An American romantic adventure; A story set in Key West, Florida about the owner of a 19th-century salvage company who falls in love with a captain she rescues from a shipwreck, and helps him prove in court that the bore no blame for the vessel's sinking. However, a rivalry for her affections ensues when a lawyer comes to his aide.
This maritime swashbuckler about companies racing to wrecks to salvage their contents, is great surface entertainment with sumptuous over-saturated colour. Thanks to Cecil B. De Mille's direction it sustains interest, and the superlative art direction and cinematography make it a very attractive film to watch. It also has some impressive action sequences too, which earned it an Academy Award for effects. That's just as well because it has a soft middle: perfunctory drama, and sluggish in courtroom theatrics. Paulette Goddard is suitably boisterous and charming, John Wayne is watchable, but Ray Milland is a little stiff where romantic charm was required.
Review of Reap the Wild Wind
Reap the Wild Wind
(1942)
Ripping watery yarn bookended by spectacular action sequences
1 February 2020