South of Pago Pago (1940) User Reviews

Pearls of the South Seas

[lugonian · 7/10 · 29 January 2018]

SOUTH OF PAGO PAGO (United Artists, 1940), an Edward Small Presentation, directed by Alfred E. Green, is a South Seas adventure tale starring Victor McLaglen, Jon Hall and Frances Farmer in the leads. As much as this movie might have started a trend of other South Seas adventures that were common ground during the 1940s, with many produced in lavish Technicolor, this is not the first of this cycle. In 1937 alone, Jon Hall got his first big break in a leading role opposite sarong girl Dorothy Lamour in THE HURRICANE (Samuel Goldwyn) while Frances Farmer was featured in a Technicolor adventure of EBB TIDE (Paramount), based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. Three years later, their paths would meet for this black and white adventure tale with enough island scenery that might have been more effective had it been produced in Technicolor.

Opening title: "This is a story of days not so long ago, when Singapore spawned a race of steel-fisted, iron-jawed adventurers, who lived happy, fought hard and died hard - as they ravaged unknown seas, lured by the priceless lusture of virgin pearls." Opening in Shanghai, China, at the Tingle Tangle Café, hostess Ruby Taylor (Frances Farmer) meets with Portuguese sailor, Manuel Forro (Abner Biberman) with news about rich pearl beds that can be found off the shores of Manoa. This news reaches Ruby's friends, Captain Bucko Larson (Victor McLaglen) and his first mate, Williams (Douglass Dumbrille), who invite both Ruby and Manuel aboard their steamer, the L.A. Dessa, bound for the island south of Pago Pago. Before reaching Manoa, Manuel, who's upset about being cheated of his promised share, is thrown overboard to the sharks by Bucko. Greeted by the natives, the crew is met by Kehase (Jon Hall), son of the island chief (Pedro De Cordoba). Although loved by Malia (Olympe Branda) since childhood, Kehase takes an immediate interest in Ruby, a beautiful white woman. Also on the island is Mr. Lindsay (Gene Lockhart), a white man who's been living among the natives for nine years, is not please by the presence by these visitors, which may mean trouble for his happy paradise. His instincts are correct. As the native boys dive for pearls, danger lurks for some, leading to certain deaths or injuries. Kehase insists the pearl diving must stop. Not wanting to leave the island with just twelve pearls to their name, Bucko uses Ruby to lure Kehase away, even to a point of marrying him and honeymooning on the island of Tua Tua. With Kehase temporarily out of the way, Bucko and his mates resume their greedy force amongst the native boys, risking their lives diving for more pearls and turning a once happy community into a fearful one. Also seen in the cast are: Francis Ford (Foster); Ben Weldon (Grimes); and Harry Woods (Black Mike Rafferty).

A South Seas tale that plays like a Saturday afternoon matinee is one that has done no harm in Jon Hall's movie career, considering a handful of similar adventures that would follow later on, especially those six over at Universal opposite the exotic Maria Montez. Hall does well as the island leader, but his accented manner of talking fails to come off convincingly. Aside from native drum playing and dancing, shipboard fights pearl diving dangers, the movie also contains off-screen chanting and singing to the title tune of "South of Pago Pago" by Chet Forrest, Bob Wright and Frank Loesser to round out the story. When Frances Farmer makes her first screen entrance in the cafe, her character, clothes and hairstyle strongly resemble that of her Lotta character from her breakthrough film, COME AND GET IT (1936). Once the story shifts towards the island of Manoa, she not only lets her hair down, figuratively, she appears slightly heavier in her physical appearance than before. Olympe Bradna, on loan from Paramount, makes a beautiful island girl. She even participates in a lively island dance with Jon Hall.

Not as well known as other films of this type, SOUTH OF PAGO PAGO did become available on VHS through VCI Home Video around 1998, and later onto DVD, assuring its rediscovery. Though cable television broadcasts are uncertain, it was once popular viewing on the late show or afternoon broadcasts during the 1960s and 1970s before taken out or circulation. Overlooking certain outdoor scenes that appear more indoor studio bound, with ordinary scripting, SOUTH OF PAGO PAGO moves swiftly during its 97 minutes of action and adventure. (*** pearls)

A group of slime-bags invade an island paradise.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 1 December 2020]

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.

