Reap the Wild Wind 1942

     Clipper ships taking the shortest route between the Mississippi and the Atlantic often end up on the shoals of Key West in the 1840’s.  Salvaging the cargo from these ships has become a lucrative business for two companies in the area.  Feisty young woman Loxi Claiborne has a Florida ship salvage company and she falls for Jack.  He is the captain of a ship now wrecked on the Key West shoals and he is recuperating from his injuries at her home.  Her rival in the salvage business is King Cutler and he has reached the ship first.  King’s partner is his younger brother Dan Cutler and he has already started to ransack the ship.  Loxi travels to Charleston and she is charmed by the man who is the head of the company that owns the captain’s ship.  Her romance with Jack becomes complicated by the arrival of this new man into her life and he is also interested in Loxi?  She  thinks she may be able to influence the company owner to give the captain another position on the company’s first steam ship??  Loxi's cousin Drusilla adds another complication because she is in love with Dan Cutler the brother of King Cutler??

     Piracy has become unchecked in this part of the country but steam engines are beginning to replace the tall ships.  The Cutlers have a reputation for reaching wrecks ahead of competitors.  There is speculation that the Cutlers are making under-the-table deals with dishonest captains.  There is a lot of realism in this film and it’s stunningly beautiful even after the passing of 78 years.  There is a thrilling rescue near the beginning and another near the ending. 4* (I really liked this movie) 

123 min, Action directed by Cecil B. DeMille and written by Alan Le May, Charles Bennett, Jesse Lasky Jr., Thema Strabel, Jeanie Macpherson, Theodore St. John, Thelma Strabel with Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Raymond Massey, Robert Preston, Lynne Overman, Susan Hayward, Charles Bickford, Walter Hampden, Louise Beavers, Martha O”Driscoll, Elizabeth Risdon, Hedda Hopper, Victor Kilian, Oscar Polk, Janet Beecher.
Note:  Imdb 6.7 out of 10 with 2,755 views, Rotten Tomatoes 78% with 9 critics 55% with 1,633 ratings, 3* out of 5* radiotimes.com, hometheaterforum.com overall 4* out of 5*, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 221 reviews, Letterboxd 3.1* out of 5*. 

Special Note:  Filmed in Charleston, South Carolina; Key West, Florida Keys and New Iberia,  Florida: Tank, Pan Pacific Marine Museum, Santa Monica, Underwater, Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands, Paramount Studios, United Artists Studios, Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch,  California.  Originally Gary Cooper was to have the lead role of the ship’s captain but he had a prior commitment to Goldwyn’s film Pride of the Yankees.  This film won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects.  The shooting was done in Technicolor and this was a rare luxury treatment in the 1940’s.  Much of the filming was done on location in Charleston and around Key West.  The underwater action was done in a huge tank.