South Sea Woman

South Sea Woman is a 1953 action-comedy-drama film directed by Arthur Lubin and starring Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo and Chuck Connors.

Jeanine Basinger's and Jeremy Arnold's book The World War II Combat Film – Anatomy of a Genre calls the film a significant mixture of genres: tongue-in-cheek adventure, Flagg and Quirt (1926)-style service comedy, Hope and Crosby road film, South Seas, prison escape, pirate, World War II and costume drama mixing ridiculous comedy with hard boiled action in "Tell it to the Marines" style.^[1]

Plot

U.S. Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant James O'Hearn (Burt Lancaster) is being tried at the San Diego Marine base for desertion, theft, scandalous conduct and destruction of property in time of war. He refuses to testify or plead guilty or not guilty to the charges. The film alternates between flashbacks and the courtroom, as witnesses give their testimony.

Showgirl Ginger Martin (Virginia Mayo) takes the stand against his protest. Ginger tells how she, broke and stranded, met O'Hearn and his friend, Marine Private First Class Davy White (Chuck Connors), in Shanghai two weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor. With war looming, their Marine regiment is ordered home. White slips away to propose marriage so that Ginger can be evacuated from China (at government expense) as his wife. O'Hearn tracks him down at the nightclub where Ginger works. When the club's manager objects to Ginger quitting, a brawl breaks out. The trio escape aboard a small motor boat.

When the two men start fighting, Ginger tries to help White and accidentally disables the boat. They drift out to sea and are picked up by a passing junk. Once again, the Marines quarrel over White's future. This time, they accidentally set the sail on fire. They have to chop down the mast in order to save the ship. As a result, they are put ashore on the Vichy French island of Namou.

To avoid being jailed, the Marines persuade pro-Axis Governor Pierre Marchand (Leon Askin) that they are deserters. They are quartered in a hotel/brothel run by Lillie Duval and her three "nieces". O'Hearn is delighted to make their acquaintance, to Ginger's annoyance.

When a supposedly Dutch yacht calls at the island, O'Hearn tries to book passage, but the captain, Van Dorck (Rudolph Anders), refuses to take the risk. O'Hearn discovers that Van Dorck is actually a Nazi setting up radar stations on the islands around Guadalcanal, and plots to seize the ship with the help of expatriates like ex-U.S. Navy sailor "Jimmylegs" Donovan (Arthur Shields) and fugitive bank embezzler Smith, and Free French liberated from the prison. White refuses to join and says he is deserting and intends to remain on the island with Ginger. This causes Ginger to have second thoughts about their relationship. O'Hearn forces White on board the yacht at gunpoint. Back in the courtroom, O'Hearn breaks his silence in order to exonerate White.

When Van Dorck and a search party find him, O'Hearn manages to kill them all. He and his men then overthrow the governor and load the island's armory on the ship, intending to join the fighting at Guadalcanal. Ginger slips aboard as a patriotic stowaway.

They stumble upon a group of Japanese landing craft escorted by a destroyer. O'Hearn engages the Japanese in a fierce battle. When the destroyer tries to ram the yacht, White jumps aboard and climbs its smokestack. He throws in explosives, blowing up the destroyer at the cost of his own life. Only O'Hearn and Ginger survive; the rest of the crew die heroically.

The court martial exonerates O'Hearn and recommends White for a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor. O'Hearn and Ginger then admit they love each other.

Cast