Frances Farmer to the rescue!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 6 May 2018]

Presented by Edward Small. Released through United Artists. Copyright 25 July 1940 by Edward Small Productions, Inc. New York release at Radio City Music Hall: 1 August 1940. U.S. release: 19 July 1940. U.K. release: 23 September 1940. Australian release: 28 October 1940. Sydney release at the Plaza: 25 October 1940. 8,776 feet. 97½ minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Bad white mens steal-um natives' pearls.

NOTES: Pago-Pago is pronounced "Pango-Pango". There is no hyphen in the film's actual credit titles. Grant Whytock who is billed as assistant to the producer is the veteran film editor whose career stretches from The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) to The Christine Jorgensen Story (1970). Presumably he acted as supervising film editor.

COMMENT: Although enthusiastically acted and produced on a comparatively expensive budget, South of Pago Pago tends to outstay its welcome. Chief drawback is the conventional script. The plot (with some unintentionally laughable dialogue: "Why don't you stop it? Haven't you killed enough people already?" - "Ha-ha-ha! Now I'm the boss of Manoa!") follows nothing if not a predictable course.

What makes the film worth watching are its performances: Frances Farmer tossing off wiseacre lines like a junior Mae West, Victor McLaglen leading and laughing it up villainously, Douglass Dumbrille flashing his eyes with ominous relish and articulating even his most innocent lines chock-full of menace, Abner Biberman - a thief in the clutch of pirates - lapping through his second-string, dirty-dozen act.

As usual, the villains are best served, though Jon Hall looks and acts appropriately dumb as the innocent native chieftain.

Alas, it all takes too long to reach the foregone action climax in which the villains get their just desserts. Spectacularly staged as it is, some very obvious use of models and miniatures lessens its impact (the camera shooting down on the model canoes from too high an angle is an elementary mistake).

Nonetheless, some exciting falls and stuntwork - though another fault which rather dates all the action spots is the over-use of speeded-up motion.

Mescall's photography is at its richest and most atmospheric in some of the studio scenes - the opening in the vast, smoky, gin-sling waterfront dive, the ship-board climax - despite many obvious camera set-ups against a process screen. Actually, much of the film was lensed on location - here the photography is pretty ordinary - and producer Small has also footed the expense of using a real, fully-rigged sailing ship.

Green's direction has a smidgen more style than usual in his forties' offerings - the compositions are tighter (once or twice even imaginative) and the camera set-ups more varied. Sets and costumes sometimes appeal. The music score (including the title song) has the right South Seas synthetic atmosphere.

Of course, for modern audiences South of Pago Pago has an irresistible secondary appeal; the opportunity to see the legendary Frances Farmer in a role which, if not exactly typical, she certainly plays to the hilt.

Pearls of wisdom don't come from those on the mainland.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 31 May 2017]

Exotic looking adventure of pearl divers in this south seas working for the ruthless Victor McLaglen and the sinister actions of the visiting captain vs. the noble natives. Much of the film focuses on young lovers Jon hall and Olympe Bradne's love being interrupted by the "cloud color skinned" Frances Farmer, a sensual traveler on McLaglen's ship. The peaceful island sees it's first outbursts of violence as the greedy crew under McLaglen turns their world upside down, reminding me of what the native Americans must have thought by the actions of certain Europeans, "Uh oh, there goes the neighborhood!"

About as realistic as a Cecil B. DeMille religious epic when it comes to casting, this has to be viewed outside of standard smarts and taken for the delicious, often campy fluff, it is. Hollywood seemed to view native islanders as happy go lucky, friendly hard workers who welcomed visitors without suspicion, and worked hard enough to keep a fresh supply of fish, tropical fruits and sarong materials so they could spend the bulk of the day making love. Every island spot is another example of paradise and every day brings on a new adventure. Bradne's love for Hall is viewed as a juvenile crush after Farmer arrives, and the island elders all speak in wise clichés that the young take seriously without objection. There's no conflict in their life until the arrival of the evil white man.

