La peccatrice dei mari del Sud

Shelley Winters is so cute in South Sea Sinner! I know, you probably don't associate the word "cute" with Shelley Winters, but before she settled into her middle age body type, she was actually young and attractive. She plays a saloon singer (with Liberace as her pianist) in the tropics, and when she prances around in crop tops and sarongs, and you can see her tiny waist - yes, she had one once!

As for the plot, it's not the strongest part of the movie. The one-liners and Shelley's fun energy are far better. There's a love triangle with Macdonald Carey and Frank Lovejoy, not to mention all the other men who try to get into her dressing room after her performances. In fact, she has to hop from town to town because she disturbs the peace too much, if you know what I mean. After a scuffle where the men are literally fighting over her, Frank (a doctor) examines her for surface injuries. He tries to insult her by calling her a pushover and suggesting that she can be talked into anything by anyone. She puts on her Mae West attitude and agrees, "I give in real easy. Make me an offer sometime." As she leaves his stateroom, she looks over her shoulder and tells him to look her up next time he's in town. "You still haven't checked my reflexes." With a smirk in her eyes and a slight parting of her lips (which she taught to her former roommate, Marilyn Monroe), she comes across as a whole bundle of fun - so much different than her persona in her later years that later became her legacy! If it weren't for her tone of voice, you might not even recognize her from the movies she made decades later.

If you're just looking for a good movie, stick with A Patch of Blue. But if your goal is to see Shelley Winters before she became Shelley Winters, rent this one and Frenchie. She wears a "dress" embroidered with question marks (and with a matching tattoo on her chest); the question is clearly not "yes or no?" but "when?"