If ever a movie deserved the expression, "they don't make 'em like this anymore", it is "Wake of the Red Witch". Set in the South Seas during the mid-Nineteenth Century it stars John Wayne as Captain Ralls, a tough ship's master, and a man embittered by unhappy memories. Ralls has fallen in love with the same woman as Mayrant Sydneye, a powerful trader played by Luther Adler, setting in motion a rivalry that is mutually destructive.
The film contains two extensive flashbacks that reveal the reasons behind Ralls' bitterness. Although flashbacks were a staple of movies at the time, "Wake Of The Red Witch" contains flashbacks within flashbacks, giving the film more layers than the linoleum on an old kitchen floor.
"Wake Of The Red Witch" also has a number of scenes that rely on special effects for their impact.
The special effects crew must have buckled at the knees when informed that the script called for a battle with a giant octopus over a chest full of pearls, a native diver trapped by a giant clam, a couple of shipwrecks and finally, a sunken ship sliding off a rock shelf into the depths below.
When John Wayne wrestles the octopus, he doesn't actually wrap the tentacles around himself like Bela Lugosi did in Ed Wood's "Bride of the Monster", but it's close. Incidentally, it's the same octopus. The South Sea island settings were also a challenge for the set designers, and tend to resemble a K-Mart garden centre.
Of more concern is the way Wayne falls in and out of character. From the driven and ruthless Ralls in the earlier scenes, he becomes the tough, but warm-hearted character familiar to anyone who has seen films such as Rio Bravo or Sons Of Katie Elder – all that was needed to completely dispel the mood would have been for him to don a cowboy hat.
That "Wake Of The Red Witch" works at all is due to its outlandish, larger-than-life story, Wayne's personal magnetism, and to very good work by the supporting cast. Luther Adler as Mayrant Sydneye projects power and menace but also invests his character with enough humanity to gain sympathy. Through his portrayal, the conflict with Ralls attains a depth that just about saves the movie.
Gail Russell as the doomed Angelique also shines in her role. She provides the perfect foil to Wayne's testosterone charged Ralls, making believable his transformation into the gentle, sensitive lover he becomes in her company.
"Wake Of The Red Witch" is so over-the-top it almost defies criticism. Later in his career, John Wayne would bring a certain amount of self-parody to his roles but in "Wake of the Red Witch" he plays it straight. He inhabits his character by sheer screen presence rather than by any finely honed acting chops. However for Wayne fans that is probably enough.
The film contains two extensive flashbacks that reveal the reasons behind Ralls' bitterness. Although flashbacks were a staple of movies at the time, "Wake Of The Red Witch" contains flashbacks within flashbacks, giving the film more layers than the linoleum on an old kitchen floor.
"Wake Of The Red Witch" also has a number of scenes that rely on special effects for their impact.
The special effects crew must have buckled at the knees when informed that the script called for a battle with a giant octopus over a chest full of pearls, a native diver trapped by a giant clam, a couple of shipwrecks and finally, a sunken ship sliding off a rock shelf into the depths below.
When John Wayne wrestles the octopus, he doesn't actually wrap the tentacles around himself like Bela Lugosi did in Ed Wood's "Bride of the Monster", but it's close. Incidentally, it's the same octopus. The South Sea island settings were also a challenge for the set designers, and tend to resemble a K-Mart garden centre.
Of more concern is the way Wayne falls in and out of character. From the driven and ruthless Ralls in the earlier scenes, he becomes the tough, but warm-hearted character familiar to anyone who has seen films such as Rio Bravo or Sons Of Katie Elder – all that was needed to completely dispel the mood would have been for him to don a cowboy hat.
That "Wake Of The Red Witch" works at all is due to its outlandish, larger-than-life story, Wayne's personal magnetism, and to very good work by the supporting cast. Luther Adler as Mayrant Sydneye projects power and menace but also invests his character with enough humanity to gain sympathy. Through his portrayal, the conflict with Ralls attains a depth that just about saves the movie.
Gail Russell as the doomed Angelique also shines in her role. She provides the perfect foil to Wayne's testosterone charged Ralls, making believable his transformation into the gentle, sensitive lover he becomes in her company.
"Wake Of The Red Witch" is so over-the-top it almost defies criticism. Later in his career, John Wayne would bring a certain amount of self-parody to his roles but in "Wake of the Red Witch" he plays it straight. He inhabits his character by sheer screen presence rather than by any finely honed acting chops. However for Wayne fans that is probably enough.