Reap the Wild Wind **** (1942, Ray Milland, Paulette Goddard, John Wayne, Raymond Massey, Robert Preston) – Classic Movie Review 6609

Producer-director Cecil B DeMille’s swashbuckling 1942 sea-faring high-adventure movie Reap the Wild Wind is a wildly extravagant, enormously entertaining and a hugely enjoyable experience. The film won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (for Farciot Edouart, Gordon Jennings, William L Pereira and Louis Mesenkop).

Based on a serialised story written in 1940 for The Saturday Evening Post by Thelma Strabel, Reap the Wild Wind is about 1840 salvagers battling for wrecked ships along the Florida coast. The story centres on the personality and charms of headstrong Southern belle Loxi Claiborne (Paulette Goddard), who is running the marine salvage business started by her late father. Many of the details of Strabel’s story are changed but the screenplay by Charles Bennett, Alan LeMay, Jesse Lasky Jr and Jeanie Macpherson keeps faithful to its spirit.

John Wayne as Jack Stuart in Reap the Wild Wind (1942).

John Wayne cements his stardom in a tailor-made role as Captain Jack Stuart, whose ship The Jubilee founder in a hurricane sweeping through the Key West area. Ray Milland does well in an action role as Steve Tolliver (Milland), who runs the sailing shipping line Jack works for. Raymond Massey is an excellent villain as King Cutler, who is suspected of planning the wreck of Jack’s ship. And the young Robert Preston scores as King’s brother Dan.

However, the film’s real star is the Oscar-winning special effects giant squid, which provides the film’s entertaining finale.

Jack Stuart (John Wayne) prepares to dive in Reap the Wild Wind (1942).

DeMille’s movie is vintage escapist nonsense clap-trap of a very high order, looking great in lovely Technicolor. The production designs by Hans Dreier, Roland Anderson and George Sawley, and cinematography by Victor Milner and William V Skall were Oscar nominated. There is also a notable score by Victor Young.

Actress and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper makes her final appearance in a significant role, though she later made cameo appearances in films.

The cast are: Ray Milland as Steven Tolliver, John Wayne as Jack Stuart, Paulette Goddard as Loxi Claiborne, Raymond Massey as King Cutler, Robert Preston as Dan Cutler, Lynne Overman as Captain Philpott, Susan Hayward as Drusilla Alston, Milburn Stone as Lieutenant Farragut, Charles Bickford as Bully Brown, Walter Hampden as Commodore Devereaux, Louise Beavers as the Claiborne maid Maum Maria, Martha O’Driscoll as Ivy Devereaux, Elisabeth Risdon as Mrs Claiborne, Hedda Hopper as Aunt Henrietta Beresford, Victor Kilian as Mathias Widgeon, Oscar Polk as Salt Meat, Raymond Hatton as Master Shipwright, Lane Chandler as Sam, William ‘Wee Willie’ Davis as The Lamb, Ben Carter as Chinkapin, Janet Beecher as Mrs Mottram, Dave Wengren as Claiborne lookout, Davison Clark as Judge Marvin, Louis Merrill as Captain of the ‘Pelican’, Frank M Thomas as Dr Jepson, Victor Varconi as Lubbock, Keith Richards, J Farrell MacDonald.Victor Varconi, Harry Woods, Milburn Stone, Barbara Britton, Julia Faye, Nestor Paiva, James Flavin, Alan Bridge, Dick Alexander, Byron Foulger, Monte Blue and Sue Thomas as belle at ball, with Cecil B. DeMille as the narrator (uncredited).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6609

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard in Reap the Wild Wind (1942).