Daily Archives: October 5, 2016

South Pacific
Directed by Joshua Logan
Written by Paul Osborn based on the play by Oscar Hammerstein III and the novel by James Michener
1958/USA
Magna Carta Theatre Corporation/South Pacific Enterprises/Rodgers & Hammerstein Productions/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Most people live on a lonely island, / Lost in the middle of a foggy sea./ Most people long for another island,/ One where they know they will like to be. — “Bali Hai”, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein III[/box]

This would be a practically perfect musical if the color were not marred by the very odd use of filters.

The story takes place on an American-occupied island in the South Pacific while the outcome of WWIIr was still in doubt.  Marines and sailors seemingly spend all their time waiting for something to happen. Their main occupation is ogling the Navy nurses and running harmless scams.

Lt. Cable (John Kerr) has been assigned a dangerous mission to land on a Japanese-occupied island to provide intelligence.  He needs a man with local knowledge to guide him there.  This he hopes to find in French planter Emile de Becque (Rossano Brazzi).

De Beque, however, is in the process of courting the irrepressible nurse Nellie Forbush (Mitzi Gaynor).  While he is looking forward to a lifetime of happiness, the dangerous mission is out of the question.  But when Nellie gets a look at his half-Polynesian children, she has cold feet.  With Ray Walston as a wheeler-dealer and Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary.

The musical has some of Rogers & Hammerstein’s most glorious tunes and is well cast.  I am surprised Mitzi Gaynor didn’t have more of a career.  She is perfect in her part.

The use of color has always been a major distraction to me.  It wavers from glowing Technicolor beaches to some oddly yellowed images.  I had always assumed this was due to an aging print.  But no, director Logan decided that filters would be a good way of getting around changes in weather, etc.  The effect was much less subtle than he had envisioned and he recognized his mistake after it was too late.

South Pacific won the Academy Award for Best Sound.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Cinematography, Color and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Trailer

Clip – “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy

The Quiet American
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz from a novel by Graham Greene
1958/USA
Figaro
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Thomas Fowler: Shall we save the truth for dinner?[/box]

Ethics meets politics in this Graham Greene morality tale.

The story is shown in flashback as Thomas Fowler (Michael Redgrave) contemplates the events leading up to the murder of an American. Fowler (Michael Redgrave) is a thoroughly cynical journalist covering the Indochina War in Viet Nam.  He has been living with the beautiful, and much younger, Vietnamese Phuong for the last two years.  Fowler has a wife back in England who is a High Church Episcopalian and will never give him a divorce. Phuong seems completely content with the arrangement but has a sister who wants to see her married.

Into Fowler’s world arrives a young American (unnamed in the film), who takes an immediate interest in Phuong, both because of her beauty and her predicament.  This American is in the country to spread democracy and foreign aid.  He appears to be a completely straight arrow and forthrightly announces his intentions to marry Phuong to Fowler.

Fowler resorts to increasingly desperate measures to keep his prize.  He believes himself even more justified when he is shown evidence that the young man is not what he seems.

I am still pondering about the thought-provoking story.  There is a lot that resonates with the beginning of anti-Americanism in the Third World and the impending War in Viet Nam.  At the same time, there are the ethical and religious implications common in Greene’s work.

Mostly, though, the movie made me want to read the book and see the 2001 version with Michael Caine.  Redgrave is fantastic in this but Audie Murphy, while ideal casting for his role, is too flat and the dialogue is unnecessarily wordy for the usually razor-sharp Manciewicz.  Still recommended to Graham Greene fans.

Clip