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IMDbPro

South Sea Woman

  • 19531953
  • PassedPassed
  • 1h 39m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
756
YOUR RATING
Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
Official Trailer
Play trailer2:24
1 Video
30 Photos
  • Action
  • Adventure
  • Comedy
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.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.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.
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
756
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Arthur Lubin
  • Writers
    • Edwin Blum(screenplay)
    • Earl Baldwin(adaptation)
    • Stanley Shapiro(adaptation)
  • Stars
    • Burt Lancaster
    • Virginia Mayo
    • Chuck Connors
Top credits
  • Director
    • Arthur Lubin
  • Writers
    • Edwin Blum(screenplay)
    • Earl Baldwin(adaptation)
    • Stanley Shapiro(adaptation)
  • Stars
    • Burt Lancaster
    • Virginia Mayo
    • Chuck Connors
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 15User reviews
    • 6Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    South Sea Woman
    Trailer 2:24
    South Sea Woman

    Photos30

    Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, and Hayden Rorke in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, and Veola Vonn in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)
    Burt Lancaster, Chuck Connors, and Virginia Mayo in South Sea Woman (1953)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Burt Lancaster
    Burt Lancaster
    • Master Gunnery Sgt. James O'Hearnas Master Gunnery Sgt. James O'Hearn
    Virginia Mayo
    Virginia Mayo
    • Ginger Martinas Ginger Martin
    Chuck Connors
    Chuck Connors
    • Pvt. Davey Whiteas Pvt. Davey White
    Arthur Shields
    Arthur Shields
    • 'Jimmy-legs' Donovanas 'Jimmy-legs' Donovan
    Barry Kelley
    Barry Kelley
    • Col. Hickmanas Col. Hickman
    Leon Askin
    Leon Askin
    • Pierre Marchandas Pierre Marchand
    Veola Vonn
    Veola Vonn
    • Lillie Duvalas Lillie Duval
    Bob Sweeney
    Bob Sweeney
    • Defense Lt. Milleras Defense Lt. Miller
    Hayden Rorke
    Hayden Rorke
    • Prosecution Lt. Fearsas Prosecution Lt. Fears
    Raymond Greenleaf
    Raymond Greenleaf
    • Captain at Court-Martialas Captain at Court-Martial
    Paul Burke
    Paul Burke
    • Ensign at Court-Martialas Ensign at Court-Martial
    Henri Letondal
    Henri Letondal
    • Alphonseas Alphonse
    William O'Leary
    • Smith - Embezzleras Smith - Embezzler
    John Alderson
    • Fitzroy - Baritoneas Fitzroy - Baritone
    George Saurel
    • Jacquesas Jacques
    • (as Georges Saurel)
    Viola Daniels
    • Lillie's 'Niece'as Lillie's 'Niece'
    Alena Awes
    • Lillie's 'Niece'as Lillie's 'Niece'
    Rudolph Anders
    Rudolph Anders
    • Capt. van Dorckas Capt. van Dorck
    • Director
      • Arthur Lubin
    • Writers
      • Edwin Blum(screenplay)
      • Earl Baldwin(adaptation)
      • Stanley Shapiro(adaptation)
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Burt Lancaster was responsible for getting Chuck Connors cast in this film.
    • Goofs
      The yacht is flying a Dutch flag, implying that it was a neutral. The Dutch were at war with Japan. A Dutch flagged vessel would never be allowed passage through Japanese controlled waters.
    • Quotes

      Col. Hickman: You are aware that you face a possible sentence of death, not to mention a total imprisonment of...

      [he checks some papers]

      Col. Hickman: ... 143 years?

      Master Gunnery Sgt. James O'Hearn: The last 100 won't hurt, sir.

    • Connections
      Referenced in Queer as Folk: Stand Up for Ourselves (2004)
    • Soundtracks
      The Marine Hymn
      (uncredited)

      Music by Jacques Offenbach

      From "Geneviève de Brabant"

      Played at the beginning and often throughout the picture

    User reviews15

    Review
    Top review
    4/10
    Neither fish nor flesh nor fowl nor good red herring
    In 1944 U.S. Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant James O'Hearn is facing a court martial for desertion, theft, scandalous conduct and destruction of property, charges which in time of war carry the death penalty. ("Scandalous conduct" in this context means sex outside marriage; if that were to be regarded as a capital offence under military law I suspect that the fighting strength of most of the world's armies would be drastically reduced overnight).

    The above might suggest that this is a serious courtroom drama along the lines of "The Caine Mutiny". Admittedly, the film starts off in serious vein, but as soon as Ginger Martin (she with whom O'Hearn allegedly conducted himself scandalously) takes the stand seriousness goes out of the window and it descends into ridiculous comedy.

    Ginger is presumably the "South Sea Woman" of the title, but she is actually a white American rather than a Polynesian and only finds herself in the South Seas by chance. When O'Hearn first meets her she is working as a showgirl at a nightclub in Shanghai, where his regiment is stationed, and is the girlfriend of his friend Private Davy White. An attempt by White to slip away to marry Ginger leads to the three finding themselves adrift at sea on a small motor boat. In a series of increasingly farcical misadventures, in the course of which they inadvertently commit the acts which will form the basis of the charges against O'Hearn, they are rescued by a Chinese junk and eventually cast away on the French-ruled island of Namou. As the Governor of Namou is pro-Vichy, and as the attack on Pearl Harbor has now brought America into the war, the two Marines have to pretend to be deserters in order to avoid being interned. White and Ginger attempt to marry several times, but are always frustrated.

    It is at this point that the film changes direction again, largely abandoning comedy and turning into a patriotic wartime adventure as O'Hearn and White discover a fiendish Nazi plot and decide to take action to thwart it, to seize a boat and to rejoin the Marines who are fighting the Japanese at Guadalcanal.

    Mixing genres in this way is often a risky business, the risk being that the resulting film can end up as neither fish nor flesh nor fowl nor good red herring, or in this case neither drama nor comedy nor action. I don't think there was ever any possibility of this film being a sort of "Caine Mutiny Court Martial", but it could certainly have been made either as a comedy about the adventures of a pair of bungling Marines and a girl or as a standard gung-ho action war film about two heroic Marines with a sub-plot about their love-interest.

    The attempt to make the film as a combination of these two approaches simply results in a misbegotten dog's breakfast, a film which is not very amusing when it tries to be a comedy and not very exciting when it tries to be a wartime adventure. About all one can say for it is that Virginia Mayo looks lovely, as she normally did.

    This is not quite Burt Lancaster's worst movie; he normally saved his worst for those occasions, mostly in the sixties and seventies, when he allowed his political judgement to overcome his artistic judgement and ended up playing a villainous right-wing fanatic in turgid, paranoid left-wing thrillers like "Executive Action" or "The Cassandra Crossing". It is not, however, one of his better ones, and is one that is probably best forgotten by all but the most obsessive Lancaster fans. 4/10
    helpful•5
    3
    • JamesHitchcock
    • Aug 8, 2014

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 27, 1953 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
      • Japanese
      • Mandarin
    • Also known as
      • South Sea Paradise
    • Filming locations
      • Fiji
    • Production company
      • Warner Bros.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,000,000
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 39 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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