Trivia: During production, a typhoon struck the island where this movie was being filmed. Afterward, palm trees that had been knocked down by the storm had to be put back together by the film crew.
Trivia: At the beginning of the movie, the Catalina pilot Buzz Adams, is none other than Tom Laughlin, better known as "Billy Jack".
Trivia: The song "My Girl Back Home" was cut from the stage version of "South Pacific" just after it opened, but reinstated in the movie. Another outtake from the stage musical, "The Loneliness of Evening," was used (orchestral only) in the movie as background music for the scene in which Nellie reads the letter from Emile (the text of which is a portion of the lyrics of the song). Rodgers and Hammerstein later reused the song in "Cinderella."
Trivia: A soft shoe shuffle, performed at the Thanksgiving show, by Nellie (Mitzi Gaynor) called "Suddenly Lucky", was deleted from the original show, due to running time. The song was rewritten and reused in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I" as "Getting To Know You".
Answer: Richard Rogers preferred the vocal performance of Muriel Smith who played the part in London. Since the vocal tracks for musicals was recorded separately from the filming back then, dubbing occurred for many reasons other than lack of singing ability of an actor, scheduling problems, budget, etc.
Myridon