South Sea Woman
South Sea Woman
| 27 June 1953 (USA)
South Sea Woman Trailers

Marine Sergeant James O'Hearn is being tried at the San Diego Marine base for desertion, theft, scandalous conduct and destruction of property in time of war. He refuses to testify or plead guilty or not guilty to the charges. Showgirl Ginger Martin takes the stand against his protest. She testifies O'Hearn won't talk because he is protecting the name of his pal, Marine Private Davey White. Ginger tells how she, broke and stranded, met the two marines in Shanghai two weeks before Pearl Harbor.

Reviews
Hellen

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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Softwing

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

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WillSushyMedia

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

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Asad Almond

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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MartinHafer

This is a definite turn off your brain film. If you can, you'll have a nice time--if you can't, then your eyes will roll--especially at the end.The film begins with a court martial. For some reason, Burt Lancaster's character is being tried for desertion and several other charges. At first he refuses to testify--and so those who admired and knew him came to his defense. What follows is a story about how Lancaster and his fellow Marine friend (Chuck Conners) got separated from their unit and had a rousing adventure--culminating with a battle between Lancaster and 10 of his friends and an entire Japanese invasion--of Guadalcanal even!! The story is fun and the interplay between Lancaster and Virginia Mayo was nice. Unfortunately, the film ends with one cliché after another and one of the most ridiculous battle scenes ever. In fact, I might consider it THE most ridiculous battle scene! My wife sat there--fuming at the stupidity of the last 10 minutes of the movie (and she was right) and my mother-in-law liked it--saying it was enjoyable nonetheless and had a nice happy ending. I think my opinion is a little of both (plus, I don't want to side with either one!).

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zardoz-13

The Marines have landed! "Rhubarb" director Arthur Lubin's wartime comic escapade "South Sea Woman" with Burt Lancaster and Chuck Connors unfolds ostensibly as a military court-martial melodrama interspersed with flashbacks as two agile Jarheads vye for the affections of beautiful Virginia Mayo. This 1953, black & white, 99-minute, Warner Brothers' theatrical release teems with action galore in those flashback sequences as our heroes tangle with the Japanese Navy during the Guadalcanal campaign in the South Pacific. Lubin doesn't waste a second of those 99-minutes and "Stalag 17" scenarist Edwin Blum doesn't like the exposition get in the way of the action in Earl Baldwin and Stanley Shapiro's adaptation of William Rankin's stage play. Actually, it appears as if this patriotic World War II actioneer was lensed by three-time Oscar nominee Ted McCord of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" fame.

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howardmorley

I found my way to this film after seeing Veola Vonn playing "Arlette" a voluptuous painter's model in "Le Fantome de la rue Morgue" (1954) which is loosely based on an Edgar Allan Poe novel.On looking at Veola's film career she seemed to specialise in acting roles playing French ladies of easy virtue and the subject film is typical when she plays Lillie Duval a madame of a brothel on a remote French island.Although she was born in NYK.(1918-1995), I wondered whether she had French parents/relatives or connections to give substance to these roles.Virginia Mayo first came to my attention in "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) playing the initially good-time wife of Dana Andrews a returning bombardier officer from the U.S.A.F. being demobbed at the end of WWII.In this film Virginia as "Ginger Martin" shows off her very feminine figure to its best advantage and soon gets Chuck (The Rifleman) Connors (Pvt.Davey White) & Burt Lancaster (Sgt. O'Hearn) squabbling over her and how best to get back into WWII on the side of Uncle Sam.For Burt it must have made a change doing this knockabout comedy after filming the heavy dramatic acting required playing another sergeant in "From Here To Eternity (1953)" in the same year.Coincidentally both films have the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour as a theme.Another face I spotted was Paul Burke (The Naked City - 1960s TV series) playing an ensign at Sgt.O'Hearn's court marshal.Obviously the plot outlined in other user comments above is comedic and Hollywood stereotypes abound which include (from an American perspective,) all foreigners who cannot speak English but we must remember that these films were produced by Americans for average Americans.I would place the growing international maturity of U.S. film producers from 1962 with "The Longest Day".One obvious editing device used in "South Sea Woman" is to utilise B&W war newsreels of the real WWII U.S./Japanese conflict and splice them into the subject B&W film. Also used were back-projection screens with "real" studio action by the actors.Oh well, c'est la guerre.I rated it 6/10 on purely on an entertainment level.

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MARIO GAUCI

The least significant entry in Warners' 5-Disc "Burt Lancaster Signature Collection" is this obscure but harmless WWII action comedy that is sufficiently enjoyable without being remotely memorable. The film starts out with Lancaster refusing to defend himself in the court-martial he is facing and the events unfold in flashback as the various witnesses give their testimony: Lancaster is a U.S. marine who (together with his pal Chuck Connors and the latter's fiancée Virginia Mayo) 'deserts' to a tropical island on the eve of the Pearl Harbor sneak attack where they proceed to live it up over there for a while, in the company of local madame (Veola Vonn), her three nieces and assorted beachcombers (including Arthur Shields). However, when a Dutch captain visits the island on his yacht, Lancaster and Co. steal it to go "have a crack at those Japs" – to borrow Errol Flynn's famous last words in Raoul Walsh's DESPERATE JOURNEY (1942); this leads to a rousing action climax in which the renegade band of islanders take on the Japanese fleet and manage to sink one of their ships – with Connors sacrificing his life in the process and leaving the way open for the budding romance between Lancaster and Mayo (reunited here three years after their joint participation in Jacques Tourner's colorful adventure, THE FLAME AND THE ARROW) to bloom. Two final things worthy of note: a young Strother Martin is clearly recognizable sitting next to Mayo in the courtroom and the eventual fate of the seaside dive might well have inspired a similar incident in, of all things, PORKY'S (1982)!!

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