THE SEA CHASE: Blu-ray (Warner Bros. 1955) Warner Archive
I am, as ever,
intrigued by the absurd dishonesty of vintage poster art designed to promote
movies from the earliest years, right on through to the late 1970’s. The
artwork for director/producer, John Farrow’s The Sea Chase (1955) would have us buy into a windswept (and much
younger) Lana Turner dramatically locked in the strong manly embrace of
America’s all-time superhero and he-man, John Wayne; the backdrop of a ship in
peril under ominous black clouds and on stormy seas, suggesting a tempestuous
romance violently unleashed. Nothing could be further from the truth, as The Sea Chase is a WWII potboiler with
Wayne and Turner at opposite poles, never to be reconciled in the flimsy
screenplay by James Warner Bellah and John Twist. Setting aside the idiocy of
John Wayne unconvincingly playing a German sea captain (sans gemutlich charm
and accent) and Turner, still ravishingly attractive but decidedly not the wisp
of a sexpot she had been during her tenure as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s sweater
girl, as a haughty and exclusive pro-Nazi countess herein, it is actually
possible to enjoy The Sea Chase for
what it is; a semi-intelligent, if mostly lukewarm drama in which Wayne
infrequently bristles and defies British/American intervention to keep his ship
and crew dry-docked in Australia; also, grumbling against the Nazi high command
while espousing western hero-esque platitudes about morality, dignity and that
code of human ethics to withstand both misguided ambitions and the test of time
with narrowly a pony or stagecoach in sight. It’s called ‘star power’, folks – a
quality Wayne and Turner possessed in spades.
The Sea Chase is also noteworthy for the amount of times Lana
Turner, presumably traveling light, somehow manages to maintain her immaculate
beauty without a coiffeur, dressmaker and ladies maid, changing into a
mind-boggling ensemble of impractical, if form-fitting and slinky gowns, quite
often accompanied by stunning furs. The Bellah/Twist screenplay is very loosely
based on Andrew Greer’s novel of the same name; itself, even more liberally
adapted from a true-to-life incident involving the German Norddeutscher Lloyd
steamer Erlangen that, under Alfred Grams’ captaincy, quietly slipped out of
New Zealand’s Lyttelton Harbor on the very eve of Germany’s declaration of war.
The real life Erlangen made a pit stop to refill her depleted coal bunkers in
Port Kembla, New South Wales before heading to the sub Antarctic Auckland
Islands. In the process, Grams effectively navigated his vessel and crew around
the watchful eye of the HMNZS Leander, re-stocking food and wood, mostly by cutting
down large swathes of the Southern Rata forest. Grams then made an even more
desperate and equally as miraculous escape to ValparaÃso, Chile. But on July
1941, the Erlangen was intercepted off Montevideo by HMS Newcastle and scuttled
by her crew.
The film would
have us believe Chief Officer Kirchner (Lyle Bettger) as the Nazi-sympathizing
brute and Grams (rechristened in both the novel and movie as Capt. Ehrlich and
played by Wayne) as our heroic figure of the high seas. It fits the John Wayne
persona to a tee. But the novel actually portrays Ehrlich as the monster, his
goal to reach Europe transgressing into an all-consuming obsession with dire
consequences for Kirchner and the Countess Elsa Keller (Turner). In the novel,
these three pivotal characters all appear to go down with the scuttled
Erlangen. The movie opts for a more optimistic departure from Valparaiso after
Elsa, who has thus far been cool and contemptuous toward Ehrlich, suddenly
recognizes Kirchner for the arrogant and evil pig of a human being he has been
from the beginning. Greer’s novel was first published in 1948 and popular
reading from which Jack Warner elected to buy up the rights. From the outset,
Wayne expressed interest in the project, first assigned to Bolton Mallory for
an adaptation. Alas, herein The Sea
Chase hit several snags to alter its overall storytelling effectiveness,
commitments elsewhere delaying, then delaying some more, the start-up. Thus, it
arrived on John Farrow’s roster of ‘things to do’ in 1953. Wayne and Farrow had
successfully collaborated on Hondo
(1953) and Wayne, whose pull in the industry was enormous, encouraged Warner to
assign Farrow to The Sea Chase; a
decision he would come to regret.
