Paramount's REAP THE WILD WIND (1942) is arguably Cecil B.DeMille's best picture! There is little of his usual bluster, bombast and over the top special effects. Although his grip on actors was always somewhat slack the flamboyant jodhpurs clad producer / director managed here to elicit fine performances from an attractive cast and come up with a well structured screenplay by Alan LeMay, Charles Bennett and Jesse Lasky Jr. which derived from a novel by Thelma Strabel. Richly photographed in glowing Technicolor by Victor Milner, Dewey Wrigley and William V.Skall the movie, at the time of its release, was being touted as a sort of "Gone With The Wind" of the sea and not only because the leading lady Paulette Goddard and her co-star Susan Hayward had both tested for the part of Scarlet O'Hara three years earlier. Impressive also is the Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson nominated Art Direction especially for a party and a well staged ball sequence in Charleston. Combined with opulent set designs, lavish costumes and ravishing colour these scenes positively sparkle.
REAP THE WILD WIND is about the pirate wreckers who prey on the shipping lanes along the coast of Key West in 1840's Florida and scuttle great ships on the jagged rocks so as to extract the rich booty on board. Then there's the honest salvage ships who's sole purpose is to save lives and the valuable cargo. One such ship helm-ed by Captain Philpot (Lynne Overman) and his feisty and impetuous niece Loxi Claiborne (Goddard) rescue Captain Jack Stuart (John Wayne) and nurse him back to health. But the shipping company headed by the smooth and foppish lawyer Steve Tolliver (Ray Milland) wants Stuart never to command another ship because of his recklessness. In the meantime Loxi has fallen for Stuart who now has to vie with Tolliver for her affections.
The cast is quite wonderful! Top billed is Ray Milland who gives his usual convincing and engaging performance as the man trying to win the heart of the attractive and boisterous Loxi (the film's pivotal role well played by Goddard). But a revelation is John Wayne who is excellent in what is his first "big" movie and only his second in Technicolor. Surprisingly too in the engaging love scenes with Loxi, Wayne cuts an accomplished romantic figure ("Nights on watch I'll see like this Loxi, with your hair catching fire in the sunset and that look in your eyes ten thousand fathoms deep"). Then there's the young and really attractive Susan Hayward in one of her early appearances as Loxi's star-crossed cousin Drusilla. Also effective is Raymond Massey as a black hearted villain with the colourful name of King Cutler and Robert Preston as Hayward's dashing young lover. The highlight of the movie is, of course, the excellent set piece towards the end of the picture where divers Milland and Wayne battle it out inside a ship's wreck in the ocean depths with a giant squid. In these days of CGI it is amazing that this scene, that was always considered quite stunning, can still manage to look powerfully real and exciting. The film won the 1942 Acadamy Award for special effects.
Complimenting the picture throughout is the splendid score by De MIlle's favourite and trusted composer the great Victor Young. His Main Title is a rollicking and bawdy sea shanty and his theme for the sea is a broad full orchestral piece with powerful horn figures against romantic strings. Then for the young lovers (Hayward and Preston) there is a tender and lyrical theme that gives their scenes together an engaging and heartfelt charm.
REAP THE WILD WIND is another of old Hollywood's master strokes. A timeless romantic sea adventure with a memorable cast that has been enjoyed by past generations and no doubt will be enjoyed by many generations to come.
REAP THE WILD WIND is about the pirate wreckers who prey on the shipping lanes along the coast of Key West in 1840's Florida and scuttle great ships on the jagged rocks so as to extract the rich booty on board. Then there's the honest salvage ships who's sole purpose is to save lives and the valuable cargo. One such ship helm-ed by Captain Philpot (Lynne Overman) and his feisty and impetuous niece Loxi Claiborne (Goddard) rescue Captain Jack Stuart (John Wayne) and nurse him back to health. But the shipping company headed by the smooth and foppish lawyer Steve Tolliver (Ray Milland) wants Stuart never to command another ship because of his recklessness. In the meantime Loxi has fallen for Stuart who now has to vie with Tolliver for her affections.
The cast is quite wonderful! Top billed is Ray Milland who gives his usual convincing and engaging performance as the man trying to win the heart of the attractive and boisterous Loxi (the film's pivotal role well played by Goddard). But a revelation is John Wayne who is excellent in what is his first "big" movie and only his second in Technicolor. Surprisingly too in the engaging love scenes with Loxi, Wayne cuts an accomplished romantic figure ("Nights on watch I'll see like this Loxi, with your hair catching fire in the sunset and that look in your eyes ten thousand fathoms deep"). Then there's the young and really attractive Susan Hayward in one of her early appearances as Loxi's star-crossed cousin Drusilla. Also effective is Raymond Massey as a black hearted villain with the colourful name of King Cutler and Robert Preston as Hayward's dashing young lover. The highlight of the movie is, of course, the excellent set piece towards the end of the picture where divers Milland and Wayne battle it out inside a ship's wreck in the ocean depths with a giant squid. In these days of CGI it is amazing that this scene, that was always considered quite stunning, can still manage to look powerfully real and exciting. The film won the 1942 Acadamy Award for special effects.
Complimenting the picture throughout is the splendid score by De MIlle's favourite and trusted composer the great Victor Young. His Main Title is a rollicking and bawdy sea shanty and his theme for the sea is a broad full orchestral piece with powerful horn figures against romantic strings. Then for the young lovers (Hayward and Preston) there is a tender and lyrical theme that gives their scenes together an engaging and heartfelt charm.
REAP THE WILD WIND is another of old Hollywood's master strokes. A timeless romantic sea adventure with a memorable cast that has been enjoyed by past generations and no doubt will be enjoyed by many generations to come.