Plot plausibility low - but warmheartedness and humor a go!
Written: Jun 08 '08 (Updated Jun 08 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: CAry Grant as a charming beachcomber, inveterate drunk; Jamaican scenery, schoolgirls are natural actors
Cons: Some illogical parts; Leslie Caron can be annoying when righteous, shades of Hayley Mills
The Bottom Line: Perfect fake-WWII romantic comedy; excellent vehicle for 60's-plus Cary Grant; wonderful feeling of Technicolor seagoing freedom (actually Jamaican, not South Pacific), and great performance by amateur girl-actresses.
Cary Grant's role in this, his penultimate film, in his early 60's, is said to be closest to his true personality. He plays a drop-out college history professor, fed up with wearing ties and teaching copycat boys in similar ties, so off he went to become a dropout/beachcomber in the South Pacific. He's known to be a ne'er-do-well drunk, a scrounger, who lives off a few others who have boats to live on. As the Japanese threat of attack grows, boatowners become scared, and one sells him an $18K beautiful boat for $400. At this point, his interaction with the RAN, Royal Australian Navy, begins, for they need "coast-watchers" for the 30,000 islands out there. The opening scene, in which this scruffy, unshaven, kerosene-cadging islandhopper gets roped into RAN work, is a slow and hilarious laugh.
Cary Grant, as usual, plays the hapless male, who gets no choice in his life allotments, a role he plays well, much as he did in "Arsenic and Old Lace" (poor nephew!). He's supposed to be rough, tough, salty, gnarly, burnt-out misanthrope, but a certain kindness can be detected. The only hint of a former life are the sprawling books all around the boat.
Meanwhile, the island he gets stuck on (good whack from the navy boat ensures his loyalty - boat is a no-go!) has very little to offer, but a bamboo-style hut, radio equipment, canned rations, and hidden Scotch bottles.
Leslie Caron enters as a love interest when he's commanded to go across the sea 40 miles in a small dinghy, to rescue a fellow coastwatcher. He finds instead a righteous schoolmarm-type, daughter of French consulate employees, in charge of seven similar girls. He rescues them in an improbable night journey back on that dinghy, then tries to live with the eight woman to hilarious results. Leslie Caron is 30 years his junior, but one night of drinking awakes her serious interest in this older man, this "filthy beast" as she and her girls refer to him.
Plot summaries abound here online, but the basic story is an implausible one. Strafing by Japanese airplanes is almost taken lightly in this silly-minded romantic comedy. That an old and hardbitten bachelor would marry on the spur of the moment is also very suspect. That he berates her for being a spinster is a good laugh! If ever a crusty bachelor played a man determined to be left in peace, this is his greatest role!
I liked watching the upright, uptight Leslie Caron slowly melt into a "real woman" (1964!) as she loosens up her standards. She wants to maintain a proper way of life for "her girls" (diplomats' daughters, some speaking only French). They must be neat and clean, and eat regular meals at a table, even if it comes from ration cans.
But how to resist this much older salty dog? OY OY OY!
The tension between the two main characters drives the film primarily; secondarily, the attacks from the Japanese. These latter are downplayed, although they are the reason these nine people have been thrown together at all. A small insert was Leslie's character understanding the Japanese language, and realizing why four soldiers had arrived on their beach on a rubber raft: one main one was the cook, and the four were looking for turtles. This incredible asset in WWII South Pacific was never developed, so it puzzled me that it was included at all, nor was it relayed back to "Briarpatch" (RAN headquarters) that such a person was available for intercepting Japanese radio, etc.
Perhaps this film was patched together from a novel, and certain small items were included, with others deleted, as befits the length of a film.
In the end, why would you like this film? If you like CAry Grant, in his fake-bumbling roles, then you'll LOVE this. If an old-fashioned girl role, whose guard goes down with alcohol, amuses you, then Leslie CAron as the French schoolteacher is the woman for you. If charming girls of mostly Irish/Celtic appearance appeal to you, then here they are! (They were all recruited from families who'd never had any acting experience at all, so they're very natural).
The boating lifestyle, the beachcomber freedom, may appeal to you. The 1960's fashion, attitudes, Technicolor style, and the pre-pill sexual tension may also attract you. Finally, there's the scenery, supposedly the South Pacific, but of course, it's not - it's Jamaica, near Kingston, where "HIgh Wind in Jamaica" was filmed directly afterwards.
I did wonder why the RAN was loading/offloading on docks where all the barebacked male workers, the longshoremen, were African blacks. Could they have used the Jamaican blacks? But then, where in the Pacific would that have been?
I found myself happy and pleased at the end of the story, in spite of some rationalistic reservations (oh, that damnable logical brain!). CAry Grant is charming; Leslie Caron does fine in her role; the kids are great, just plain natural actors, and the story doesn't have to make perfect sense!
Cary Grant stars in one of his funniest roles as a boozy beachcomber sitting out WWII in peace -- until the Allies recruit him to be a lookout on the ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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