Having taped this off HBO nearly 22 years ago, I finally got to see the 1958 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific just now (I had also seen the PBS Great Performances Carnegie Hall version with Reba McEntire, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Alec Baldwin last year). Mostly wonderful film version although I agree with most posters that the color filters during the songs can be a little distracting. Mitzi Gaynor is fine as Nurse Nellie Forbush in singing, dancing, and especially acting that I don't understand the criticism against her. Rossano Brazzi is likewise (although his singing, like the other cast members, was dubbed) as paramour Emile de Becque. John Kerr does indeed seem stilted and the dubbed singing of him is so obvious and I can't believe completely his love for France Nuyen. Ms. Nuyen is luminous, by the way. Juanita Hall and Ray Walston (who I first encountered as Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemount High) also lend fine support. That all said, this is classic R & H all the way in line with The Sound of Music, The King and I, Oklahoma!, and Carousel. P.S. Thurl Ravenscroft was the singing voice of Stewpot in the "There is Nothing Like a Dame" number. You might know him best as Tony the tiger and the singer of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

No matter how good "South Pacific" is, it clearly loses a point due to the god-awful use of filters throughout the film. The director, apparently, thought this was the biggest mistake of his career and they made a few of the scenes truly bizarre...really, really bizarre.

As far as the rest of the film goes, it really is terrific. While I am not overly fond of musicals with THIS many musical numbers, there were so many good ones that I could look past the weak ones (such as the awful "Happy Talk")--and I found myself singing along with many of the numbers. And, fortunately, it has something that make a great musical great--it has a really strong story. If you like romance, then the film is for you, and I found myself reaching for Kleenex a couple times. Touching, excellent and very watchable. While not the best Rogers & Hammerstein musical (a personally LOVE "State Fair" and "The Song of Music"),it's close.

By the way, why did they use an Italian to play a Frenchman? Mr. Brazzi wasn't bad but didn't sound French plus he didn't do his own singing. While not quite so famous, Yves Montand could have handled this role really well (provided they grayed up his hair a bit)--and man, could he sing.

The most obvious flaw is its running time, it's very long. I think it's longer than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Unfortunately there were other flaws with the movie, so I can't overlook what I've just said. Another flaw was the colour filtering;the orange and yellow picture did get a bit distracting after a while, although the Pacific does look beautiful. Rossano Brazzi, whose singing voice was dubbed, looked wooden, but was he ever not wooden? I must say though, the dubbed singer did a marvellous job.

However, there were a lot of truly excellent things about this movie. Mitsi Gaynor was a lovely lead, and she was wonderful in the musical numbers. She does get a little tiresome toward the end, but most musicals do have the same problem. But Juanita Hall was just perfect as Bloody Mary, I had absolutely no problem with her. The songs were absolutely outstanding. Rodgers and Hammerstein have given us some truly fantastic music scores, and South Pacific is among them. Ray Walston gives comic relief as Luther, I think, and the focus on the war was very endearing. The real star was the stunning choreography, that made the musical numbers so energetic.

All in all, an entertaining, but flawed film, that is underrated in my opinion. 7/10 Bethany Cox