Reap the Wild Wind

source: Reap the Wild Wind

Paulette Goddard is terribly miscasted in her awful role opposite the always fine Ray Milland. John Wayne provides his usual cool talking and the period that this film was made is quite clear: during wartime, but the best scene is the one with the giant seamonster, really superb!

Having seen this film many times, I can understand those critics who regard it as yet another ripe example of director Cecil B. DeMille hokum and excess. But for me, it is far easier to side with folks who like "Reap the Wild Wind" as a prime example of rousing old-fashioned screen storytelling at its best. Made just at the outbreak of World War II, Paramount spared no expense to mount this super-lavish yarn about romance, treachery, maritime adventure, shipwrecks, salvage risks involving "dead" ships, and the spectacle of rivals searching for evidence in the deep-----where diving to find it involves less danger than the chance encounter with a giant squid lurking in a sunken hull. John Wayne appears in an uncharacteristic role-----a flawed anti-hero (long before that term was ever coined) who is likable, weak, not too swift but yet charming and easy to root for. Ray Milland also does an unusual turn here. He is both a man of intellect and action----clever, funny and brave. Paulette Goddard is a revelation to those who are unfamiliar with her screen work. Remember, this was 1942. The super-independent, feisty woman she plays with such enthusiasm----while a role model for today's feminists----also shows an understandable human vulnerability. She has never appeared in another film that allowed her to be strong, sexy and appealing all at the same time. The extraordinary supporting cast is an absolute delight. They carry off some of the most outrageously cornball dialogue ever spoken with such conviction that it becomes enjoyable. Raymond Massey's slimy over-the-top villain is unique---and so is Robert Preston's pathetic character as Massey's far less crafty brother. Preston is given the task of uttering one of the film's most unforgettable lines when arriving at a prearranged meeting with his girl friend (a very young Susan Hayward) that may never EVER have been topped as a "groaner.". Special mention should be made of the beautiful Technicolor employed in "Reap the Wild Wind", the engrossing special effects (outstanding for their time) and the exciting musical score written by Victor Young. Altogether, this is a film that holds your interest from the start and never lets it down. It is grand entertainment from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Almost 65 years old, it is still fun to watch. Lots of fun!

A common thread running through Cecil B. DeMille films is the leading lady having two men getting their hormones in an uproar over the leading lady. You've got Joel McCrea and Robert Preston rivals for Barbara Stanwyck in Union Pacific, Gary Cooper and Preston Foster over Madeline Carroll in Northwest Mounted Police, Charlton Heston and Cornel Wilde flipping for Betty Hutton in The Greatest Show On Earth, etc. But DeMille never did this theme better than in Reap The Wild Wind. Without Paulette Goddard coquetting both John Wayne and Ray Milland, you wouldn't have a plot for this film. Additionally John Wayne for what maybe the only time in his film career plays a knave. After appearing to lose Paulette Goddard to Milland, Wayne goes over to Raymond Massey and Massey plays him like a piccolo and wins him over to his nefarious schemes. Massey gives the best performance in the movie. There is a long trial sequence and Massey being an extremely shrewd lawyer almost turns the whole trial around and has court convinced that it's Ray Milland behind all the pirate wrecks in the Florida Keys. This after playing John Wayne for a fool. Massey is done in of course, but by something he really couldn't take into account. The action takes place in the Florida Keys where Paulette Goddard owns a salvage company. Yet she lives in grand plantation style that would put Tara to shame. Now Florida was a Confederate state, but the only part of Florida that had the plantation culture was the panhandle. You didn't have Tara style mansions in the Keys. But because the movie is set in the South you also have some really bad black stereotypes. DeMille was hardly the only director to use them though. But one incredible error slips through. One of the characters during the trial was a black actor named Oscar Polk who plays Saltmeat who is a crew member of John Wayne's ship and gives a key piece of testimony that ultimately proves to be Raymond Massey's downfall. Saltmeat is identified as a Barbadoes free Negro in the film. But Saltmeat doesn't talk like Harry Belafonte. He sounds like any ordinary black actor who would be playing a field hand on the old plantation. I can't believe DeMille didn't realize this error. But I guess it was easier to bow to the racial stereotypes than show a black character realistically in context. The movie made a lot of money in 1942. It was filmed in great technicolor and it did win an Oscar for Special Effects because of the climatic fight with a giant squid that Milland and Wayne engage in. The effects look cheesy now, but back in 1942 they were something else. I think a lot of black people would be terribly offended if they watched this dated epic.

