South Pacific

South Pacific (1958)

5 mistakes

(2 votes)

Other mistake: In the opening scene on the airplane, one of the men tells Lt. Cable, "The captain wants to know if you'd like to sit up in the cockpit with him?" Buzz Adams, the "captain" referenced in this line, is only a lieutenant. Admittedly, "captain" is a standard aviation term for the pilot of an aircraft, but it would be unlikely to be used in this situation, since the term has a specific military meaning.

Continuity mistake: When Luther Billis is parachuting out of the plane, he is seen with a pistol in his hands. Once he is in the rubber boat and starts paddling, however, the pistol has become a rifle.

Continuity mistake: When doing the "there is nothing like a dame" dance number on the beach, Ray Walston from cut to cut has his shirt either buttoned up or unbuttoned.

Other mistake: Near the beginning of the film, the "Bloody Mary" number begins while Lieutenant Cable is still on the airplane, approaching the island. A few verses later (less than a minute of screen time), Cable is seen walking onto the base. There is no way the plane could have landed that quickly. (Note: In the original theatrical release, the musical number was in two parts, with a substantial scene in between, thus giving Cable much more time to arrive. The mistake only exists on the cut made for home video.).

Other mistake: During the "Show" scene, Ray Walston's character comes to the front of the stage and the Navy / Marine emblems are on either side of him. During the song, he goes stage left and the Navy emblem is there but when he goes stage right there is the Navy emblem - when he returns stage left, the Marine emblem has taken its rightful place - guess they had extras for each and got confused during the scene.

Emile de Becque: When all you care about is here, this is a good place to be.

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Trivia: During production, a typhoon struck the island where this movie was being filmed. Afterward, palm trees that had been knocked down by the storm had to be put back together by the film crew.

More trivia for South Pacific

Question: Why was Bloody Mary's singing voice dubbed, given that Juanita Hall was a strong singer who had performed the role on Broadway?

Answer: Richard Rogers preferred the vocal performance of Muriel Smith who played the part in London. Since the vocal tracks for musicals was recorded separately from the filming back then, dubbing occurred for many reasons other than lack of singing ability of an actor, scheduling problems, budget, etc.

Myridon

Answer: Richard Rodgers was just being Richard Rodgers. He allowed her to sing in 'Flower drum Song' on stage the following year, 1958/9, and allowed her to use her own voice in the film of 'Flower Drum Song' in 1961. He had his own demons then and was just reacting.

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