I love this movie so much

An Exercise In Nonsense

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I know the title will put you off, as will the fact that Esther Williams dons dark makeup and pretends to be Tahitian and Rita Moreno speaks in broken English, but if you can get past the "island people are primitive" attitude the movie takes, Pagan Love Song is actually pretty good. I've seen a few Esther Williams flicks, and this one is by far my favorite. Probably because hunky Howard Keel spends more of the movie without his shirt than fully clothed.Half-Tahitian Esther Williams -because Hollywood wouldn't approve of a truly interracial romance-falls for visiting American Howard Keel and helps him adjust to island life. Rita Moreno and her boyfriend help out around the house, and an old woman sends her kids to live with Howard so they can grow up around a proper gentleman, and he complains about not being able to take a bath in a tub-oh, the difficulties of living in Tahiti!Howard is given several songs to show off his beautiful singing voice, and while they're simple-during one song, Rita Moreno taps a rhythm on bamboo stalks while Howard sings "The House of Singing Bamboo"-since he's singing them, they aren't bad. If he can sell a song while pedaling a stationary bicycle in front of an obvious blue screen background, he can sell anything. Plus, in glorious Technicolor, his teeth and tan are enough eye candy in themselves; just wait 'til he dons a sarong!The movie was filmed in Hawaii, so the surroundings for most of the scenes are lush and gorgeous. And even though some of the songs are silly, if you're watching an Esther Williams movie, you're not really expecting the songs to be complex. She has a couple of very pretty swimming dance numbers, and Howard even joins her for some of the choreography! There's also an entertaining Hula chorus number that helps transport you to the tropical setting. If you're looking to introduce yourself to Esther Williams, or if you're looking for a light musical with a ridiculously handsome lead, rent Pagan Love Song.

Seeing it with an American friend, who is also a fan of "classic-era" musicals and had an old VHS in not too bad condition, 'Pagan Love Song' is pleasant enough. It does not see the best of Howard Keel or Esther Williams, but they are the film's biggest attractions and don't disappoint.Getting 'Pagan Love Song's' flaws out of the way, the thinness of the story makes paper thicker in comparison and it gets contrived and nonsensical in places, coming to life in the song/dance scenes and floundering often elsewhere. The script does lack wit and does come over as a bit leaden and heavy-handed in delivery.Direction-wise, 'Pagan Love Song' did cry out for a more experienced director (i.e. Stanley Donen), because Robert Alton's direction does come over as indifferent and his inexperience does get in the way out of the storytelling.The songs are certainly pleasant enough, beautifully sung and charmingly choreographed, but don't expect any classics, ones that stand the test of time in timeless fashion or anything unforgettable. "The House of Singing Bamboo" is the standout.As said, the main attractions are Keel and Williams and neither disappoint. Keel is handsome, robust and charming, and his voice (one of the warmest and most beautiful male singing voices on film) is in golden condition. Williams also radiates charm and how she handles the water ballet stuff is mind-blowing. The rest of the cast don't stand out as much but are hardly a liability, look out for a pre-'The King and I' and 'West Side Story' Rita Moreno.Chemistry-wise, Keel and Williams are easy-going and assured. While not exactly irresistible as such, the romantic elements were sweet and fared better than most of the rest of the film's storytelling.Visually, 'Pagan Love Song' is just exquisite. The scenery is the very meaning of exotic and the whole film is gorgeously photographed, especially in regard to the water ballet sequences, which are some of the most visually beautiful scenes in any film featuring Williams and her water ballet, and the fantasy sequence.Overall, don't expect much from the story and script but fans of Keel and Williams will be delighted, even if the film is seen just for them. 6/10 Bethany Cox

So-so musical with Howard Keel as an American coming to Tahiti to run a plantation he inherited. There he meets and immediately falls for a biracial Tahitian, played by Esther Williams. About as flimsy as they come, how much this entertains you will depend on how big a fan you are of the two stars. Keel sings a few decent songs and Esther has some nice swimming scenes. Both are great in their areas of expertise but their chemistry is nonexistent, so the romance aspect of the story falls flat. This was a troubled production that included a broken arm for Keel and a near-drowning incident for Esther. It also went way over budget and Esther found out she was pregnant during filming. The parts of the movie that were shot on location were shot in Hawaii, not Tahiti. The attractive scenery is certainly a plus, as is the short runtime. It's ultimately nothing special but if you enjoy handsome Keel's voice or beautiful Esther's swimming, you'll want to see it at least once. But be forewarned all that fake laughter gets old after awhile.

