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

It was based on the play General Court Martial by William M. Rankin with the working title being Sulu Sea.

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, Road to...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.

To avoid being jailed, the Marines persuade pro-Axis Governor Pierre Marchand (Leon Askin) that they are deserters.

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.

He and his men then overthrow the governor and load the island's armory on the ship, intending to join the fighting at Guadalcanal.

Frank Lovejoy was mentioned as a possible star and the film originally started in Hong Kong as opposed to Shanghai.

[11][12] The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther was unimpressed, calling the film "a rip-snorting glorification of two United States Marines", with Lancaster doing his best "with all the muscle and charm at his command", but ultimately dismissing the effort as "a terrible lot of nonsense and, eventually, a fizzle as a show.

"[13] In 2019 Diabolique magazine wrote that the film "needed to be in colour but is highly spirited fun, which benefits from Lancaster at his toothy, swaggering best.