(SPOILERS ALERT!) I am a big fan of John Wayne. I like Ray Miland too. I bought the DVD of this film only because the two of them were in it. I must admit that the DVD print was quite shoddy. I might have enjoyed this film a lot more if I saw it on Blu-ray or something. Though I doubt it. I found it hard to sit through this one. The film is about the rivalry between two sailors - Wayne and Milland over a woman - Pauline Goddard (who has inherited a marine salvage business), even as the three of them try to stave off and defeat pirates in the Key West. Wayne's character is saved by Goddard at the beginning of the film and even gets beaten up at one point by Milland's competing character when he is about to get married to Goddard on a ship. Wayne switches sides at least twice and him and Milland are constantly at odds with each other. Goddard has a soft corner for Wayne though. Wayne's character dies in the end and Goddard goes back with Milland. The climax involves a prolonged underwater scene where Wayne and Milland wear underwater suits to search for the body of a woman. An octopus/squid attacks Miland. Wayne looks on for a while. Then he decides to intervene and he gets killed by the creature. It is pathetic. As I said earlier, Miland and Pauline Godard decides to unite in the end. Zzzzzz! The film did boast of some fine shots of monstrous waves and underwater sequences. But I could tell that the scenes on the ship were all shot on a set. The film did win an Oscar for visual effects. John Wayne was a lot thinner compared to his later films and looked quite dashing. A word you would not associate with his more beefy avatar in the prime of his career. The film was quite talky and overtly dramatic. It was directed by Cecille.B.Demille. I would not recommend this. But I am from another era. Some of the reviewers seem to be quite fond of this film which explains the respectable 6.8 rating on IMDb. I did not like it. Even though I enjoyed Mutiny on the Bounty - the version that came 20 years after this one.

From the minute I started watching this film, I knew I'd have fun. Paulette Goddard, in the role of Southern belle Loxi, conjured up images of what would have been if she had been cast as Scarlett in Gone With the Wind four years earlier, instead of Vivien Leigh. Her accent and the dresses could confuse anyone about which movie she was in, "Wind" or "Wind"! And it didn't hurt that there was a "Mammy" look-alike, and Goddard's character used the famous Scarlett phrase, "Fiddle-dee-dee!" Although Vivien Leigh was unbeatable in Gone With The Wind, it surely would have been wonderful to see Goddard in the role. I also found myself switching opinions on who Loxi should be with--Sea man John Wayne or Lawyer Ray Milland. At the end, I was a little displeased about what happened and who she ended up with, but all in all I thought it was a great movie. On a side note, I must say that when I saw the giant squid in the finale, I laughed out loud. I'm no squid expert, but it's eyes looked like those glue-on Googlie eyes that come on trolls, but in an extra large size. But if you ignore that, it is suspensful. Rent it and enjoy!

Yet another star-studded box office hit few people have today even heard of. (Years later Raymond Massey remembered so little of this film that when he observed to John Wayne they ought to do a movie together it fell to Wayne to remind him that they already had!) By the time he made this Cecil B. DeMille was leaving all the location work in the hands of second unit director Arthur Rosson and the scenes at sea are otherwise achieved with obvious models (although the giant squid is memorable enough for the film to collect its one Oscar, for special effects). No matter. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and with a cast like that burnished with plush costume design and interior decor in sumptuous Technicolor it's an agreeable way to squander a couple of hours.

