South Pacific

"There is nothing you can name that is anything like..."

1958 2h 37m EN

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 122

MusicRomanceWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Can a girl from Little Rock find happiness with a mature French planter she got to know one enchanted evening away from the military hospital where she is a nurse? Or should she just wash that man out of her hair? Bloody Mary is the philosopher of the island and it's hard to believe she could be the mother of Liat who has captured the heart of Lt. Joseph Cable USMC. While waiting for action in the war in the South Pacific, sailors and nurses put on a musical comedy show. The war gets closer and the saga of Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque becomes serious drama.

“There is nothing you can name that is anything like...”

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Cast

Rossano Brazzi
Emile De Becque
Mitzi Gaynor
Ensign Nellie Forbush, USN
John Kerr
Lt. Joseph Cable, USMC
Ray Walston
Luther Billis
Juanita Hall
Bloody Mary
France Nuyen
Liat
Russ Brown
Capt. J.M. Brackett, USN
Jack Mullaney
The Professor

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Joshua Logan
Writers: Paul Osborn
Languages: English, French
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 157 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 6.1× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

68 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, French.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

234+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Joshua Logan, shot by Leon Shamroy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alfred Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Robert L. Simpson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joshua Logan directs. Leon Shamroy behind the camera. Alfred Newman scores. Robert L. Simpson cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 157 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Made its money back 6.1× over at the box office.
368 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, French.
5234+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by Joshua Logan, shot by Leon Shamroy. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Alfred Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Robert L. Simpson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor and John Kerr carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "There is nothing you can name that is anything like...".
11IMDB entry: tt0052225 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 16 themes, including "world war ii", "plantation", "musical", "u.s. navy".

The technical file

Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Original score: Alfred Newman
Editing: Robert L. Simpson
Costume design: Dorothy Jeakins
Makeup / hair: Ben Nye
Runtime: 157 min · 2h 37m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $6,000,000
Box office: $36,800,000
Return: 613% of budget
Original language: EN
IMDB: South Pacific (1958)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Sound

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Joshua Logan

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-11-09
★ 5/10
Knuckleheads and cockeyed optimists. Even though it's gargantuan in length, this is actually a "small" screen adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway play. Met with indifference by the critics of the time, it has however come to be loved by many a musical fan. I'm not one of them though... There's no denying that the songs are superb, mostly top draw, but there are so many irritating issues within. The much discussed colour filters that were used by director Joshua Logan and cinematographer Leon Shamroy, are overkill, trying to supplant whimsy when really a static set can't carry the treatment. Pic is easily 45 minutes too long, thus when the war sequences come so late in the play they feel at odds with what has transpired in the previous 2 hours of film. Mitzi Gaynor and Rossano Brazzi as our loved up lovers are polar opposites on character terms, but also in acting skills. She is radiant for the key musical numbers, but her character away from the musical numbers starts to grate the longer the pic goes on. He, well he's as stiff as one of Logan's camera set-ups is. Even some of the dancing choreography comes off as something that was originally thrown away during production discussions. The tunes carry you through to the end, for they demand to be given our attention, but really this is one musical that I really could never watch again. 5/10
CinemaSerf2024-01-16
★ 6/10
Amidst the backdrop of the Second World War, Joshua Logan takes us, courtesy of Rodgers and Hammerstein, on a romance set on a beautiful tropical island. Mitzi Gaynor is one of the few women here who is surrounded by squad of hormonal sailors who declare "There's Nothing Like a Dame" early on, so she has no shortage of would-be suitors. Also on this island is the Frenchman "Emile" (Rossano Brazzi) whom the visitors want to use to help map out the adjacent islands held by the Japanese. What now ensues follows the will they/won't they nature of their developing relationship interspersed with some wartime plotting and peppered with musical standards like "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair"; "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Younger than Springtime" the film trundles along to it's rather obvious conclusion. There can be no doubt that the songs are memorable, but there is not a jot of chemistry between Brazzi and the increasingly Doris Day-esque Gaynor and the ensemble chorus numbers come across as overly choreographed and not in the least natural. For much of the film, it appears as if it's shot through a telescope with slightly blurred edges. Initially reminiscent of dream sequences, this technique soon loses it's potency and ends up contributing little to this generally rather lacklustre and thinly plotted comic love story. There's also no getting away from the glaringly obvious dubbing as Giorgio Tozzi provided the real operatic bass tones on behalf of our leading man. The music carries this a great deal, but the rest of it is little better than colourful wartime B-movie that I found did disappoint.