![]() Based on James Michener's "Tales from the South Pacific "it has some of Rodgers and Hammerstein's finest songs blended into a stirring tale of love,prejudice,redemption and heroism in wartime.Everything a 1958 audience could wish for,simple people that we were. I did a significant amount of my courting to this film.It was on for so long at the "Astoria",Brighton that I must have taken at least 5 different girls to see it during its run.It may even have moved to another cinema in the town later,my memory is a bit hazy about that,but by the time it was taken off at the "Astoria" I had become a little more sophisticated and was going up to West End shows (15 shillings on "The Brighton Belle"),but I knew all the words to "There is nothing like a dame". 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. 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. She's quite the operator herself, Bloody Mary and more than a match for Walston. ![]() 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. The secondary story line concerns marine lieutenant Joseph Cable, nicely played by John Kerr with dubbed singing voice. The primary story is the romance between nurse Nellie Forbush from Little Rock, Arkansas and French expatriate planter Emile DeBecque, Brazzi's character. It's described on stage, but here you can enjoy it first hand. And then sits back and enjoys the show as a whole slew of fighters pound the Japanese on that island. He's thrown a rubber life raft and has to paddle like mad to get out of range of the enemy weapons. He accidentally falls out of a plane with a parachute fortunately just off a Japanese held island. In fact Walston's big scene is a reminder of how film can do things that on stage you can only imagine. On Broadway the part was done by Myron McCormick. He plays Luther Billis, sailor and conman extraordinaire. ![]() ![]() The comedy is supplied by Ray Walston who was fresh from Broadway and Hollywood playing Mr. Bing Crosby and Perry Como had big selling records in 1949 and Al Jolson as well. The popularity of that song made the South Pacific original cast album a big seller. The big hit of South Pacific, probably the greatest hit from Rodgers&Hammerstein is Some Enchanted Evening. Pinch hitting for Pinza is Rossano Brazzi and for Pinza's voice, Giorgio Tozzi. How great she would have been in some Busby Berkeley epics. It's a shame that Mitzi Gaynor did not come along when musicals were at their height. Check the routine she has when she sings and dances about that wonderful guy she's just fell in love with. 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. Also in a previous sojourn in Hollywood she hadn't done that good for some inexplicable reason. Mary Martin was also getting a bit long in the tooth by 1958 to be playing young Ensign Nellie Forbush. Too bad he didn't get to do that film either. 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. 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. The success of South Pacific boosted Michener's reputation as a novelist in no small way. The show is based on two short stories from an anthology of stories entitled Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener. 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. It gave Mary Martin her career role on Broadway and made a pop star out of Metropolitan Opera basso Ezio Pinza. On Broadway it opened in 1949 and closed 1925 shows later in 1954. 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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |