Trivia for
South Pacific (1958) More at IMDbPro »

• Concerned that the film's lush tropical settings would appear unnatural in Technicolor, and partially to cover up the fluctuations in weather during the shoot, director Joshua Logan hoped to soften the effect by filming several scenes through the newly available colored filters. He later indicated he considered this to be the biggest mistake he had made in his filming career. He wanted the filters to be subtler, but he says that the film processing lab had made them more extreme than he liked. There was no time to re-shoot without them or replace them because the film was a roadshow and tickets had been booked months in advance.
  
  
• Juanita Hall, who played Bloody Mary in the original Broadway production, sang her own songs onstage, but was dubbed in the film version at the request of composer Richard Rodgers. Rodgers and musical director Alfred Newman brought in Muriel Smith (who played the Bloody Mary role in London).
  
  
• Partially restores the song "Loneliness of Evening", which had been deleted from the stage version before opening in New York. The lyrics turn up in the form of a poem sent by Emile de Becque to Nellie Forbush (the full song was used in the 2001 television version, produced by ABC). The song was also used in the second TV production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's Cinderella (1965) (TV), sung by Stuart Damon as the Prince.
  
  
• Joshua Logan considered virtually every top actress of the day for the role of Nellie Forbush, including Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, Audrey Hepburn and even Ginger Rogers.
  
  
• The love scenes between characters Joe Cable and Liat were considered shocking by the still conservative standards of the late 1950s.
  
  
• Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were also pressured to eliminate the song "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught", but they resisted.
  
  
• France Nuyen had not yet learned English when playing the role of "Liat". Fortunately, she was able to converse in her native language (French) with co-star Rossano Brazzi, who spoke French as well as his native Italian.
  
  
• This is the only theatrical film adaptation of a Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II stage show to have all the songs intact, with the addition of the song "My Girl Back Home," which was cut from the play before it opened.
  
  
• South Pacific won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1950 - it premiered on Broadway in April of 1949. Only six musicals have won the Pulitzer Prize in drama - one per decade from the 1930s to the 1990s. They are as follows: "Of Thee I Sing" (1931), "South Pacific" (1949), "Fiorello" (1959), "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" (1961), "A Chorus Line" (1975), "Sunday in the Park with George" (1984), and "Rent" (1996).
  
  
• The soundtrack album for the film was the first Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II film soundtrack to be issued in stereo the same year that the mono version was issued. (Because stereo LP's were not possible until 1958, the movie soundtrack albums of Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956) and The King and I (1956) were issued in mono between 1955 and 1956, the stereo versions in 1958.)
  
  
• The original Broadway production of "South Pacific" opened at the Majestic Theater on April 7, 1949, ran for 1925 performances starring Mary Martin as Nellie Forbush and Ezio Pinza as Emile de Becque, and won the 1950 Tony Award for the Best Musical, Libretto and Score. Both stars won the Tony Award for Best Actor and Best Actress in a Musical. Juanita Hall reprises her role as Bloody Mary in the movie.
  
  
• Rossano Brazzi's singing voice was dubbed by Giorgio Tozzi, Ken Clark's by Thurl Ravenscroft, and John Kerr's by Bill Lee.
  
  
• Mary Martin did not play Nellie Forbush in the movie because the man who had portrayed Emil de Becque on the stage, Ezio Pinza, had already died and the producers considered it to be a hopeless task to find anybody who could match her in the movie. Mitzi Gaynor was eventually cast in the role.
  
  
• Three of the numbers are strung together on the soundtrack album to create a finale that does not actually exist in the movie. These numbers are the reprise of "Ditte-Moi," "Some Enchanted Evening," and a duet between Emile and Nellie called "Two Different Sides of the World."
  
  
• Fernando Lamas was considered for the role of Emile, but he could not get out of his contract to the Broadway show "Happy Hunting."
  
  
• "South Pacific" ran for just under 4years and 6 months at the Dominion Theatre in London. Opening on April 21st, 1958 and closing on September 30th, 1962. An unbroken, record run that will probably never be equaled.
  
  

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