PAGAN LOVE SONG
US, 1950, 76 minutes, Colour.
Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Rita Moreno, Minna Gombell.
Directed by Robert Alton.
Pagan Love Song is one of several concocted froth musical comedies for Esther Williams in the late '40s and early '50s - enjoyable as any other. However, she has a chance to swim in spectacular style only twice. Howard Keel, at the beginning of his career, is quite an engaging hero. A very young Rita Moreno is in the supporting cast. The film has overtones of South Pacific paradises with the presentation of Tahiti and its fulfilment of the American dream. However, there are some bright songs by Arthur Freed, the producer, and Herb Nacio Brown. The film seems very contrived by the standards of later decades ? and throws light on the expectations of popular entertainment of the '40s and '50s, somewhat similar to the TV specials of later times.
1. The standard of M.G.M. musicals in the '40s and '50s - glossy production, frothy styles, technical expertise? The appeal to the widest popular audience of the times? Impact in later times?
2. The tradition of American musical comedy? The blend of fantasy and reality? The ingredients of the love story, the struggle and clash, the subplots, the comic touches - American sentiment?
3. The popular of the Esther Williams swimming musical comedy? The incorporation of water ballet sequences into this film?
4. The contribution of the songs? Arthur Freed as producer, composer? Howard Keel at the beginning of his career? The incorporation of the songs into the plot? The Pagan Love Song, The House of Singing Bamboo, the songs with the children, Hap and his riding the bicycle etc.?
5. The presentation of Tahiti as the Pacific paradise, the easy way of life, slow moving society? Multiracial? Mind with the American background and Tahitian? The brother and sister and their attitudes towards life? The children, the customs? Swimming, dancing, feast, coconut-gathering, copra work? The comic touches of Tahitian life - especially the breaking of the bath so often?
6. Hap as the 'typical American'? His arrival, patronising the Tahitians, the discovery of his inheritance, his wanting to laze in the South Seas, his accepting the children, attracted’ towards Mind, the embarrassment of the party and his wearing the wrong clothes, his work, anger with the seeming failure of the crop? His devotion to the children? His being tricked towards reconciliation with Mimi? Mimi and her role on the island, the dream of leaving, her relationship with Tahitian society and the old western world style in garden parties etc.? Her swimming, the lyrical outdoor sequences with Hap? With the children?
7. The building up of the romance, Mimi's initial deception, the clash over the copra crop? The brother and sister reconciling Mind and Hap?
8. The contrived style of these musical comedies, their catering to popular tastes of the time the perennial enjoyment value and values presented? The American tradition?