Yet, in spite of all that silliness, there's a bit of a "Lost Horizon" inside this world, an analogy of a peaceful world being interrupted by the arrival of a ruthless leader. Taking into account what was going on in Europe at the time, I'm sure that movie audiences immediately got the connection. This is wisdom disguised in a fluffy, simplistic manner, and I can see the audiences taken in by the moral of the story as well as the beauty. Nearly 80 years later, that message remains as potent as ever, reminding us too of threats of the loss of natural resources and the obsession of wealth and power. Pearls of wisdom a-plenty in this timeless tale.

Frances Farmer is the main attraction.

[none-85 · 6/10 · 12 December 1998]

It's a strange movie. Frances Farmer is the main attraction. This is not her ideal role- her patrician blond beauty seems a little out of place here. Although only 27 when she made the movie, she does not look quite as breathtaking as when she made Come and Get It 4 years earlier. Nevertheless, it is one of the few movies one can see Frances in. Jon Hall is an interesting character. I remember him from the 1950s as Ramar of the Jungle. Apparently he never sustained the successes in his early movies.

A flawless, exquisite Polynesian tapestry; should be a model for the genre

[leew-7 · 10/10 · 26 February 1999]

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?

Watch "The Hurricane" Instead

[psych-shawn · 5/10 · 31 October 2014]

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.

A Warmly Remembered Movie by a Former Eight Year Old Boy

[malvernp · 8/10 · 5 May 2020]

Around 80 years ago, I saw this film at our small town's only movie theater. I was eight years old, and a juvenile fan of movies that told simple stories involving high adventure, uncomplicated romance, easy identification of the good guys v. the bad ones and scenes that included underwater thrills. South of Pago Pago was such a film, and I found it to be very appealing and a fun experience to watch.

Recently, I had the opportunity to see it again on YouTube. Apparently, it is hard to find elsewhere. How does it now appear to someone in the twilight of life? It is still enjoyable. The good guys (and gal) are still positive role models and the bad guys are truly repulsive in an unrelenting sort of way. The acting seems natural, and the story of greedy men spoiling a native paradise until meeting their justly deserved fate is spun out in an easily understood way.

Olympe Bradna, who plays Jon Hall's girl friend, continues to remind me of Debra Paget as she has for many years. And Frances Farmer, whose real life involved a truly tragic story, is just as beautiful and stirring as she seemed to me so long ago. The underwater sequences are still exciting. The setting and costumes greatly add to the movie's appeal.

All in all, South of Pago Pago is a film that deserves to be objectively reconsidered by a new audience.

And how about the great movie trivia question that it poses. What do South of Pago Pago and The Jolson Story have in common? Give up? Same director!

White Supremacy run amok.

[st-shot · 3/10 · 8 March 2020]

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.

Adventurers in South Sea Island Paradise

[guidon7 · 8/10 · 2 July 2005]

South of Pago Pago was an attempt to cash in on the success of The Hurricane, and again stars Jon Hall as a native islander. He does an adequate job in the role and certainly had the body of a Greek god. He was the king of the exotic adventure film genre of the 1940's with Turhan Bey running a distant second. When his film career was over, Jon expressed relief that he no longer had to exercise to keep in shape, and he was as good as his word. We also get a rare look at the beautiful and talented Frances Farmer, whose film career was all too short. However, it is not the "good guys" that dominate this film, but the bad ones, and they are bad. Victor McLaglen in a rare role as a villain, Bucko Larson, is a combative brute with no redeeming qualities, killing without qualm. However his leadership ability, his grim determination to acquire wealth and his fearlessness, along with his few crewmen in the face of the overwhelming numbers arrayed against them, gets my grudging admiration. In fact, despite knowing the outcome, I must admit I root for these corsairs rather than for the good guys. The final moments, where their corpses are tied to their ship before it is set adrift in retribution, is a memorable scene. The song, ""South of Pago Pago" is played (and sung) at opening credits and then only a few bars on occasion throughout the film. A pleasant Hawaiian-type song, I think it should have been used more frequently, as "Moon of Manakura" was in The Hurricane. "Manakura" was a smash hit in the 1940's and is still heard on occasion today.

South of Pago Pago was typical of the tropical escapist fare of the early 1940's and yes, we did escape for a time with these films, only to exit the theater onto the street and back into the real world, with all it's problems. Not always the greatest feeling -- that.

Words Fail

[Bill ("A Cat's Full Nine") Drake- ¤ · 10/10 · 5 July 2003]

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.