Sea Devils (1953)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

Borden Chase (screenplay)
Borden Chase (story)

Release Date:

23 May 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Action

Plot:

Gilliatt, a fisherman-turned-smuggler on the isle of Guernsey, agrees to transport a beautiful woman to the French coast in the year 1800...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Smuggling | Spy | Based On Novel

Cast

Yvonne De Carlo	...	Droucette
Rock Hudson	...	Gilliatt
Maxwell Reed	...	Rantaine
Denis O'Dea	...	Lethierry
Michael Goodliffe	...	Ragan
Bryan Forbes	...	Willie
Jacques B. Brunius	...	Fouche
Ivor Barnard	...	Benson
Arthur Wontner	...	Baron de Baudrec
Gérard Oury	...	Napoleon
Larry Taylor	...	Blasquito (as Laurie Taylor)
Keith Pyott	...	General Latour
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Reed De Rouen
Michael Mulcaster
Rene Poirier

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:6 (f) | Australia:G | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #16054)

Filming Locations:

Channel Islands

Company:

Coronado Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in Rock Hudson's Home Movies (1992)

Disappointing...

This is a disappointing minor swashbuckler considering it was written by a fairly competent screenwriter (Borden Chase) and directed by the usually dependent Raoul Walsh. Rock Hudson plays a fisherman turned smuggler during the Napoleonic wars who becomes embroiled in some routine espionage shenanigans after falling for Yvonne De Carlo. Hudson has a sidekick in the bizarre diminutive form of Bryan Forbes, who looks faintly ridiculous in the role of a spirited, hard-drinking smuggler. Their relationship put me in mind of the great Errol Flynn and Alan Hale flicks of the 30s and 40s, which was a bad thing for this film because Hudson and Forbes are no Flynn and Hale.

Hudson's character is as dislikeable as it's possible for a movie hero to be. he has the moody, impetuous temperament of a lovesick schoolboy for much of the film, and it's no coincidence that the film livens up only when he is off-screen. He spends much of his time on-screen dramatically baring his nipples and striking manly poses which should, when you think about it, lend this effort a fairly high camp quotient, but strangely the film stubbornly refuses to develop any kind of character. The ending, when it finally, belatedly arrives, is as rushed and anti-climactic as you are likely to find...