"South Sea Woman" is billed as an action and adventure comedy. Strangely enough, it wasn't also tagged a war film, considering that the entire story is set during World War II. This film has plenty of action, but little else. I struggled to stay with the film because it was so lackluster, expecting and hoping to see and hear some comedy at least. But what this film pushed as comedy is nothing more than droll dialog, corny courtroom contortions, and action that gasps for a chuckle.
It's not hard to imagine that the various scenarios of this film could have been made into a very good comedy. But that would have taken creative writing that is absent here - with funny dialog and much better segues between the scenes. The court martial courtroom is way overdone as hokey - but one can guess that was where most of the comedy was supposed to be. Instead, it looks preposterous. The last element to make this a comedy would have been the right cast. This one just flops.
Burt Lancaster was one of the great dramatic actors of the 20th century. But his range was limited somewhat in that he could not do comedy. Or, if he could, he never got or took comedic roles. This would probably be as close as he comes to it in any film - I think he was only in one other that was considered a comedy and that was fair. But he doesn't deliver a single laugh or chuckle here. Neither does Chuck Connors or Virginia Mayo. The closest to any comedy in the performances comes from a couple of the supporting cast - Leon Askin as Pierre Marchand, and Barry Kelley as Col. Hickman on the court. But even they are rather lame.
The way that the various scenarios are related here just gives a picture of a hodgepodge of incidents. It's really quite a dumb picture with no humor. With some good writing and the right cast, this could have been a funny WW II film. There were a few made, but this isn't one of them.
My first thought was to rate this just three stars, but I went to four solely on the basis of the 10 minutes or so toward the end that showed some combat action. That was staged quite well, along with the transposed naval scenes. So, for something for which the film wasn't even billed, war-time, this film earned one more star. But that doesn't raise it above the status of a dud. Audiences of the day didn't think much of it either as it jut about broke even.
Right after this, Lancaster went into the production of "From Here to Eternity," in the leading role as Sgt. Milton Warden. Besides being the best picture of the year, "Eternity" won a total of eight Oscars. And, Lancaster received his first Oscar nomination of four that included his Oscar win for "Elmer Gantry" of 1960.
