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South Sea Woman Review

What can I say. This is a thoroughly splendid piece of World War 2 Hollywood blarney. It is pure escapist entertainment released for the family audience of post World War Two America. "What did you do in the war Daddy?" was a question often asked in those days following the war and a lot of kids whose fathers were Marines in WW 2 must have wondered if thats what it was like too.

As history or serious fiction it is bilge. The trial is all about protecting of a friend. Burt is like "The Crimson Pirate!" in a Marine Sergent's Uniform trying to save the brash and dopey Chuck Connors from a fate worse than death i.e. Virginia Mayo, the Bar Singer he met with the heart of gold. Add a supporting cast of Warner Brother castaway character actors and there you have it, an Irish stew of a movie!

The ending is action packed and injects some meaningful pathos befitting the time and setting. The improvised, nearly suicidal mission against the Japanese in a boat full of colorful characters is an act of personal redemption, patriotism, heroism, and sacrifice all wrapped into one, and all men, Veterans or not, had to love looking at Virginia Mayo and laughing at the stupid love story. It's all fantasy of course but it does not insult or hurt anyone.

You should see this once anyhow. It is certainly great escapist entertainment in the Hollywood tradition. It was no miss TV when I was a kid.

South Sea Woman Overview

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/23/2007 Run time: 98 minutes

South Sea Woman Specifications

Burt Lancaster made this picture the same year as the great From Here to Eternity, but other than sharing a military backdrop, that's about where the similarities end. South Sea Woman does have Lancaster in his prime, as a swaggering Marine undergoing a mysterious court-martial after World War II. The nature of his alleged offenses won't become clear until we hear all the testimony, which the movie provides in a series of flashbacks. The story's a goof: how Burt and Marine buddy Chuck Connors end up on an island with gin-slinging dame Virginia Mayo, doing battle with the Vichy French, the Japanese, and each other. There's also a cross-dressing scene, a highly questionable native dance, and assorted slapstick. Journeyman director Arthur Lubin (guiding light of the Francis movies--the talking mule, not Ford Coppola) manages to work up some brawny action in the big climax, and the movie unexpectedly goes for a bit of grandness around Connors' character. Connors, the future star of The Rifleman TV show, was still new to the acting game at this point, having been discovered as a baseball player a year or so earlier. Tall, lean and toothy, he easily holds his own with Lancaster--but then, nobody has to work too hard in these minor, mildly entertaining circumstances. --Robert Horton

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