IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Ploydsge just watch it!

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

bkoganbing You can't make a bad looking movie in Hawaii and the scenic Hawaiian locations are the main thing that Pearl Of The South Pacific has going for it. Otherwise this is a rather desultory, but somewhat campy drama about two adventurers and a bad girl in the South Pacific looking to grab off a cache of black pearls on a beautiful tropical island in the South Pacific.Said island is run by Basil Ruysdael who cornered the missionary trade years ago and now he's worshiped as a white god. At his command the natives are ready to turn the white guys schooner away. But then Virginia Mayo appears on deck and she announces she's a missionary. Since the natives have never seen a blonde before they have to let them land. Soon afterward Mayo discards her 19th century garb, corsets and all, and borrows one of Dorothy Lamour's sarongs from Paramount. New kind of hip missionary. The chief Murvyn Vye's son Lance Fuller is most taken with Mayo.The only other thing is that Mayo's partners Dennis Morgan and David Farrar fall out as well.This could have been a great satire on all those South Seas adventure films if the producer Benedict Bogeaus and director Allan Dwan had recognized it. Still on that level it's enjoyable.

Leofwine_draca PEARL OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC is your usual Pacific island adventure yarn from the mid-1950s. It was directed by stalwart Canadian Allan Dwan, who had previously made SANDS OF IWO JIMA so had some idea about making films set in that part of the world. Indeed, Dwan's brisk and efficient direction is the best thing about this otherwise undistinguished movie.The plot sees a trio of Americans masquerading as missionaries when in reality they're fortune-seekers looking for a hidden treasure of black pearls. First and foremost of these is blonde starlet Virginia Mayo, who the cameraman seems to be in love with; most of the focus is on her and her alone as she wears a succession of skimpy outfits and appears to be little more than a clothes horse at times. Mayo more than holds her own amid a largely undistinguished cast.There's a little plot and a little intrigue with the locals although hardly anything in the way of real action. The usual dodgy ethics of the era abound, particularly in the depiction of backwards islanders who are Americans browned up with liberal fake sun tan. At least the Hawaiian locations give this an authentic look. The best part of the film is the inclusion of a real giant squid that also showed up in Ed Wood's BRIDE OF THE MONSTER.

Spikeopath 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

Chris Gaskin 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.