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In 1943 Nellie Forbush, a young American Navy nurse stationed on a South Pacific island, falls in love with Emile de Becque, a rich French planter. Lt. Joseph Cable arrives on the island with orders to find de Becque, whom he hopes to persuade to be his guide on a reconnaissance of the Japanese-held islands in the area. On the strange island of Bali Ha'i, Cable meets and falls in love with Liat - the beautiful half-caste daughter of Bloody Mary, a rumbustious native trading woman; but, because of her colour, he refuses to marry her. Then Nellie learns that de Becque has two Eurasian children by a previous marriage to a Polynesian woman. Deeply shocked, she breaks off her engagement with him, and, in the mood of dejection that follows, he agrees to guide Cable through the islands. Together the two men are able to radio back to the Americans vital information about Japanese troop movements. When Nellie hears that de Becque has gone with Cable she realises how foolish her prejudices were. Cable is killed by the Japanese, but de Becque manages to escape back to the American island. At his hill-top home he finds Nellie, and his two children, waiting for him.

At the Dominion South Pacific is preceded by a Todd-AO demonstration film. Unlike Cinerama, Todd-AO needs only a single projector to throw its huge picture on to the screen. The process entails a 65 mm-wide film (the print at the Dominion is 70 mm.) in a camera equipped with four interchangeable lenses, each of a different visual angle - 270, 48°, 64°, and 128°. Todd-AO is shown on a 50 feet wide screen, 25 feet deep, curved to a depth of 12 feet, producing a startlingly clear picture, free from grain but inclined to lose definition at its extreme right-hand edge. The main impression is of towering size and lush pictorial value. The demonstration consists of three subjective-camera sequences - the inevitable switchback ride, a winter sports meeting, and a car ride down a steeply curved roadway. Well worth looking at, and containing genuine impact, these views are superbly photographed and a real sensation of physical involvement is achieved, especially in the hectic roller-coaster ride.

South Pacific, however, soon dissipates the promise of the demonstration material. After ten minutes it becomes all too plain that the system is too cumbersome for anything other than super-novelty effect. As an aid to narrative Todd-AO remains far too big for comfort. As an attraction, though, it must be readily granted that South Pacific is the biggest of the cinema's blockbusters in the battle against television. A mammoth of a film, packed with colourful entertainment values, it is also, alas, a crashing bore. Joshua Logan's direction is portentous, lacking in surprise and vitality; and his attempts to create mood and atmosphere by the use of colour are banal. During key scenes the screen is bathed in deep tints - yellow, red, gold - to produce a weird, magic-lantern effect; one scene gives the principals charcoal complexions and cement-coloured lips. This method also results in nerve-racking moments when the colour tries to return to normal - which it does in a series of violent jerks. The chief pleasure to be had from the film is, of course, the music - a superior Rodgers and Hammerstein score. The sound is first-class, with particularly good balance between chorus and orchestra in the playing over the credit titles; with five loudspeakers along the top of the screen, and twenty-seven more scattered around the auditorium, it remains the best sound system yet heard in the cinema. In general the acting is routine and lack-lustre. Mitzi Gaynor has a brave but unsuccessful try at the skittish Nellie Forbush. Rossano Brazzi borders on a caricature of mannered romantic charm. The best performance is given by Ray Walston, whose vigorous playing of the conniving Luther Billis is highly enjoyable.

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