South Sea Woman (1953)

Director:

Arthur Lubin

Writers:

Edwin Blum (screenplay)
Earl Baldwin (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

27 June 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Romance | War

Plot:

AWOL marine Sgt. Jim O'Hearn is court-martialed for a variety of offenses that carry 143 years in the stockade or the death penalty but refuses to aid in his own defense.

Plot Keywords:

Marine | AWOL | Free French | Shanghai | Natives

Cast

Burt Lancaster	...	Master Gunnery Sgt. James O'Hearn
Virginia Mayo	...	Ginger Martin
Chuck Connors	...	Pvt. Davey White
Arthur Shields	...	'Jimmy-legs' Donovan
Barry Kelley	...	Col. Hickman
Leon Askin	...	Pierre Marchand
Veola Vonn	...	Lillie Duval
Bob Sweeney	...	Defense Lt. Miller (as Robert Sweeney)
Hayden Rorke	...	Prosecution Lt. Fears
Raymond Greenleaf	...	Captain at court-martial
Paul Burke	...	Ensign at court-martial
Henri Letondal	...	Alphonse
William O'Leary	...	Smth (the embezzler)
John Alderson	...	Fitzroy (bearded baritone)
George Saurel	...	Jacques (as Georges Saurel)

Also Known As:

Sulu Sea (USA) (working title)
The Marines Had a Word for It (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Japanese | Mandarin

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Norway:16 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16486) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Fiji

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Began shooting in January 1953.

Quotes:

Master Gunnery Sgt. James O'Hearn: You two are not married. The ceremony Woo Ching read for you was the burial ceremony.
Ginger Martin: What?
Master Gunnery Sgt. James O'Hearn: That's Chinese burial service, that's why you are wearing white clothes.

Soundtrack:

If I Could Be with You

SOUTH SEA WOMAN (Arthur Lubin, 1953) **1/2

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)!!