South of Pago Pago ** (1940, Victor McLaglen, Jon Hall, Frances Farmer) – Classic Movie Review 7239

Film poster for South of Pago Pago.

‘Greed and lust threaten a tropical paradise.’ Director Alfred E Green’s desperately daft and dated 1940 romantic adventure South of Pago Pago stars Victor McLaglen as Bucko Larson, who leads his band of ruthless pirates to sail to a South Seas Pacific island in the 1880s to steal pearls belonging to the natives led by chief Kehane (Jon Hall). Larson sets up Kehane with lovely saloon girl Ruby Taylor (Frances Farmer) to distract him.

Alas, McLaglen, Hall and Farmer are all at sea trying to work with George Bruce and Kenneth Gamet’s flimsy, unconvincing script. McLaglen’s performance is too broad and the Hall-Farmer romance is strictly for the birds.

Filming in colour would certainly have helped, though John Mescall’s cinematography is still the best thing in the movie. It was a hit in its day, though, thanks to the escapist fantasy settings and attention-grabbing bursts of robust action, especially the climactic attack on the pirates’ ship. Still, it has camp and escapist value as a lusty relic of the Forties.

Jon Hall was a big deal and was attached to star from the beginning, though the film was in pre-production for a number of years, and production was temporarily postponed because of World War Two. Poor Frances Farmer was not such a big deal and was brought in to replace originally cast Sigrid Gurie, has a feeble role and hardly appears on the poster.

South of Pago Pago runs 98 minutes, cost $800,000, and is made by Edward Small Productions and released by United Artists. Alfred Green replaced original director Tay Garnett.

Also in the cast are Olympe Bradna as Malia, Gene Lockhart as Lindsay, Douglass Dumbrille as Williams, Francis Ford as Peg Legged Foster, Bert Welden as Grimes, Abner Biberman as Ferro, Pedro de Cordoba as Chief, Rudy Robles as Luna, Bobby Stone as Hono, Nellie Duran as Laulau, James Flavin as café customer, Nina Campana as Hono’s Mother, James B Leong as waiter, Harry Woods as Black Mike Rafferty, Satini Pualoa as Native Diver, Ray Mala as Native Diver, Robert Willey as Native Diver, Julie Carter as Native Girl, Lola Vanti as Native Girl and Al Kikume as High Priest.

Most of its location work was shot near Long Beach, Los Angeles, but second unit footage was filmed in American Samoa, with four weeks’ worth of shooting in Hawaii.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7239

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