"South Pacific" is regarded as one of the all time great musicals, making it very curious that Broadway had never had a full scale revival (London has had two major revivals). A possible reason for that is that "South Pacific" was made into two fairly disappointing film versions (the second a t.v version with Glenn Close). One would think that original stage director Joshua Logan would have been the best man for the job when transferring the piece from stage to screen. However, he mad some unusual choices, such as the pretentious color filters spread throughout the film. Casting is also problematic. Mitzi Gaynor lacks the spunk Mary Martin had on stage, (it's a shame Logan couldn't get Doris Day as he had hoped), Rossano Brazzi is handsome and dashing as Emile de Beque, but somewhat bland, (Giorgio Tozzi does a good job as his voice double). The one bonus is that we get Juanita Hall recreating her Bloody Mary (even though her singing is dubbed by Muriel Smith, who played the role in London), and Ray Walston, who played Luthur Bills in London. The t.v remake was not much of an improvement, but is still superior to this all around disappointing film
Review of South Pacific
