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Reviews
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
Good but not the Best
Even in 2009 this movie version of the stage play, BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN Texas, does not always ring true. For all her great talents, Dolly Parton has manipulated yet another script (she did this with STEEL MAGNOLIAS). Look at the overdone and over the top entrances...and that long, boring evening scene by a fire with Burt Reynolds. And these were suppose to be Aggie football players?? And one token black player...and one token black hostess. Come on, integration had not yet occurred in time. The tokenism was so obvious. Fortunately, Whitney Houston came along to really breathe life into "I Will Always Love You." At times exciting, vibrating, exhilarating....thanks in large measure to an over the top "evangelist" and sheriff. Boring and perplexing ending. And as for the goofs, who was watching the shooting script or controlling the editing? I must prefer a rollicking stage version.
South Pacific (2001)
Old Wine in Somewhat New Bottle
The Glenn Close version of SP (2001) is a refreshing version, certainly an improvement on the Mitzi Gaynor one with the strange use of color filters. Lacking here is a strong vocal presentation and the absence of "Happy Talk." And in the updating we have something of a revisionist approach to military history...the presence of African American military on the island (and I thought I saw some in the audience for the "musical within a musical"). President Harry Truman did not issue his executive order for "integrating" the military until summer 1948...and Michener wrote "Tales of the South Pacific" in 1946.
But this version was beautifully filmed and staged, even with the rather skimpy choreography.
South Pacific (1958)
I'm Not in Love With This Movie
I have seen this movie adaptation on the big screen and many times on television, most recently on 9/28/06. I also directed a stage production in Ohio. Regrettably, Joshua Logan was not a superb movie director (this has been evident in other movie versions of stage musicals)...the movie languishes at a tepid pace, the movie is too long, the principals are miscast (and unfortunately most singing voices are dubbed, including Juanita Hall), and the bizarre color filters are a major distraction. Having seen the beaches on Kauai, I fault Logan for not letting that beauty show through. I do not know what possessed Logan and others, after viewing any dailies, to go along with the final product (probably, MONEY). The great humanitarianism of Oscar Hammerstein II still shows through, however, like in "You've Got to Be Taught."