“John didn't really have a great deal to do with Hondo,” Wayne later reminisced, “It was
a Batjac Production and everything was set up before he came on it. He did
direct The Sea Chase and prove to me
that he should not be put in charge as a producer/director. He failed to tell
the good story that was in the book. But now, we are talking about a matter of
opinion and that is only my opinion. For some, he may be considered a fine
director.” Ultimately, more rewrites were required; Warner now passing the war
horse duties to Frank Nugent who reworked the material considerably and never
received any screen credit for it. If The
Sea Chase had its share of false starts leading up to production they
arguably paled to the tensions mounting daily on the set. Just prior to the
lengthy shoot in Hawaii, Wayne elected to go scuba diving and developed a
horrendous ear infection. As a result, he was in agony for much of the
shooting. Farrow favored Wayne’s ‘good side’, as the infected ear had swelled
so grotesquely the star was forced to literally lie down between takes on ice
packs to dull and numb his pain. Production was further delayed for several
days so Wayne could be flown to a specialist in San Francisco to be treated
with anesthetizing painkillers.
In the
meantime, Lana Turner repeatedly clashed with Farrow whom she felt was a bit of
a brute and offered her virtually no hint of direction. Turner’s unease behind
the scenes is overcompensated for in the picture by her reliance on the ole
Lana Turner ‘charm’ and immaculate glamor. But it is oddly blended here; Turner
oft bitchy than standoffish, with volatile and flashing eyes caught in
dagger-filled stares, virtually contradicted and diffused by her seemingly
Teflon-coated and ultra-cool platinum tresses. According to Wayne, Turner took
an instant dislike to practically everyone, channeling her discontent chiefly
toward Farrow. Turner’s legendary after hours carousing did not exactly
ingratiate her to Wayne’s workman-like professionalism. Indeed, Farrow lowered
the boom after only a few days of Turner arriving late on the set, firing the
actress who then, even more ironically, turned to Wayne for a sympathetic
shoulder to cry on. Wayne – a softy of sorts – took pity on Turner and
intervened. However, rehired, Turner continued to throw up roadblocks
throughout production that caused even Wayne to become perplexed. “I couldn’t muss her make-up or touch her
hair,” Wayne later recalled in an interview, “I thought…how the hell am I going to make love to a gal who won’t
let me touch her?”
Interestingly,
costars Tab Hunter, Claude Akins and James Arness all remember Turner more
fondly, and, as every inch the star and glamor queen who could be playful, open
and friendly. As when the openly gay Hunter, then 23, made the faux pas of
telling Turner he had been an admirer of her work since he was a child. Far
from offended by the inference she was leaning toward the latter end of her
sexpot image, Turner instead jumped onto Hunter’s lap, smiling provocatively.
Hunter later recalled, “I blushed and
didn’t know what to do with my hands.” Filming The Sea Chase began in September 1954, at Kealakekua Bay on the Big
Island of Hawaii where Warner Bros. had purchased an old freighter; cast and
crew enduring an arduous daily sojourn of two-and-a-half hours by boat to reach
their location. Despite The Sea Chase
being a studio-bound production, Wayne’s formidable clout afforded him the
luxury of calling at least some of the shots; hiring friends like actor, Paul
Fix, cameraman, William H. Clothier and rising star, James Arness to buffer his
own comfort zone. Wayne would round out his mixed feelings toward making the
picture when, on Nov. 1st, he received confirmation that his contentious
divorce was settled. He immediately married his girlfriend, Pilar, in Hawaii.