Pleasant and generally interesting escapist fare. Howard Keel's bachelor character(Hap) decides to ditch his Ohio teaching job when presented with the fantasy opportunity of making a living in Tahiti, exporting coconut products. He envisions a laid back life in a tropical paradise, with native maidens swooning over him, which is what we get in this film. Esther is the 'pagan' maiden he most connects with. She is supposed to be half American. Although she looks like an over-tanned Caucasian, she seems to have absorbed more of the Tahitian half of her cultural heritage. But, now she is bored with her uncomplicated life and is looking for an opportunity to move to the USA. Hap just may be her ticket to this dream, after he too gets bored with the slow pace of Tahitian life.Although Esther is given top billing , this clearly is mainly Howard's film. I love listening to his rich baritone singing voice, and he does not disappoint here, in his second MGM musical. The frequent inclusion of natives(both real and stand ins) in the scenes between the romantic twosomes is a definite plus, along with the gorgeous Hawaiian scenery, as a stand in for Tahiti. In contrast to the pronouncements of some others that the songs are pedestrian, I found them quite adequate for the situations, no doubt aided by Keel's renditions. True, the total score doesn't compare with Keel's previous musical "Anne Get your Gun", nor his subsequent musical "Showboat", but it certainly tops the truly 'pedestrian' songs given him in his second paring with Esther, in "Texas Carnival". Most are love songs or expressions of the joy of their lives, but "Etiquette" is a fun novelty song that gets Howard interacting with his adopted native children. The plot is quite hokey, but who cares. This is a trip to paradise, as most of us imagine it, at least for a while. Yes, "South Pacific" was then the rage on stage, but the film version was far in the future. Thus, this film presumably helped fill the gap between, and was a modest box office success. Plus, this story is much less complicated,if that is what you like. Too bad Howard didn't get to star in that later film, as well.Of course, there is some hip-swinging dancing, by both sexes, mostly during a festival, and mostly somewhere between the languid Hawaiian style and the frenetic traditional Tahitian style, as seen in "The Bounty", for example. Perhaps more impressive is Freddie Letuli's knife-juggling and twirling act. Although billed as the fire knife dancer, no flames were included here. A native Samoan, Freddie organized shows of Polynesian dancing, along with his act. Although not specified, the main dance scenes may have included his dancers. A few years before, he got the idea of adding flames to the ends of a twirling baton(not knife), and created a sensation.A young Rita Moreno provides a much more authentic-appearing Tahitian(although actually of Puerto Rican heritage)than Esther. If I were Hap, I would have set my sights on her. Rita usually played subsidiary ethnic women, and still performs today, 65 years later! Her roles in "The King and I" and "West Side Story" are perhaps the best remembered. Unfortunately, her one song in this film was cut.MGM signed Howard as their answer to Warner Brother's Gordon MacRae. In fact, Howard had already done, on stage, Gordon's later two most famous film roles, in "Carousel" and "Oklahoma", before scoring a big success in his first MGM musical "Anne Get your Gun", released earlier in '50. The present film was obviously a lower budget offering, without clear cut hit songs intended. Of course, he would go on to star in a string of popular musicals, with various top bona fide singing actresses as his leading lady. These include: "Showboat", "Calamity Jane"(my favorite), Kiss Me Kate" and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"(his favorite). He would again costar with Esther the following year in the musical comedy "Texas Carnival", but they had to share the spotlight with Red Skelton, Anne Miller , and Keenan Wynn. Their final film as the costars was, the quite different, "Jupiter's Delight".This film is essentially a color remake of the very early talky(1929) "The Pagan", with a rather similar screen play, and which was actually largely filmed in Tahiti. The title and theme song of the present film are derived from the theme song for that film, composed by the productive team of Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, who also came out with the famous "Singing in the Rain" that year. However, "The Pagan", was not otherwise a musical, whereas the present film is a light musical. The other tunes were newly composed by veteran tunesmith Harry Warren, with Arthur Freed again doing the lyrics. Warren composed most of the songs for a number of MGM musicals in the late '40s and early '50s, after having done the same at Fox studios during their string of musical hits during the early '40s.Incidentally, the word 'pagan' here obvious connotes an exotic primitive culture and mindset, rather than a strict religious meaning. In fact, it is derived from the Latin 'paganus', meaning rustic or primitive people. Christianity first took hold mostly in the larger cities of the late Roman Empire. Thus, the generally more recalcitrant empire paganus population was,for a time, symbolic of the old non-Christian beliefs and practices.Currently available as part of the expensive Esther Williams Collection 2 DVD set