The Sea Chase *** (1955, John Wayne, Lana Turner, David Farrar, Lyle Bettger, Tab Hunter, James Arness, Dick Davalos, John Qualen, Claude Akins) – Classic Movie Review 7802

Director John Farrow’s 1955 wartime action adventure The Sea Chase has an extraordinary piece of casting in John Wayne playing Captain Karl Erlich, the anti-Nazi German captain of a freighter, anxious to set out from Sydney harbour to avoid internment as World War Two begins.

Warner Bros’s colourful romantic adventure, based on novel by Andrew Geer which was based on fact, is sympathetically directed by John Farrow (father of Mia), keeping it moving along and bringing out the engrossing moments of the story.

It is an interesting movie, with several adventure highlights, though Wayne is uncomfortable, strolling through the movie with his regular turn just when some acting is needed, and an equally uncomfortable Lana Turner, in her first film outside MGM for 15 years, provides the glamour and love interest as Wayne’s passenger and girlfriend, Elsa Keller, unable to do much with a nothing kind of role. The screenplay is by James Warner Bellah and John Twist. William Clothier shoots in WarnerColor.

David Farrar as Commander Jeff Napier, Lyle Bettger as Chief Officer Kirchner, Tab Hunter as Cadet Wesser, James Arness, Dick [Richard] Davalos, John Qualen, Claude Akins, Wilton Graff and Paul Fix are notable among the above-average support cast.

Tab Hunter plays Cadet Wesser.

Also in the cast are Luis Van Rooter, Peter Whitney, Alan Hale Jr, Lowell Gilmore, John Doucette, Alan Lee, Adam Williams, Gil Perkins, Fred Stromsoe, James Lilburn, Tony Travers, John Indrissano, Joey Ray, Cameron Grant, Gavin Muir, Gloria Dee, Josephine Para, Lucita, Isabel Dwan, Theresa Tudor, Renata Huy, John Sheffield, Anthony Eustrel, Tudor Owen, Jean de Briac, Patrick O’Moore, Gail Robinson and Gilbert Perkins.

Wayne blamed Farrow for the problems with the film, and, mistakenly, judged that he was not a good director.

It is on DVD in a double war movie feature with Wayne’s Blood Alley [Region 1] [US Import].

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7802

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