Sea Devils

New top Universal Pictures leading man Rock Hudson was sent on a loan out to RKO to co-star with Yvonne DeCarlo in Sea Devils. Though the film is somewhat at sea there aren't any real devils in this picture.

It's a spy story set in the Napoleonic era with spymaster Denis O'Dea trying to implement a plan to send Yvonne DeCarlo over to hostile France from the Channel island of Guernsey. The guy who was going to take her over Maxwell Reid gets himself indisposed after a brawl with Rock Hudson in a tavern.

Reid and Hudson are rival smugglers who make a good living trading with the continent and breaching Napoleon's continental blockade on one side and avoiding the customs folks on the other. They also hate each other passionately and steal frequently from each other. But now Hudson has the only boat in town and DeCarlo has to use him.

As for the rest of the film, Hudson is not so much a romantic figure, but something of a lout who up to the end seems more of a hindrance all around than a help. As for DeCarlo although she's a spy she's no Mati Hari and it ain't clear just who she's a double or triple agent for until the end.

This is a minor league swashbuckler directed by the always good Raoul Walsh that didn't hurt Rock Hudson's career any, but I don't think it especially helped.

According to Bryan Forbes in his autobiography Notes For A Life, Raoul Walsh considered the original script to be a load of horse droppings, and engaged him to do a rewrite, not least for his own part which had originally been intended for, of all people, Barry Fitzgerald. Even so I guess he would have been rather embarrassed at his own performance had he caught it at a later date on TV. No doubt Rock Hudson pleased his fans, though saddled with playing a bit of a dimwit whose misunderstandings soon become tedious. Maxwell Reed is more convincing than usual as a villain and should have become more central to the action. There's glamorous Yvonne de Carlo, some glorious colour photography from Wilkie Cooper and Walsh keeps it all moving, but the story, despite the rewrites, remains too thin.

This is a disappointing minor swashbuckler considering it was written by a fairly competent screenwriter (Borden Chase) and directed by the usually dependent Raoul Walsh. Rock Hudson plays a fisherman turned smuggler during the Napoleonic wars who becomes embroiled in some routine espionage shenanigans after falling for Yvonne De Carlo. Hudson has a sidekick in the bizarre diminutive form of Bryan Forbes, who looks faintly ridiculous in the role of a spirited, hard-drinking smuggler. Their relationship put me in mind of the great Errol Flynn and Alan Hale flicks of the 30s and 40s, which was a bad thing for this film because Hudson and Forbes are no Flynn and Hale.

Hudson's character is as dislikeable as it's possible for a movie hero to be. he has the moody, impetuous temperament of a lovesick schoolboy for much of the film, and it's no coincidence that the film livens up only when he is off-screen. He spends much of his time on-screen dramatically baring his nipples and striking manly poses which should, when you think about it, lend this effort a fairly high camp quotient, but strangely the film stubbornly refuses to develop any kind of character. The ending, when it finally, belatedly arrives, is as rushed and anti-climactic as you are likely to find...

After a bit of trial-and-error, I managed to acquire a workable copy (unlike another Rock Hudson vehicle in the same vein, CAPTAIN LIGHTFOOT [1955]!) of this swashbuckler set in the Napoleonic era – with the Emperor himself played by Frenchman Gerard Oury; incidentally, I had intended to close off 2008 by revisiting the latter's most popular directorial effort i.e. the WWII farce DON'T LOOK NOW – WE'RE BEING SHOT AT! (1966), but had to forego it due to time constraints!

While I can't say that SEA DEVILS is very well-regarded within the genre (Leonard Maltin dismisses it with a :star::star: rating), in spite of the revered Walsh's involvement, I have to admit that I rather enjoyed it. Hudson is an impetuous rum-shipper, flanked by an amusingly grumpy Bryan Forbes, who's constantly clashing with rival Maxwell Reed; their quarrel comes to a head when they involve a woman (Yvonne De Carlo) whose activities as a spy, however, are jeopardized when Hudson misconstrues the situation! De Carlo's contribution here is far more engaging than when she played the BUCCANEER'S GIRL (1950), which I watched earlier in the month; for the record, she and Hudson had already been teamed for SCARLET ANGEL (1952), yet another costumer but which I'm not familiar with.

By the way, despite American leads, director and studio (RKO), this is a British-made effort – with typically reliable supporting cast (including Dennis O'Dea as De Carlo's superior and Michael Goodliffe as her contact in France) and production values (ensuring stunning color photography throughout and a suitably rousing score). As expected, then, we get plenty of action and intrigue – spiced with equally obligatory bouts of romance and comedy relief; the result hardly makes for a classic film but, in this agreeable company, it's perhaps more satisfying than such hokum has a right to be!

Sea Devils is directed by Raoul Walsh and written by Borden Chase. It stars Rock Hudson, Yvonne De Carlo, Maxwell Reed, Denis O'Dea, Michael Goodlife and Bryan Forbes. Music is by Richard Addinsell and cinematography by Wilkie Cooper.

" Guernsey in the Channel Islands near the coast of France in the year 1800, where fishermen, prevented by war from following their usual livelihood, turned to other occupations..."

That occupation is of course smuggling, which lends one to think that Sea Devils is about to buckle our swash with a tale of derring do on the high seas. Unfortunately it doesn't pan out that way, for the pic is essentially a spy adventure set partly at sea that involves Hudson and De Carlo going backwards and forwards between England and France. They bicker, they swoon, she looks sexy, he takes his shirt off, he makes dumb decisions (he's no dashing hero type here) and she does her bit for King and Country as she hopes to stop Napoleon in his watery tracks. It's nicely colourful, the costuming adequate and the cast are fun to watch. But Walsh lets the film meander at times and it never really amounts to being more than a dressed up time filler of a movie. 6/10