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.

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

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: 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

More questions & answers from South Pacific

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.