Reap the Wild Wind (Paramount;1942)

Reap the Wild Wind was Cecil B. DeMille's epic of 1942 , and was, in a sense, his reaction to the shattering success of Gone With the Wind. For while this tale of the land and the sea had little to do with the sweeping saga that burnished its way across screens in 1939, its heroine is just as feisty as Scarlett O'Hara. Her name is Loxi Claiborne, and she is played by Paulette Goddard. Given that Goddard barely missed out on playing Scarlett, this role might have been of some consolation to her. Loxi is not one's usual Southern belle. She is at home navigating ships, being part of salvage crews, and delights in shocking society by singing a salty sailing song in a drawing room ln Charleston. Goddard takes the role and runs with it, playing it to the hilt. Loxi is pursued romantically by two men, Captain Jack Stuart, played by John Wayne, and Charleston attorney (and later owner of a line of cargo ships) Stephen Tolliver, played by Ray Milland. Loxi is more attracted to Captain Stuart than she is to the attourney Tolliver, who she feels is an ersatz snob out to destroy the Captain she loves. But not all is as it seems. Stuart is not the knight in shining armor that he appears to be, as he is secretly collaborating with the duplicitous King Cutler, played with oily zest by Raymond Massey. Cutler, the head of a salvage crew, enlists Stewart to sink a cargo ship so he can profit from the wreck. Tolliver, meanwhile, has a stronger personality than most would expect given his curled hair and penchant for being a ventriloquist supposedly speaking out the thoughts of his pet dog. In actuality, he is a stalwart hero, who attempts to stop the wreck from occuring. But Loxi, still believing in the Captain, lays ravage to her own boat, hindering it immensely. Her actions seal the fate of the doomed ship as well as the life of her cousin, Drucilla, played by Susan Hayward (in a rather thankless role). Ultimately, the case reaches a courtroom, where much of the trial is bungled by Cutler, even to the point of murdering a witness. But when the truth about Drucilla is revealed, Cutler's brother (and the late Drucilla's love), Dan, played by Robert Preston, turns against him and urges the court to investigate the wreck, seting the scene for the movie's climactic scene, a squid attack amidst the wreckage in the watery abyss while Stuart and Tolliver battle it. Only one of the two survives and claims the hand of Loxi.... Ultimately, Reap the Wild Wind, if not the equal of Gone with the Wind, is still an absorbing adventure epic with a fine ensemble cast which also includes Charles Bickford, Hedda Hopper, and Louise Beavers (in a role quite similar to Hattie MacDaniel's in Gone With the Wind) While Goddard gives the best performance, everyone excels in the cast. It is said that John Wayne did not consider his role to be very good, but he plays the role exceptionally well with the nuance required of it. Milland is also atypically cast, but also makes a strong impression. The color photography, art decoration, costumes, and Oscar winning special effects make the film a wonder to behold. For a great adventure epic, look no farther than Reap the Wild Wind.