South Pacific follows what has by now become the pattern for the screen versions of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals: the original is treated as though it were in some way sacred.

The stage version of South Pacific won the Pulitzer Prize, but no comparable honors were forthcoming for this so-so screen adaptation of one of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most enduring works.

South Pacific is too sophisticated to have the broad general suitability of The King and I. For its more limited audience, however, it is a practically perfect screen version of a contemporary musical comedy classic.

With the large, curved screen and speakers all around the house, the audience is wrapped up and transported to a Pacific isle with a woman-hungry pack of Seabees for a ringside seat at two of the most intriguing love tales in contemporary literature.