Villa's Cinerama Film Has Adventure

Deseret News, 9 January 1964, page B5

By THE MOVIEGOER

Natives of the South Pacific, unusual customs, novel costumes, unique animals and rare land formations are among features of "Cinerama - South Seas Adventure" which opens tonight at the Villa.

Although many of the scenes are of a life that has been untouched by passing of the centuries, others are as modern as today.

After tracing the voyages of early explorers to Hawaii, Tahiti, Tonga, the Fijis, New Hebrides, New Zealand and Australia, the Cinerama crew makes its own tour - a three-month trip in a two-masted sailing schooner called Te Vega.

With Orson Welles as chief narrator and to the accompaniment of an original musical score by Alex North, the film adventure moves across the Pacific.

The journey is accomplished through a series of stories, each complementing the other. However, the journey itself is the paramount feature. In Hawaii, audiences see a live volcano, ride a surf-board, walk through the pineapple plantations and see a fashion show. In Tahiti, they see a beauty from Bora-Bora.

In Tahiti, too, they take part in the celebration of Bastille Day, the French holiday of independence. They also hear the experiences of Jean-Louis, who searched for the romantic Tahiti of Gauguin and Conrad and Loti.

Tahiti, too, has special interest to Mountain West audiences. The program for "Cinerama - South Seas Adventure" says: "Jean-Louis traveled around the island frequently with a band of 50 Mormons, which had its own bus accommodating everyone, including pets and barnyard creatures . . . . The Mormons had a 'Himeny' House (Tabernacle) for their singing. They owned no musical instruments, but the universally present guitars and ukuleles. For their singing an organ was a necessity. So they made an organ out of human voices."

Tonga, Fiji and other islands turn up on the itinerary, and then Australia, and finally New Zealand, where entertainers include the same types of Maori dancers who performed for sold-out audiences in California, Utah and Idaho this winter.

The film will be shown on a reserved-seat basis on a limited engagement.