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St. John Historical Society to Screen 1956 Movie Filmed on St. Thomas

Oct. 23, 2007 — Step back in time in November with a showing of "The Proud and Profane," a movie about a World War II romance shot almost entirely on St. Thomas in 1956.
The showing will be held at at 7 p.m. Nov. 13 at Bethany Moravian Church Hall as part of the St. John Historical Society's monthly meeting kicking off the 2007-2008 season. A short business meeting will precede the movie.
"We tend to get a big turnout when we have motion pictures," said organization President Eleanor Gibney.
The movie stars William Holden and Deborah Kerr with Thelma Ritter, Dewey Martin and William Redfield. St. Thomas stands in for New Caledonia, capital of Noumea, where 80,000 men and a handful of women waited to invade Guadalcanal, then part of French Melanesia.
For the movie, French signs were put up all over St. Thomas.
"There's a great steamy scene at Villa Olga," Gibney said, referring to a landmark in Frenchtown, Charlotte Amalie.
It's easy to recognize Charlotte Amalie because the "bones" of the town are just about unchanged, she said. Almost all the buildings are recognizable. There are some scenes shot outside of Charlotte Amalie, but those locations show how empty the island was more than 50 years ago, Gibney said.
While it's not the most "brilliant" movie ever filmed, it's fun to see since it was filmed in the territory, she said. Gibney learned about the movie while perusing a 1956 travel magazine. In it, she found an article discussing what happened when Hollywood took over the town.
The Historical Society plans to show other made-in-the-Virgin Islands movies.
For more on the Historical Society, visit stjohnhistoricalsociety.org.The website is filled with old photos, documents and much more.
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