Presented by Edward Small. Released through United Artists. Copyright 25 July 1940 by Edward Small Productions, Inc. New York release at Radio City Music Hall: 1 August 1940. U.S. release: 19 July 1940. U.K. release: 23 September 1940. Australian release: 28 October 1940. Sydney release at the Plaza: 25 October 1940. 8,776 feet. 97½ minutes.SYNOPSIS: Bad white mens steal-um natives' pearls.NOTES: Pago-Pago is pronounced "Pango-Pango". There is no hyphen in the film's actual credit titles. Grant Whytock who is billed as assistant to the producer is the veteran film editor whose career stretches from The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) to The Christine Jorgensen Story (1970). Presumably he acted as supervising film editor.COMMENT: Although enthusiastically acted and produced on a comparatively expensive budget, South of Pago Pago tends to outstay its welcome. Chief drawback is the conventional script. The plot (with some unintentionally laughable dialogue: "Why don't you stop it? Haven't you killed enough people already?" - "Ha-ha-ha! Now I'm the boss of Manoa!") follows nothing if not a predictable course.What makes the film worth watching are its performances: Frances Farmer tossing off wiseacre lines like a junior Mae West, Victor McLaglen leading and laughing it up villainously, Douglass Dumbrille flashing his eyes with ominous relish and articulating even his most innocent lines chock-full of menace, Abner Biberman - a thief in the clutch of pirates - lapping through his second-string, dirty-dozen act. As usual, the villains are best served, though Jon Hall looks and acts appropriately dumb as the innocent native chieftain.Alas, it all takes too long to reach the foregone action climax in which the villains get their just desserts. Spectacularly staged as it is, some very obvious use of models and miniatures lessens its impact (the camera shooting down on the model canoes from too high an angle is an elementary mistake). Nonetheless, some exciting falls and stuntwork - though another fault which rather dates all the action spots is the over-use of speeded-up motion.Mescall's photography is at its richest and most atmospheric in some of the studio scenes - the opening in the vast, smoky, gin-sling waterfront dive, the ship-board climax - despite many obvious camera set-ups against a process screen. Actually, much of the film was lensed on location - here the photography is pretty ordinary - and producer Small has also footed the expense of using a real, fully-rigged sailing ship.Green's direction has a smidgen more style than usual in his forties' offerings - the compositions are tighter (once or twice even imaginative) and the camera set-ups more varied. Sets and costumes sometimes appeal. The music score (including the title song) has the right South Seas synthetic atmosphere.Of course, for modern audiences South of Pago Pago has an irresistible secondary appeal; the opportunity to see the legendary Frances Farmer in a role which, if not exactly typical, she certainly plays to the hilt.

South of Pago Pago was an attempt to cash in on the success of The Hurricane, and again stars Jon Hall as a native islander. He does an adequate job in the role and certainly had the body of a Greek god. He was the king of the exotic adventure film genre of the 1940's with Turhan Bey running a distant second. When his film career was over, Jon expressed relief that he no longer had to exercise to keep in shape, and he was as good as his word. We also get a rare look at the beautiful and talented Frances Farmer, whose film career was all too short. However, it is not the "good guys" that dominate this film, but the bad ones, and they are bad. Victor McLaglen in a rare role as a villain, Bucko Larson, is a combative brute with no redeeming qualities, killing without qualm. However his leadership ability, his grim determination to acquire wealth and his fearlessness, along with his few crewmen in the face of the overwhelming numbers arrayed against them, gets my grudging admiration. In fact, despite knowing the outcome, I must admit I root for these corsairs rather than for the good guys. The final moments, where their corpses are tied to their ship before it is set adrift in retribution, is a memorable scene. The song, ""South of Pago Pago" is played (and sung) at opening credits and then only a few bars on occasion throughout the film. A pleasant Hawaiian-type song, I think it should have been used more frequently, as "Moon of Manakura" was in The Hurricane. "Manakura" was a smash hit in the 1940's and is still heard on occasion today.South of Pago Pago was typical of the tropical escapist fare of the early 1940's and yes, we did escape for a time with these films, only to exit the theater onto the street and back into the real world, with all it's problems. Not always the greatest feeling -- that.

I can't express how fortiesishly luscious this is on every level. Any fan of that era who hasn't seen it 'ain't there yet.' Frances Farmer ! How could you describe her? [a curiously unblemished saloon girl in this one, but what the heck?] John Hall ! Victor McLaglen ! These people - who they were in the time in which they lived and worked - bigger & more beautiful than life - a part of that never-never fantasy world - that was so much illusion - once lived and so gone forever - of the forties.

It's a strange movie. Frances Farmer is the main attraction. This is not her ideal role- her patrician blond beauty seems a little out of place here. Although only 27 when she made the movie, she does not look quite as breathtaking as when she made Come and Get It 4 years earlier. Nevertheless, it is one of the few movies one can see Frances in. Jon Hall is an interesting character. I remember him from the 1950s as Ramar of the Jungle. Apparently he never sustained the successes in his early movies.