A High Wind in Jamaica **** (1965, Anthony Quinn, James Coburn, Dennis Price, Lila Kedrova, Gert Fröbe, Nigel Davenport, Isabel Dean, Ben Carruthers) – Classic Movie Review 9,097

Aged 15, author Martin Amis played John Thornton in the 1965 DeLuxe Color adventure film A High Wind in Jamaica, an enchanting film version of the Richard Hughes novel.

Young Martin Amis, now a famed best-selling British author in the wake of his father Kingsley Amis, is among the child actors playing homeless kids returning to their native England, who are seized by 19th-century pirates in Jamaica, in director Alexander Mackendrick’s 1965 British movie A High Wind in Jamaica, an enchanting film version of the 1929 Richard Hughes novel.

Anthony Quinn (as Zorba the pirate captain Chavez), his Zorba the Greek co-star Lila Kedrova, James Coburn. Dennis Price, Gert Fröbe, Nigel Davenport, Isabel Dean and Benito [Ben] Carruthers as Alberto are among the first-class adults in a thoughtful and unusual action adventure.

Martin Amis, Deborah Baxter, Roberta Tovey, Jeffrey Chandler and Karen Flack play the children of parents Frederick and Alice Thornton (Davenport and Dean) in 1870.

A High Wind in Jamaica is lovingly made and beautifully filmed by director Mackendrick. The colour cinematography (by Douglas Slocombe) and score (by Larry Adler) are unusually distinguished. Stanley Mann, Ronald Harwood and Denis Cannan make a good, intelligent, sensitive job of adapting the novel by Richard Hughes.

Also in the cast are Kenneth J Warren as Captain Marpole, Viviane Ventura, Dan Jackson, Brian Phelan, Trader Faulkner, Charles Laurence, Philip Madoc, Henry Beltran, Kenji Takaki and Charles Hyatt.

The title song Is produced and written by Larry Adler, and is sung by Mike LeRoy.

The 20th Century Fox records said the film needed to earn $6,300,000 to break even but took only $2,260,000 at the box office.

A High Wind in Jamaica is directed by Alexander Mackendrick, runs 103 minutes, is made by Twentieth Century-Fox Productions, is released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Stanley Mann, Ronald Harwood and Denis Cannan, is shot by Douglas Slocombe, is produced by John Croydon and is scored by Larry Adler, with Art Direction by John Howell.

The cast are Anthony Quinn as Chavez, James Coburn as Zac, Deborah Baxter as Emily, Dennis Price as Mathias, Lila Kedrova as Rosa Nigel Davenport as Frederick Thornton, Isabel Dean as Alice Thornton, Kenneth J Warren as Captain Marpole, Ben Carruthers as Alberto, Gert Fröbe as Dutch Captain, Brian Phelan as Curtis, Trader Faulkner as Pirate, Charles Laurence as Tallyman, Charles Hyatt as Pirate, Dan Jackson as Pirate, Viviane Ventura, Dan Jackson, Brian Phelan, Philip Madoc, Henry Beltran, and Kenji Takaki.

Ben Carruthers (1936–1983).

Ben Carruthers [Benito F Carruthers] (born on 14 August 1936 in Illinois) was most notable for his role in Shadows. His other films include The Dirty Dozen (1967), Fearless Frank (1967), To Grab the Ring (1968), The Lost Continent (1968), Riot (1969), Man in the Wilderness (1971) and Universal Soldier (1971). He died of liver failure on 27 September 1983, aged 47.

Martin Amis died from oesophageal cancer at his home in Florida on 19 May 2023. He died at the age of 73, like his father, noted English novelist Sir Kingsley Amis. His notable works include The Rachel Papers (1973), Money (1984) and London Fields (1989). Aged 15, Amis played John Thornton in A High Wind in Jamaica. He graduated from Exeter College, Oxford, in 1971, with a congratulatory first in English.

The Rachel Papers was filmed in 1989. Amis also wrote the screenplays for Saturn 3 (1980) and London Fields (2018).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9,097

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