Reap the Wild Wind (1942) *** (out of 4) Cecil B. DeMille's over-the-top but fun adventure takes place in the 1840s as ships try to reach the Atlantic ocean but often end up wrecked on the shoals of Florida. Southern belle Loxi Claiborne (Paulette Goddard) has Captain Jack Stuart (John Wayne) and Stephen Tolliver (Ray Milland) battling for her before the men end up battling a giant squid. REAP THE WILD WIND is a pretty fun movie, although there's no question that it doesn't rank among the director's best work and there are some fairly big flaws scattered throughout the picture. I love Milland but I thought he just wasn't right for this role. In later years John Wayne would say that he was cast in the movie to make Milland seem more like a man and perhaps that's true. There just wasn't a single second where I bought Milland and Wayne battling each other for this woman and their fight scenes aren't very believable either. Milland gives a good performance, don't get me wrong, but he just wasn't right for the part. Wayne, still not a star, does a nice job in his role, although there's a scene early on where he gets knocked out and the way Wayne does this is somewhat laughable. Goddard is her usual good self and we get nice support from villain Raymond Massey, Robert Preston, Charles Bickford and Susan Hayward. The visual effects ended up winning an Oscar when this was originally released and I'm sure people only used to CGI effects are going to think these here are awful. For 1942 they're actually pretty good and this includes the scenes with the ships on the sea. I'm not exactly sure what DeMille put into the pool that they were shooting these scenes but the water looks beautiful. As for the giant squid at the end, it's certainly very fake looking and I was a little surprised that they didn't do more with it as the fight is pretty small. REAP THE WILD WIND isn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination but it's certainly worth watching.

Cecil Blount DeMille, CB. The original 'Name Above The Title'. No matter what Frank Capra stated it was DeMille who put the Director/Producer over the title. His was a name that brought in the public and their money when Capra was still a 'gag man' for Mack Sennett. From the first feature film in Hollywood, THE SQUAW MAN (1914) to his last production, THE BUCCANEER (1958) he represented HollyWoods commercial success. With DeMille people fall into two (2) camps. We HATE that hack and his hokey movies or we love him for he put our dreams on the screen. We fall into that second group seeing our first DeMille film circa 1957 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956). My brother was four (4) and I was six (6) and we were enthralled with CB from then on. He dared to put BIG THINGS on the screen. They may not of always worked but he was unafraid to do them, stretching the envelope technically and did not give a damn what his critics thought and neither do we. REAP THE WILD WIND (1942) was his second color film and we saw it in a re-release circa 1958. The plot is typical DeMille, obscure historical incident blown up for the big screen. Romance triangle punctuated by action sequences leading to a rousing conclusion. The film is well cast with Paramount Stars Paulette Goddard and Ray Milland. Not able to get Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power CB obtained John Wayne who turned in a credible and sincere performance. Milland stood up well to the 'Duke' and Ms. Goddard was a radiant love interest. A young Susan Hayward also showed her stuff with Robert Preston. Over shadowing all was Raymond Massey as the head villain with stooge Victor Kilian. Not to be forgotten was the CB stock company, from players who were with him during the silent era to Akim Tamiroff in a voice over for the 'Lamb'. Paramounts special visual effects wizard Gordon Jennings led that team and garnered a Oscar and Victor Young provide the score. Music being very important in carrying some of the fantastic goings on. Especially the Giant Squid scene that was directed underwater by CB himself. The one (1) thing we never understood about CB is that he left many (BETTER) projects go fallow after investing money and time developing them. A few were THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, TITANIC and WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE. Two (2) were done by George Pal with CB as uncredited producer. It would have been very interesting to see how these would have turned out if made in the 1930s. Just thinking about the casting and how the special visual effects would have been done is a fascinating mind game.

When you mention the name Cecil B.DeMille you realise right away you're not going to watching social realism you're going to be watching action , adventure and above all spectacle , and REAP THE WILD WIND gets off to everything you're expecting , a shipwreck in glorious technicolor . Okay there's an anachronism or two with a rescue ship being commanded by a fine Southern lady , but this is Hollywood and Cecil B Demille can do whatever he wants . Unfortunately after this very bright start it becomes more and more obvious that Demille isn't doing very much since much of the ( in)action is taking place in a house . Where's this giant squid I heard about ? When you mention the name John Wayne you realise right away you're not going to be watching some pansy ass debating society you're going to be watching action , adventure and fists flying , this is Hollywood and The Duke can punch whoever he likes . Unfortunately it becomes obvious that this was made early in Wayne's career and his character isn't the main focus of the story . This isn't too bad since I've never liked John Wayne's one dimensional performances but again no matter who the star of the movie is there's far too much talk and not enough action . Where's this giant squid I heard about ?