of condensing James Michener's collection of short stories into this socially relevant (at the time) play truly amazing.

I gave the movie a seven because musicals always get five from me, the concept of the movie/play is great (if it gives us a reminder of where we've been), and the acting solid. I have to think that, in the hands of a better director, this movie might be dated, but truly wonderful.

When are folks going to give 'South Pacific' an even break? It's a wonderful film. A great big, colourful, emotional wallow, filled with romance, song, splendor, humor, and expert acting. Sure the colour filters are somewhat jarring. Blame it on the awful prints now (and it seems, forever) in circulation. Back in June 1958 the Films and Filming reviewer put it this way, "Logan has hit on the ingenious idea of using colour rather in the way that a composer underscores a films drama with music. As the emotions of his characters find their expression in music, so the cold clear tones of reality dissolve into the warm yellow and red hues of fantasy. I found this a wholly acceptable compromise, and many of the effects (indeed the whole level of the Todd-AO photography) were outstandingly good." Works for me to - and goodness knows I've seen them often enough. It also worked for the millions of cinemagoers who flocked to see the film - over and over again. Mind you, had Logan decided to supervise all aspects of the cutting etc., instead of trotting off to direct 'Blue Denim,' Fox might, possibly, have been persuaded to remove the filters before release? Perhaps, with film preservation on so many agendas these days, some of this colour-filter-exasperation could be channeled in that direction.

Now, regarding all this rubbish about 'South Pacific' being a financial and critical disaster? How? In Great Britain, where it had a four-and-a-half year run at the Dominion Theater in London, it recouped three times its negative cost before going into general release. It ran for three-and-a-half years in Sydney and Copenhagen. For over two years in NYC. It even broke box office records in Salt Lake for goodness sake. And this is just the tip of the successful iceberg. The critics? Sure there were dissenters, there always are, for any film. Most, however, echoed the headline which ran in London's Daily Mirror, 'South Pacific is just terrific.'

Which brings me to my final irritation, the casting of Mitzi Gaynor as Nellie Forbush. The delicious Mitzi is bloody marvelous in 'South Pacific.' She gives a beautifully multi-layered performance filled with truth and honesty. Her Nellie is real, human, and natural. In scene after scene this immensely talented actress subtly conveys, with humor and great sensitivity, her character's ever-changing moods. And, again, from NYC's Daily News to London's Daily Express, by way of Picturegoer and Films in Review, the majority of critcs agreed that, "Mitzi doesn't leave a palm-leaf on the trees when she goes into action."

'South Pacific?' It really is terrific.

This film is due to be re-released in 70MM for limited engagements next year. A new restored DVD is also being prepared by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment which includes scenes that were cut back in 1958. Somebody commented recently about the fact that "lap-dissolves" were used between many scenes in this film and this person obviously felt that this was some kind of fault. This was a common editing technique utilized in the past and was used usually to signify the passage of time. It is rarely used these days and obviously that person has not encountered this technique before and has assumed that it is a fault, but this is not the case.

I am curious to know if the new transfer will feature the Broadway continuity(the Emile-Nellie Plantation scene before the "Bloody Mary" scene)? I hope it is an anamorphic transfer?