MovieChat Forums > South Pacific (1958) Discussion > Susan Hayward or Marilyn Monroe

Susan Hayward or Marilyn Monroe


Ms. Hayward a big movie star and a 20th Century Fox star wanted to play Nellie Forbush but refused to "test" for the part saying she was a proven actress and box office star. I wonder what Susan would have done for the role. Surely more erotic and sexier than the lovely Mitzi Gaynor. Imagine the eroticism of Susan singing Wash That Man Out Of My Hair. Wow.

Marilyn Monroe was 20th's biggest star and had been directed by Logan in Bus Stop where MM was brilliant as Cherry. I wonder why MM was not considered for South Pacific?

reply

she can't sing the difficult Forbush songs of the score; she's all wrong for the role; and R&H would NOT have approved her. They had casting veto rights.

reply

Here we go again with Anderson Whitbeck's hopeless cause to have his long forgotten star headline South Pacific. Hayward was too old. The movie grossed $36 million. Hayward who?

The OP's been posting this again and again. Let's just visit the Hayward board; he's the only idiot posting there.

reply

You can't honestly say Marilyn was limited by her singing ability. Everyone who knows, knows she had quite a bit of singing ability.



" Cristal, Beluga, Wolfgang Puck... It's a f#@k house."

reply

South Pacific was not a Fox production. It was a Rodgers and Hammerstein production that was distributed by Fox. The only actress, in my book, that was right for this role was Doris Day. Possibly Jane Powell. Nellie is an unsophisticated, "take me as I am", girl next door kind of person. Gaynor had an air of sophistication that made her not quite right. Hayward and Monroe were far too glamorous to play the homespun Nellie.

reply