The Wreck of the Hesperus

"The Wreck of the Hesperus" is a B-movie from Columbia Pictures. However, it seems to have almost nothing to do with the Longfellow poem of the same name.

When the story begins, Captain Macready (Willard Parker) crashes his ship into the rocks. Apparently, someone on shore had been using lanterns to confuse ships and guide them into the rocks in order to profit from the resulting salvage. Macready survives but now shipping companies won't hire him following the accident. So, he gets a job with a salvage company. Soon he begins to suspect his boss might have something to do with these shipwrecks.

Like other B-movies of the era, this one is just a bit over an hour in length and it stars lesser studio talents. Apart from Edgar Buchanan (only a minor star at the time), you probably won't recognize any of the cast.

So is it any good? Well, since Columbia made a ton of Bs and they tended to be a bit better and more polished than most, it's not surprising that despite the cast, the story is pretty good. Plus, although unknowns, the cast was just fine. It's also an unusual story for a B, which often tended to be westerns, mysteries and comedies.