Touches You

Excellent but underrated film

A different way of telling a story

Blistering performances.

One of the most important Rules of Life is said to be "Never play cards with a man named Doc", and there should perhaps be another one reading "Never go into partnership with a man whose nickname is Bully". Dan Merrill and Bully Hague are adventurers who go into partnership in the pearl fishing business. Their plan is to exploit the waters around an unnamed South Sea island which are believed to be a particularly rich source of valuable black pearls. Although the film has a contemporary setting in the 1950s the island is a curiously old-fashioned place. It has never been colonised by any Western power and is virtually unknown to outsiders. Moreover, the islanders know equally little about the outside world. The only white men on the island are an old man named Michael and his son George. Michael has managed to get himself elected High Priest of the islanders' religion and the unofficial king of the island, largely because he has taught them a few useful things such as how to fish with nets instead of spears. For the most part, however, Michael's main aim is to preserve his subjects from the pernicious influence of the outside world which he sees as a place of evil and corruption. He does not welcome the arrival of Dan and Bully and their crew, but is wise enough not to try and drive them away by force. The plot also includes a love-triangle involving Bully, Dan and an attractive blonde named Rita, who is not only Bully's current girlfriend but also Dan's ex. In the course of their voyage, however, Rita decides that she really prefers Dan after all, much to Bully's fury. The triangle develops into a love-pentagon when George also falls for Rita, even though he already has a beautiful Polynesian fiancée. A further development involves Dan and Bully trying to smuggle Rita onto the island disguised as a missionary; exactly why they think this will assist their schemes is never made clear. Nor is it explained why they believe it is incumbent upon female missionaries to dress in Edwardian costume; the clothes worn by the supposed "missionary" Rita were several decades out-of-date even by the standards of 1955. "Pearl of the South Pacific" is in some ways a typical action/adventure film of its era, only not a very good one. The story of the search for the pearls never generates much excitement, and those scenes involving the giant octopus, supposedly the main source of danger to the characters, are feeble in the extreme. None of the acting rises above the barely adequate, and in some cases falls well below that level. In other ways, however, there is something offensive, even borderline racist, about the storyline, with its stereotyped portrayal of South Sea islands as untouched, unspoilt societies inhabited by simple, unsophisticated people who need the wise guidance of a white guru to keep themselves simple and unsophisticated (for which read ignorant). This is the sort of film they don't make any more. For which we can all be thankful. 4/10 A goof. The islanders refer to Michael as "Tuan", which is a Malay or Indonesian honorific equivalent to the English "sir". Polynesian islanders do not speak Malay or Indonesian, to which their own languages are only distantly related.

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

Is there anyone else out there fascinated by the octopus ? Strange creatures they are , almost like something out of a sci-fi comic book with their giant heads and their tentacles grabbing anything that looks good enough to eat . Did you know the female octopus dies after laying her eggs , her contribution to the species has passed at this point . Fascinating . So when I heard the climax of PEARL OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC involved a giant octopus I eagerly sat down to watch this movie . Big mistake because sitting through this is an ordeal . It's poorly acted with a cast who look like they're going to burst into song at any minute , pitifully written with atrocious dialogue ( " I feel like I just swallowed an octopus " Gee don't get too ironic ) in a movie that can best be described as HEART OF DARKNESS lite . If I have anything good about this film it's that the battle with the giant octopus is very well done , much better than say the giant squid from REAP THE WILD WIND and that the battle takes place about two thirds of the way through which means you've already seen the best bit and can turn off without having to endure another 30 minutes of crap