South Pacific is a 1958 American romantic musical film based on the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, which in turn is loosely based on James A. Michener's 1947 short-story collection Tales of the South Pacific. The film, directed by Joshua Logan, stars Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr and Ray Walston in the leading roles with Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary, the part that she had played in the original stage production. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning the Academy Award for Best Sound for Fred Hynes. It is set in 1943, during World War II, on an island in the South Pacific.
Plot[]
Nurse Nellie Forbush (Mitzi Gaynor) of the U.S. Navy falls for middle-aged French plantation owner Emile De Becque (Rossano Brazzi), but recoils upon discovering that he's fathered two mixed-race children. When Nellie leaves him, the heartbroken Emile agrees to take on a dangerous espionage mission. In his absence, Nellie struggles to reconcile her prejudices with her love for him -- and after she spends time with his children and comes to care for them, fears that Emile may not return alive.
Cast[]
- Rossano Brazzi as Emile de Becque
- Giorgio Tozzi as Emile's singing voice
- Mitzi Gaynor as Ensign Nellie Forbush
- John Kerr as Lieutenant Joseph Cable, USMC
- Bill Lee as Cable's singing voice (uncredited)
- Ray Walston as Luther Billis
- Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary
- Muriel Smith as Bloody Mary's singing voice (uncredited)
- France Nuyen as Liat
- Russ Brown as Captain George Brackett
- Jack Mullaney as The Professor
- Ken Clark as Stewpot
- Thurl Ravenscroft as Stewpot's singing voice (uncredited)
- Floyd Simmons as Commander Bill Harbison
- Candace Lee as Ngana
- Warren Hsieh as Jerome
- Betty Wand as Jerome's singing voice (uncredited)
- Tom Laughlin as Lieutenant Buzz Adams
- Francis Kahele as Henry, Emile's servant
- Robert Jacobs and John Gabriel as Communications men
- Richard Harrison as Co-Pilot
- Ron Ely as Navigator
- Richard H. Cutting as Admiral Kester
- Joe Bailey as U.S. commander
- Buck Class and Richard Kiser as Fighter pilots
Musical numbers[]
Note: The film opens with an orchestral overture lasting 3 minutes and 30 seconds.
- "Bloody Mary"
- "There Is Nothin' Like a Dame"
- "Bali Ha'i"
- "A Cockeyed Optimist"
- "Twin Soliloquies"
- "Some Enchanted Evening"
- "Dites-Moi"
- "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" (This number was abridged in the film; the soundtrack recording includes the full version.)
- "A Wonderful Guy"
- "Younger Than Springtime"
- "Happy Talk"
- "Honey Bun"
- "My Girl Back Home"
- "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught"
- "This Nearly Was Mine"
- "Finale"
Release[]
Magna Theatre Corporation, which originally owned a stake in the film, handled the distribution of the roadshow theatrical release in Todd-AO, while Fox distributed the film for its general release in CinemaScope. It opened at the Criterion Theatre in New York City on March 19, 1958, before opening in Miami Beach on March 24, in Philadelphia and Chicago on March 26, and expanding to a further eight cities within a month. Originally shown in a nearly three-hour roadshow version, later cut to two-and-a-half hours for general release.
The film was re-released in 1964 and by The Samuel Goldwyn Company in 1983.
Restoration[]
The three-hour version, long feared lost, was rediscovered in a 70mm print owned by a collector. This print was screened in Bradford, England at the National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television on March 14, 2005. When Fox (which by that time owned partial distribution rights to the film, including home video) learned of the print's existence, it took it to the United States to reinstate the fourteen missing minutes and attempt to restore as much of the color as possible.
Home media[]
A two-disc DVD set of both the longer and shorter versions was released in the USA on Region 1 on November 7, 2006, and earlier in the UK on region 2 on March 20, 2006.
On March 31, 2009, South Pacific became the first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical available on high-definition Blu-ray disc.
Box office[]
South Pacific earned $7 million in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada from its roadshow release. It reached number one at the US box office in its eighth week of release and spent three weeks at number one. It was off number one for one week before returning for another three weeks. It spent another two weeks at number one in August 1958 for a total of eight weeks. It was withdrawn from general release at the end of 1960 with rentals of $16.3 million, earning a place among the top 50 popular movies of all time at the domestic box office when adjusted for inflation and the size of the population in its era. In its 1964 reissue, the film earned another $1.2 million in rentals, taking its total to $17.5 million. The film was a big hit in the United Kingdom and the film played continuously at the Dominion Theatre in London for nearly four-and-a-half years grossing $3.9 million at the theatre. After four years of release in the UK (and prior to its general release), it had grossed $9.4 million, surpassing Gone With the Wind as the highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom. It performed badly in other European countries such as France, Germany and Italy.
South Pacific was the highest-grossing Rodgers and Hammerstein musical film until The Sound of Music was released seven years later.
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The article or pieces of the original article was at South Pacific (1958 film). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with 20th Century Studios Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
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