A Gorgeous South Pacific
Deisgnerotter recently posted about going to see a new print of the classic film, Meet Me in St. Louis. This reminded me of a recent blu-ray disc purchase I made of another classic musical, South Pacific. This, for it's time, controversial musical has a stunning presentation in it's high definition debut. The blues of the ocean, the reds, oranges and yellows of the sunsets and the lush greens of the vegetation on the islands are all amazing looking. It incredible how good a 50 year old movie can look in high def. If only they'd do that with Meet Me in St. Louis. It looks good already, but imagine it in high def!!!
Anyway, South Pacific was a landmark show, including in it's themes the waste of war, may-december romances and racial intolerance. The commentaries and documentaries on this two disc set go into that in great detail. There are two versions of the film in this set, the standard release version that most of us are used to seeing on TV, and the road show version of the film, which was long thought to be lost. When the film first came out, it played in large cities in a reserved seat, twice a day showing. When it went into wide release, the film was cut down in length to give the theaters the maximum number of showings per day to help increase their profits. The road show version has the restored footage and it is easy to spot, since the quality on those sections is much lesser than the rest of the film. It looks a bit faded. The longer version makes a more interesting film out of an already good one, however.
The commentaries talk about the two bits of dubbing that were a bit interesting. Rossano Brazzi, the male lead, had been told he could do his own singing for the film, but when they heard his demo of Some Enchanted Evening, the producers promptly got Georgio Tozzi to sing his songs. Apparently Brazzi wasn't happy about this and kept messing up the lip synching he was doing. Josh Logan, the director, finally told him get it right or you'll be replaced. From then on, Brazzi did it right. The other amazing bit of dubbing was on Juanita Hall, who played Bloody Mary. She had originated the role on the Broadway stage, but when she was cast in the film, they decided she couldn't sing it well enough for the movie and had Murial Smith dub it for her. Smith had played the role in the London version of the show. Can you imagine how bad Hall must have felt to be told that she wasn't good enough to sing her role for the film?? I would have been royally pissed. Apparently she made up with R&H, because she did another show for them a few years later.
One of the documentaries shows a list of people who were being considered for the lead roles and there are some really interesting people they were looking at. Can you imagine Susan Hayworth as Nellie? Or Ethel Merman as Bloody Mary?????!!!!!! Now that's imaginative casting!!!!
Anyway, South Pacific was a landmark show, including in it's themes the waste of war, may-december romances and racial intolerance. The commentaries and documentaries on this two disc set go into that in great detail. There are two versions of the film in this set, the standard release version that most of us are used to seeing on TV, and the road show version of the film, which was long thought to be lost. When the film first came out, it played in large cities in a reserved seat, twice a day showing. When it went into wide release, the film was cut down in length to give the theaters the maximum number of showings per day to help increase their profits. The road show version has the restored footage and it is easy to spot, since the quality on those sections is much lesser than the rest of the film. It looks a bit faded. The longer version makes a more interesting film out of an already good one, however.
The commentaries talk about the two bits of dubbing that were a bit interesting. Rossano Brazzi, the male lead, had been told he could do his own singing for the film, but when they heard his demo of Some Enchanted Evening, the producers promptly got Georgio Tozzi to sing his songs. Apparently Brazzi wasn't happy about this and kept messing up the lip synching he was doing. Josh Logan, the director, finally told him get it right or you'll be replaced. From then on, Brazzi did it right. The other amazing bit of dubbing was on Juanita Hall, who played Bloody Mary. She had originated the role on the Broadway stage, but when she was cast in the film, they decided she couldn't sing it well enough for the movie and had Murial Smith dub it for her. Smith had played the role in the London version of the show. Can you imagine how bad Hall must have felt to be told that she wasn't good enough to sing her role for the film?? I would have been royally pissed. Apparently she made up with R&H, because she did another show for them a few years later.
One of the documentaries shows a list of people who were being considered for the lead roles and there are some really interesting people they were looking at. Can you imagine Susan Hayworth as Nellie? Or Ethel Merman as Bloody Mary?????!!!!!! Now that's imaginative casting!!!!