Sea Wife

What a poignant picture that I'd watched in my childhood days, according my files it was in 1976, I stay baffled when saw the paltry rating 5.7, well as I'm a painstaking movie buff always ensue my feelings, therefore whatever be the rate it didn't changes nothing at all, this movie is proposed as non-linear story, Michael Cannon (Burton) just arriving at London put several advertisements on many majors newspapers, searching for a girl called just "Sea wife" signing as "Biscuit" only, after some months no answer from the girl, although he receives a message from a dying man from hospital, "Bulldog" is his nickname, there they remember all story of these four survivors of a shipwreck after their ship has been torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, they meets at life-raft and know themselves just by nicknames, Sea wife is a faithful beauty girl, actually just one knows that he is a Nun (Joan Collins), the mid age men Biscuit (Burton), the harsh and prejudiced Bulldog (Basil Sydney) and a black purser number Four (Cy Grant), they reach a pacific island, there Biscuit falling in love by Sea wife, who told to him which she already gave his hand to someone else (Jesus) in other hand the relationship between the racist Bulldog and the Number Four is getting worst, one of great movies of my tender age, finally l got it on DVD fully restored and color, due in 1976 my grandfather's TV was in black and white!!

Resume:

First watch: 1976 / How many: 5 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 8

In their only time together in a film, Richard Burton and Joan Collins co-star in Sea Wife which is a combination of Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat and John Huston's Heaven Knows Mr. Allison. It was sad to say not a really good blend.

The film is told in flashback with both Richard Burton and Basil Sydney remembering the events of many years ago during World War II. After leaving the besieged Singapore in a crowded cargo ship, Burton, Sydney, Joan Collins and Cy Grant find themselves on a rubber dinghy after the ship is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.

Sydney is your typical John Bull like administrator who spent his life among the various native populations and has a racist superiority attitude concerning them. Cy Grant is a black sailor and the only one who is really capable of helping this disparate bunch survive. He knows something about Collins that the other two don't, that she's a nun who had to leave the ship quickly without habit.

Why she doesn't come right out and tell the other two I'm still not figuring out. I mean Deborah Kerr did in Heaven Knows Mr. Allison and it kept Robert Mitchum somewhat at bay. But she keeps it a deep dark secret and let's Richard Burton's hormones go raging.

The real story here is with Sydney and Grant and Grant has the best acted role in Sea Wife. Had this been an American production the part would have gone to Sidney Poitier and he would have been acclaimed for his performance.

Sea Wife is not anything that will be listed among the top ten of either Richard Burton's or Joan Collins's films.

Still pining for a mysterious woman with whom he and two other gentlemen shared a lifeboat many months earlier, a British army officer recollects the shipwreck that led to their encounter as well as their intimate time together in this early career Richard Burton motion picture. The film plays out primarily in flashback and seeing Burton so young is just as curious as Joan Collins being cast as his love interest - a nun who never revealed her true identity to him during their time together. The story is propelled by a couple of implausible elements -- namely, her extreme reluctance to say that she is a nun, and the fact that the four shipwreck survivors insist on calling each other by nicknames rather than their real names -- however, these improbabilities add unexpected layers of depths. In particular, the film handles Burton's attraction to Collins with delightful ambiguity; we never find out if she truly ever reciprocated his feelings, and is it out of craving for human affection that she chose to never tell him that she was a nun? The naming thing is quite interesting too as we get to know the characters through their traits and idiosyncrasies more than anything else, and as Collins keeps telling Burton, things are different when stuck out at sea. Clocking in at just over an hour and a quarter long, the film feels incredibly short with a lot of unrealised narrative potential, but the ending is so unexpected and packs such an emotional wallop that it is hard not to exit the film a tad shaken. Certainly, 'Sea Wife' is very far removed from the average wartime romantic drama out there.

Facile dramatics about four disparate characters--three men and one woman (Joan Collins)--shipwrecked off the coast of Singapore in 1942. One of the men grows very fond of the lady, who is secretly a nun. The nun's curious reluctance to divulge her vocation unnecessarily drags out these proceedings (and makes Sister Collins out to be something of a tease, which is touched upon fleetingly). Film verges on camp but is saved from silliness by an adept, surface-pretty production, also by Richard Burton's fiery emoting (predictably, he's colorful and mercurial as ever). Shallow, but certainly entertaining on a minor scale. **1/2 from ****

Enjoyed viewing this classic film from 1957 starring Joan Collins, (Sea Wife) and Richard Burton, (Biscuit). This film opens up with Biscuit running an ad in most of the London papers trying to locate Sea Wife and at first you think this must be some undercover agent trying to locate their partner. However, it turns out to be a love story which occurred during WW II when their ship was sunk by a Japanese Submarine and this couple wound up on a raft together. Biscuit fell in love with Sea Wife, however, she always turned down his sexual advances towards her and refused to give him a civil answer as to why she felt this way towards him. This is a hidden gem of a picture and worth your time to view and enjoy this great classic with great actors.