Music

Romance

South Pacific

Magna Theatre Corporation

South Pacific Enterprises

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization

20th Century Fox

United States of America

English

Français

Rossano Brazzi

Mitzi Gaynor

John Kerr

Ray Walston

Juanita Hall

France Nuyen

Russ Brown

Jack Mullaney

Ken Clark

Floyd Simmons

Candace Lee

Warren Hsieh

Tom Laughlin

Giorgio Tozzi

Archie Savage

Francis Kahele

Robert Jacobs

John Gabriel

Richard Harrison

Ron Ely

Steve Wiland

Richard H. Cutting

Joe Bailey

Buck Class

Richard Kiser

Robert Hover

Doug McClure

Stephen Ferry

Joan Baker

Diane Reid

Phyllis Butcher

Dian Goodman

Diane DuBois

Anna James

Karen Gallant

Joyce Kramer

Barbara Cole

Mary Bishop

May Fewell

Beverly Johnson

Jane Lucas

Janet Hanrahan

Helene Patridge

Barbara Nesser

Marlene Lizzio

Muffett Webb

Mary Jo Flanders

Debbie Wilcox

Faye Antaky

Donna Pouget

Dorothy Abbott

Pat Volasko

Jan Haller

Beverly Aadland

Bonnie Lene

Jonnie Paris

Diane Myles

Barbara Donaldson

Ila McAvoy

Joanne Jones

Larri Thomas

Darlene Engle

Kay Tapscott

Evelyn Ford

Betty Bunch

Susan Logan

Dan Wallace

Karl Heyer

Jim DeCloss

Mike Vincent

James Stacy

Donald Mundell

Alvin Arnold

Mark Pinkston

Gene Bergman

Velton Parker

John Chasey

Lee Thomas

Carl Esser

Joseph Schlichter

Jim Ganley

Richard Smith

Murray Gaby

Robert Nielson

William Glisson

Hadley Gray

George Hooper

John Caler

Charles Joyner

Morris Harmell

Donald Lane

Donald Nobles

Tom Moore

Mike Salamunovich

Tom Logan

Durwood Bloomgren

Charles Lunard

Tex Brodus

Joe Paz

Bob Calder

Joshua Logan

James Michener

Paul Osborn

Richard Rodgers

Oscar Hammerstein II

Robert L. Simpson

Leon Shamroy

Walter M. Scott

George P. Skouras

Lyle R. Wheeler

Paul S. Fox

Buddy Adler

John DeCuir

Dorothy Jeakins

Alfred Newman

Edward B. Powell

Bernard Mayers

Robert Russell Bennett

Ken Darby

LeRoy Prinz

Robert Mayer

Pete King

William Reynolds

Fred Hynes

George Adams

Ben Kadish

Helen Turpin

Leonard Doss

Schuyler A. Sanford

Murray Spivack

L.B. Abbott

Ben Nye

Joseph I. Kane

Frances C. Richardson

Fred Hall

John W. Rixey

Gaston Longet

Arthur Gerstle

Joan Bayley

Knuckleheads and cockeyed optimists. 

Even though it's gargantuan in length, this is actually a "small" screen adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway play. Met with indifference by the critics of the time, it has however come to be loved by many a musical fan. I'm not one of them though...

There's no denying that the songs are superb, mostly top draw, but there are so many irritating issues within. The much discussed colour filters that were used by director Joshua Logan and cinematographer Leon Shamroy, are overkill, trying to supplant whimsy when really a static set can't carry the treatment. Pic is easily 45 minutes too long, thus when the war sequences come so late in the play they feel at odds with what has transpired in the previous 2 hours of film.

Mitzi Gaynor and Rossano Brazzi as our loved up lovers are polar opposites on character terms, but also in acting skills. She is radiant for the key musical numbers, but her character away from the musical numbers starts to grate the longer the pic goes on. He, well he's as stiff as one of Logan's camera set-ups is. Even some of the dancing choreography comes off as something that was originally thrown away during production discussions.

The tunes carry you through to the end, for they demand to be given our attention, but really this is one musical that I really could never watch again. 5/10

CinemaSerf

Amidst the backdrop of the Second World War, Joshua Logan takes us, courtesy of Rodgers and Hammerstein, on a romance set on a beautiful tropical island. Mitzi Gaynor is one of the few women here who is surrounded by squad of hormonal sailors who declare "There's Nothing Like a Dame" early on, so she has no shortage of would-be suitors. Also on this island is the Frenchman "Emile" (Rossano Brazzi) whom the visitors want to use to help map out the adjacent islands held by the Japanese. What now ensues follows the will they/won't they nature of their developing relationship interspersed with some wartime plotting and peppered with musical standards like "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair"; "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Younger than Springtime" the film trundles along to it's rather obvious conclusion. There can be no doubt that the songs are memorable, but there is not a jot of chemistry between Brazzi and the increasingly Doris Day-esque Gaynor and the ensemble chorus numbers come across as overly choreographed and not in the least natural. For much of the film, it appears as if it's shot through a telescope with slightly blurred edges. Initially reminiscent of dream sequences, this technique soon loses it's potency and ends up contributing little to this generally rather lacklustre and thinly plotted comic love story. There's also no getting away from the glaringly obvious dubbing as Giorgio Tozzi provided the real operatic bass tones on behalf of our leading man. The music carries this a great deal, but the rest of it is little better than colourful wartime B-movie that I found did disappoint.

South Pacific (1958) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]

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South Pacific

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Cast

Rossano Brazzi

Mitzi Gaynor

John Kerr

Ray Walston

Juanita Hall

France Nuyen

Russ Brown

Jack Mullaney

Ken Clark

Floyd Simmons

Box office

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