Sea Wolf (1941) [VHS]

Sea Wolf (1941) [VHS]
by Michael Curtiz

Sea Wolf (1941) [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Alexander Knox, Edward G. Robinson, Gene Lockhart, Ida Lupino, John Garfield
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cinematographer: Sol Polito
Editor: George Amy
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Producer: Henry Blanke
Producer: Jack L. Warner
Writer: Jack London
Writer: Robert Rossen
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 90 minutes
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Studio: MGM (Warner)

VHS Movie Reviews of Sea Wolf (1941) [VHS]

Movie Review: Brilliant cast does wonders with Jack London tale...
Summary: 4 Stars

Edward G. Robinson puts his own brand of cruelty on the role of a freighter captain who tyrannizes his crew and some unexpected passengers (Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Alexander Knox) in this taut, suspenseful psychological melodrama with no shortage of brooding atmosphere.

Based on the famous Jack London story of Wolf Larsen (Robinson), the callous and inhuman skipper of a schooner, who proceeds to make life hell for his crew and his unwilling passengers rescued from a sinking ferryboat. Lupino and Garfield are a couple of losers with a past; Knox is a mild-mannered novelist. The romantic angle between Garfield and Ida is underplayed with the accent more on the brooding tension aboard the schooner.

Under Michael Curtiz' direction, all the performances are first-rate and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's intriguing score helps sustain the tense mood of passengers adrift on a fog-shrouded sea. Alexander Knox's restrained portrayal of an intellectual is a perfect foil for Robinson's bombastic megalomaniac skipper. Stand-outs in the large supporting cast are Gene Lockhart as a nervous, cowardly doctor and Barry Fitzgerald as a crafty cook, a sinister departure from his usual comic roles.

Absorbing all the way, well worth viewing, this represented a step up the ladder for Ida Lupino's career at Warner Bros. and remains memorable for the powerful performance of Edward G. Robinson as Wolf Larsen.

Movie Review: Korngold score
Summary: 5 Stars

One of the significant highlights of this classic film is the musical score of Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Movie Review: Philosophies at Sea
Summary: 4 Stars

A ship sails through the fog of 1900 San Francisco. In a bar an agent is trying to hire sailors for the "Ghost". One man will take the first job available. The ferry to San Francisco is struck by a large steamship in the night and fog (symbolizing that era). A man and a woman are rescued by the "Ghost". Humphrey Van Weyden will become the cabin boy, a low level job for a writer. We learn something about the men on that boat. Captain Wolf Larsen gets a headache (a sign of a fatal disease?). The struggle for existence made Larsen brutal and callous. He is a self-made man and proud of it. The woman speaks. She isn't a lady, "she's one of us" says a crewman. The doctor tries to save this woman, and succeeds. The writer analyzes Larsen's psyche. Dr. Prescott wants to be respected if it's the last thing he does.

A few men jump Larsen and first mate Svenson to throw them overboard. But Larsen survives and searches for the men who attacked him. Van Weyden learns the utility of violence. Larsen gets another headache (arterial disease and destruction of the optic nerves?). Larsen explains his scheme: they will attack another ship to hijack their catch of sealskins. This is a pirate ship! Larsen cleverly misdirects the men's anger towards the cook, a new scapegoat. It works to pacify them. Then a shot from a cannon announces the `Macedonia', `Death' Larsen's ship is out to sink the `Ghost'. In the confusion a few escape in a longboat.

The longboat finds the `Ghost' drifting and slowly sinking. The crew has escaped in the other boats. Larsen is alone and awaiting the dramatic ending to this film. The rivalry between the Larsen brothers is like a war over colonies. There are philosophic overtones to this adventure story that reflect the politics and culture of that time. The social realism of that ship will be jarring to the sensibilities of many. The crew hates Prescott because of his former position and his ability to stop drinking (an implicit rebuke). The crew turns on cookie being unable to do anything else.

Movie Review: The sum of winner wills!
Summary: 5 Stars

The febrile pen of Jack, London, plus the fit direction of Michael Curtiz, and the superb performance of Edward G. Robinson as the evil commander of the ship make of this movie one of the best exponents in its genre.

Movie Review: A blackhearted seafaring scoundrel
Summary: 5 Stars

Edward G. Robinson was marvelous playing frightful and belligerent sea captain Wolf Larsen in the Michael Curtiz directed maritime drama "The Sea Wolf" based on the Jack London classic.

Robinson commanded the sailing clipper Ghost, based in 1900's San Francisco, a purported seal hunting ship but in actuality a pirate ship plundering the booty of other working ships. With a murderous bunch of blackguards as crew including the knife wielding Cooky played by Irishman Barry Fitzgerald, the ship was the scourge of the seas.

John Garfield playing George Leach signed on to the Ghost desperate to escape authorities back in San Francisco. A collision between a paddlewheeler and ocean liner in San Francisco bay caused a shipwreck. Survivors Ida Lupino playing fugitive Ruth Brewster and Alexander Knox playing writer Humphrey Van Weyden are rescued by the Ghost and become reluctant passengers on the ship.

Almost at once the new crew members are subjected to the denigration and humiliation that is standard fare for those under the authority of Larsen. In a memorable scene Gene Lockhart playing disgraced and alcoholic physician Louis Prescott who saved the life of Lupino with a blood tranfusion begs for respect from the crew. Robinson proceeds to demean him before the crew causing him to climb the mast and hurl himself off to his death on the deck. Led by Garfield they attempt an unsuccessful mutiny against Robinson.

Larsen, a conflicted man with much psychological baggage is also learned and well read. He is increasingly suffering from headaches resulting in temporary blindness and also presumably madness. His need to dominate others to prop himself up ultimately leads to his expected demise.

Curtiz leads this accomplished cast of characters using an excellent script to create meaningful interactions among them which emphasized their well defined personalities. All the acting performances were superb highlighted by Knox who played Larsen's conscience as the talented writer van Weydan, Lockhart as the dishonored doctor and of course Edward G.

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