South Pacific

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.

More mistakes in South Pacific

Trivia: Director Joshua Logan originally wanted Elizabeth Taylor to play Nellie.

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.

Trivia: At the beginning of the movie, the Catalina pilot Buzz Adams, is none other than Tom Laughlin, better known as "Billy Jack".

More trivia for South Pacific

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

Nellie: What a pinhead I was.

Nellie: Mother says older men are better for a girl than young men.
Lt. Cable: This has been a discouraging day for me.

More quotes from South Pacific

Question: I have heard that the role of Bloody Mary was dubbed in this movie. Who dubbed her, and why isn't that person listed in the credits (given that Giorgio Tozzi, who dubbed Emile de Becque, is credited)? Also, were Nellie and Lt. Cable dubbed? Again, no one is credited, but their singing voices sound dubbed to me. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Answer: See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052225/fullcredits#cast.Bloody Mary's singing voice is Muriel Smith, Lt. Cable's is Bill Lee. Mitzi Gaynor (Nellie) does her own singing. For most of these "on-location" musicals, the singing is recorded in a studio, so even the actors who do their own singing are, in effect, dubbed by themselves.

Myridon

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.

Question: Why was the "I'm Gonna Wash That Man" number severely hacked about for the film and is not the same as in the soundtrack recording?

Answer: The song was likely shortened to maintain the scene's brisk pace and keep the film's overall length to a certain running time. There were many other musical numbers and sequences in the movie.

raywest

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