Barbara Eden as Nellie Forbush?

Nope - the guys were just fine, so was Mitzi - but I think Barbara could have done a fantastic job with this. My second pick would've been Florence Henderson.

You've been watching WAY too much Dream of Jeannie. Besides, I'm not sure Ms. Eden knows how to sing.

I just watched the DVD on my new computer after having tried to stream it on the old one ( many times unsuccessfully).
I often wondered about this movie. I love it to be sure. But I'm viewing it 40 and 50 years after it first appeared on the horizon so I don't have the post-war viewpoint at all. I saw it as a kid but I was too young I think to understand its subtext.
I've often felt that there was a dissonance in Gaynor's performance. Although she brought all the right credentials to the part; the ability to sing and dance and most important the insouciance.
Perhaps it was in their minds back then to bring a golden mid-west girl to the forefront so that it would clash with the South Pacific diorama. But I doubt anyone at that time had the foresight. Maybe they did. Asian versus Golden American.
There were probably quite a few actresses at the time who had the credentials and with the right coaching and direction could have got it. MG always left me a bit cold.
In addition; it is amazing how a movie devoid of actual sex scenes can have such an incredible current of raw sexuality running through it. Goes to show how less can be powerfully more.
Having said all that I'm gonna watch the Glen Close version (the concept blows my mind) because someone said somewhere else on this board that she did a credible job.


I intend to live forever. So far so good.

Interesting idea. It got me thinking of some other female TV stars of the '60's who could have played that role. And after watching Tina Louise in the film "God's Little Acre" shot in the same year as South Pacific, I think Ginger was beautiful enough--and a tall red-head to boot!--to do the role justice. And we all remember how she sang on Gilligan's Island like Marilyn Monroe (You need me....you need me!) which would have put some real life into the songs. Oh, what could have been!

Hell yeah, Doris Day should have played the role! And they'd planned to cast her, but apparently the producers asked her to sing some of the songs at a party and she refused because she wasn't warmed up or prepared, and the producers settled for the bland Mitzy Gaynor instead.

Doris would have been damn perfect, because she was not only the cheerfully attractive all-American blonde singing girl... but she had a down-to-earth tough streak that Gaynor totally lacked. You can imagine Doris Day packing a wound or emptying a urinal, but not Gaynor.

Why they were miscast!