This is the type of film that James Cagney and Ann Sheridan would have done 10 years before, and got away with. (Actually, they did a similar one, called "Torrid Zone"). Burt Lancaster, having dealt with Pearl Harbor invasions the same year in "From Here to Eternity", finds himself as another marine, this time in danger of being court-marshaled for a variety of crimes, including being AWOL during wartime. As each crime is addressed, we are witnesses to flashbacks of what actually took place. In scenes that cry out for color, Lancaster's adventures of his love/hate relationship with photo gal Virginia Mayo are presented. The court martial set up is very serious, then all of a sudden as the flashbacks occur, the flow of the film switches to a cartoon like pace. Lancaster, in court, refuses to defend himself, even not even plead "not guilty", and this sets up questions as to why. There is also the absent character of Mayo's fiancée, whom we later see in the flashbacks as played by Chuck Conners. If anything, Lancaster's silence is probably because he knows that the so-called facts are so ridiculous that nobody would believe them. But as each of the "facts" are revealed, Lancaster has no choice but to testify, and when he does, we still never figure out really why he would choose not to cop a plea in the first place. He looks so uncomfortable here. It appears that the writers took all of their loony tune scripts and put them into live action format. It all starts with the sinking of a saloon, then goes into the theft of a yacht and ends on a battle with the Japanese that probably had Marine officers squirming with disbelief that an American film company could present such tripe with a straight face. Mayo, as the titled "South Sea Woman", is Ginger (not Mary Ann), and isn't even shipwrecked. The film really isn't even about her, or the other South Sea Woman who has four nieces that Lancaster makes out with simultaneously. The only reason I gave this a rating as high as 4 was I had so much fun laughing at what was wrong with it. Between this and "His Majesty O'Keefe" (also adrift in the Pacific), Lancaster must have really been desperate for dry land.
Review of South Sea Woman
