Pearl of the South Pacific (1955)

The Worst Film Ever

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It's correct to note that when actresses of a certain age get to a point in their career, they might be asked to go down Maria Montez territory to put on a sarong and/or go to an exotic location for an Indiana Jones like adventure. Yvonne De Carlo returned to these types of roles with Republic's "Flame of the Islands" and Jane Russell dove for pearls to Perez Prado music in RKO's "Underwater". Even Barbara Stanwyck did this (minus the sarong fortunately) in the same year's "Escape to Burma" which this Virginia Mayo epic seems to take place on the same set.Filmed in Super Silly Scope, this adventure yarn is another case of "Uh oh, there goes the neighborhood", occurring in the south seas when a ship containing men searching for black pearls arrives near an uncharted island where one was discovered. "Bad girl" Virginia Mayo disguises herself as a missionary in order to fool the islanders who are being ruled by Basil Ruysdael, an Englishman who doesn't want outsiders ruining the island, and who could blame him? The islanders, unlike those in such south sea movies as "The Hurricane" or anything else starring Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour, aren't too kean on it either, greeting them with spears while Ruysdael voices threats. With her sensuous looks, it's obvious to Ruysdael that Mayo ain't no missionary, and when she makes a play for his scantily clad son (Lance Fuller), war between the islanders and white men is inevitable.While Mayo has surface beauty, there's also something cold which can't be explained by simply watching her on film. This made her perfect for film noir, hence classics like "White Heat" and "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye", but in musicals, she can't compare to Grable or Day. She does get a bit of an opportunity to sing, introducing native children to the nursery rhyme song "Ten Little Indians", and that is the one moment where her warmth briefly comes out. But here, she's involved with three men: old lover Dennis Morgan (looking much aged from his Warner Brothers days), new lover David Farrar (quite sinister) and innocent but deadly serious Lance Fuller, and that makes her a total floozy. Then, there's the obviously rubber octopus, perhaps the same one that made infamy in the same year's "Bride of the Monster", guarding the hidden cavern which can only be found through a pond in the middle of the island that contains the hidden stash of black pearls. This brings on more unintentional laughs that might have your chest in pain.This is a reflection of the fun but schlocky films of the 1940's and 50's that kids used to rush to on Saturday afternoons that if they were to see today, they'd probably roll their eyes and declare how stupid it all seems in retrospective. Still, it's all innocent fun, as far-fetched and fantastic the plot is, a reminder of what films used to be made to do. In a sense, this could be almost a variation of a Greek tragedy, sort of an Aesop's fable, as if transfered into a screenplay and a modern era, and definitely a lesson in how greed can destroy the soul.

South Seas silliness mostly shot on obvious sets but it is colorful and mindless so if you are in an undemanding mood this will fill the bill although they really should have found a reason for Dennis Morgan to sing. Virginia Mayo was a good actress whose career was unfortunately strewn with this kind of junk, either she was at the wrong studio which didn't know how to cast her or she just took whatever came along because excepting The Best Years of Our Lives and White Heat her films are almost all forgettable. Lance Fuller provides a great deal of eye candy throughout as a South Seas islander oddly named George. The kind of picture churned out by the studios for the lower half of a double bill.

Pearl of the South Pacific is directed by Allan Dwan and written by Jesse Lasky Junior, Talbot Jennings and Anna Hunger. It stars Virgina Mayo, Dennis Morgan, David Farrar, Murvyn Vye, Lance Fuller, Basil Ruysdael and Lisa Montell. A Technicolor/ SuperScope production with music by Louis Forbes and cinematography by John Alton. Harmless afternoon adventure type picture that doesn't add up to much narratively, but none the less is boosted by nice colourful photography on Hawaii from the great John Alton.Plot pretty much entails that the radiant Mayo is joined by two gruff beachcomber types (who both vie for her attentions) and venture forward by boat to a paradise island in search of black pearls. After bluffing their way past the island supremo, story treads water with the addition of another male suitor for Mayo, this time one of the main native (Tarzan like) guys. The pearls are hidden via a secret lagoon type place, they must not be disturbed or the island deity will rain down curses on everyone (or something like that), but sure enough the pearls will be disturbed, some blood will be shed and common sense and love's trajectory will be outed. That's pretty much it, it rarely gets exciting, though there is a wonderful Octopus in here which is the keeper of the pearl crypt, but it's played mostly with a straight face and never insults our intelligence. There may have been some intention to have narrative sting about false gods and greedy treasure seekers, but it doesn't shine through because we are too busy having fun with a giant Octopus and watching Mayo dangling horny men from the puppet strings in her theatre of sexual stimuli. 6/10

Pearl of the South Pacific recently came on BBC2 one afternoon, so I set the video to record it and was pleased I did. It was one of several movies BBC2 were showing in tribute to its main star, Virgina Mayo, who died earlier this year (2005).A woman and some men arrive on a remote island in the South Seas to search for some treasure. With it being the South Seas, you would expect danger, including a monster. There is a monster, a giant squid which is guarding the treasure, but is later killed. They discover the island is being ruled by a white man who has made this his home. There are also unfriendly natives who are hostile towards the visitors. The woman makes out she is a missionary and after some fighting and conflict which sees the ship explode and most of the men killed, everything is OK and the woman and the only other survivor from the ship, her fiancé are allowed to make the island their home.As well as Virgina Mayo (White Heat), the movie also stars Dennis Morgan, David Farrar and Lance Fuller (This Island Earth).Pearl of the South Pacific is an ideal way to spend almost an hour and a half one afternoon. A treat.Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.