APR. 2, 1965
'South Pacific' Promises Music, Comedy, Romance
The action takes place on two South Pacific islands during a lull in the war with Japan. The characters are marines, seabees, nurses, sailors, and islanders.
Two romantic themes form the plot. Most important is the love affair between Nellie Forbush, a charming and high-spirited young nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas, and the gallant, middleaged French planter, Emile de Becque. The secondary romance is that of a likeable American marine, Lt. Joseph Cable, and Liat, the lovely Tonkinese girl.
Surrounding them are such colorful characters as Bloody Mary, Liat's shrewd and avaricious mother, and Luther Billis, a knowing and earthy seabee who plays a wonderfully comic role in the amateur entertainment provided by the temporary residents of the island.
Nellie's love for the planter cools on learning that de Becque had married a Polynesian woman on first coming to the island. He now has their two children in his care. His wife had been dead several years.
Seeing that Nellie is avoiding him and knowing the reason, de Becque volunteers to go on a dangerous spy mission with Lt. Cable. Cable is killed on this mission but de Becque returns.
Nellie has meanwhile grown deeply fond of de Becque's young native children, and, more important, now fully realizes the planter's sincerity. Their romance reaches a happy conclusion.
The tragic subplot is the story of the touching romance between Cable and Liat. Although the girl is exquisite and although they love each other, Cable fears that their racial differences would work against a happy marriage.