A sud di Pago Pago

I can't express how fortiesishly luscious this is on every level. Any fan of that era who hasn't seen it 'ain't there yet.' Frances Farmer ! How could you describe her? [a curiously unblemished saloon girl in this one, but what the heck?] John Hall ! Victor McLaglen ! These people - who they were in the time in which they lived and worked - bigger & more beautiful than life - a part of that never-never fantasy world - that was so much illusion - once lived and so gone forever - of the forties.

When the film begins, an idiot sailor is way too talkative about some gigantic pearls he's found on a far off island. Now you'd THINK he'd keep this to himself...especially since he has found a captain and crew to take him back to where he got the pearls so that they can all become rich men. Instead, however, he's swayed by the blackhearted Captain Larson (Victor McLaglen) and his vicious femme fatale, Ruby (Frances Farmer). In fact, they are so evil that when they near the island with the pearls, they murder the poor sailor. Then, when they land, they behave like they love the locals and only want what's in their best interest. But when their pearl diving natives try to find pearls, all they find are tiny ones....making their trip a waste of time. But when they try diving in much deeper places, they hit pay dirt...gigantic pearls. But there is a major problem....it's so deep that the divers risk death and one does die from the bends. So, the local kahuna, Kehane (Jon Hall), orders the divers to stop. So, it's time for Ruby to use her sexy wiles and get Kehane to change his mind...and he does so because he's head over heels for this heel! What's next?

So is this any good? Well, it's pretty good...though it would have been nice if more parts had actually been played by Polynesian actors and if the sea battle late in the film hadn't been so cheesy. Jon Hall at least was in real life half-Tahitian....which makes this better than many similar films of the era. My assumption is that there just weren't that many Polynesian actors available on and around Catalina Island, California, where the film was made! As for the story, it's an interesting little parable about the evils of 'civilization' and its impact on innocents...and the impact this has on the scoundrels who invaded their paradise.

By the way, this film stars Frances Farmer, a woman whose life story, "Frances", is mostly fiction. She never was labotomized and much of the IMDB biography from her is based on a book that completely fabricated much of her life and experiences.

Edward Small took director Alfred E. Green's cast and crew - an uncommonly attractive and brilliant assemblage - to the south seas to do the majority of this curiously undersung piece on location. Far less stylized/dated than Goldwyn's THE HURRICANE, it is admittedly riddled with cliches and formula, but packaged in such visual and technical excellence it scarcely matters.

There are scenes that will stop the heart. Chiseled adonis Jon Hall and porcelain idol Frances Farmer outlined in profile(s) against the steaming background volcano take the romantic closeup to a level that defies comparison.

Edward Small's films typically were strings of frames any one of which was an individual work of art in itself. What can one say but that with this one he outdid even himself, as did workhorse composer Edward Ward on song and score, some years prior to his work on Universal's stunning PHANTOM OF THE OPERA?

This movie was an attempt to imitate the success of "The Hurricane" which was made three years earlier also starring Jon Hall as a Tarzan- like South Pacific Islander. Unfortunately, South of Pago Pago was NOT directed by John Ford and it showed.

The script is very predictable, the characters are one-dimensional and the acting varies from wooden to hammy. Whereas "The Hurricane" was able to develop a real insight into the soul of the islanders and their way of life, "South of Pago Pago" portrays them too simplistically to ever really identify with.

Please watch "The Hurricane" instead.

South of Pago Pago is a pre-mature White Supremacy look at the corruption of an island paradise by a surly, ruthless captain (Victor McLaglen) and his band of brigands in search of pearls. With a white goddess in tow (Francis Farmer) he manages to dazzle the acting chief (Jon Hall) with her and exploit the native population allowing things get violently out of hand.

This South Sea Island dud opens with a raucous almost slapstick brawl as it introduces caricatures McLaglen and Farmer. Once island bound the devious ways of Captain Larsen get ugly fast as he cons the divers with drink and trinkets to undertake dangerous tasks. Larsen then distracts Kehane by marrying Ruby off to him. As the death toll and casualties mount, the islanders led by kehane revolt.

Outside of his informer performance, McLaglen's career has been a series of bellicose self parodies and though particularly cruel in this waterlogged clunker it is an uneasy mix here. The monotoned Farmer sleep walks through her part while the rest of the cast gets in each others way.

There are some decent underwater moments while some model work is glaringly bad. The editing is a fractured montage of hodge podge but the brutality quite graphic as the natives get the last say in this sorry South Seas adventure. Stay as far south and any other direction from this Pago Pago.