After a
bombastic fanfare by Roy Webb and red-lettered main title sequence (in
WarnerColor no less), the plot of The
Sea Chase settles on Captain Karl Ehrlich (John Wayne); master of the
nondescript German steam freighter, Ergenstrasse presently docked in Sydney,
Australia. It is the eve of WWII and we soon learn Ehrlich is a patriot of the
old school; deposed of his good standing and naval rank because he emphatically
refuses to support the Nazi Party. As Ehrlich prepares for sea he is reunited with
an old friend from the ‘other side’; British Commander Jeff Napier (David
Farrar) and his fiancée, Elsa Keller (Lana Turner). Elsa is no stranger to
Ehrlich. He recognizes her as the woman who did a former friend wrong; a tramp
from the wrong side of the tracks, since worked her way up and into the title
of a ‘countess’. Ehrlich threatens Elsa with exposing her past to Napier; a
move that understandably leads to a very tempestuous détente between Ehrlich
and Elsa. Meanwhile, Germany has invaded Poland. Napier informs Ehrlich the
Ergenstrasse will likely be interned for the duration of the war. But Ehrlich
has plans to return to his ship to the fatherland. Defying the articles of war,
Ehrlich plots to sail his vessel slowly out to sea under a veil of heavy fog
since settled on the bay. But his plans are momentarily delayed by a visit from
German Consul-General Hepke (Wilton Graff) who
orders Ehrlich to take aboard a spy. As fate would have it, Elsa is the spy.
Timeworn, sluggish
and short on coal, the Ergenstrasse is misperceived by the Australian Navy as
easy prey. Only Napier, understandably bitter at being duped, does not underestimate
Ehrlich. The Navy under Napier’s command sets out to apprehend the Ergenstrasse.
Yet, despite working with seemingly insurmountable deficiencies and impediments
at every turn, Ehrlich manages to evade capture. The chase across the Pacific begins
with a run to the south and briefest of respites to gather badly needed
supplies at an unmanned rescue station on Auckland Island. While there, Ehrlich
and his men encounter three marooned British seamen. Unable to ‘help’ them,
Ehrlich nevertheless assures the men a rescue vessel routinely making its
rounds will come to their aid in a few days. They have plenty of rations until
then to sustain them. Alas, after his departure, Ehrlich’s first officer, pro-Nazi
Kirchner (Lyle Bettger) elects to cruelly murder all three seamen for fear
their rescue will reveal the whereabouts of the Ergenstrasse. Sometime later, Napier
discovers the bodies and mistakenly believes Erhlich is responsible. Out of
necessity, Ehrlich burns his lifeboats for fuel, again pausing to collect wood
at the fictitious Pom Pom Galli Atoll in mid-Pacific. While there, Ehrlich learns
of Kirchner’s crime and orders him to sign a confession entered into the ship’s
log. After much misdirection, the Ergenstrasse lumbers into ValparaÃso in
neutral Chile. Ehrlich encounters Napier
whose ship, the HMAS Rock Hampton has pursued them from New Zealand.
Re-provisioned
and fully fueled, the Ergenstrasse slips away under the cover of darkness. As
British forces lying in wait have been ordered to face the German pocket
battleship Graf Spee in Montevideo Uruguay, Napier requests transfer to the
British Naval patrols in the North Sea to continue his pursuit of the
Ergenstrasse. German radio broadcasts a message from Lord Haw Haw, disclosing
the position of the Ergenstrasse as it passes Norway. Napier and the Royal Navy
are this time prepared, intercepting and sinking the Ergenstrasse. The
survivors, including Erhlich, Elsa and Kirchner are brought aboard. The ship’s
log, miraculously survived, reveals the truth; that Erhlich had nothing to do
with the murders at Auckland. Elsa, who has thus far placed her trust and faith
in Kirchner, recoils in shame and turns to Erhlich for forgiveness and, so it
is hinted, the promise of perhaps a ‘relationship’ on friendlier terms.
The Sea Chase is rather badly bungled melodrama. Despite the studio’s
attempt to will and market an action/adventure yarn from this rough hull of
perpetually waterlogged and submarined plot, with virtually zero tension to
buoy such amateur theatrics, the picture sinks or swims on the merits of its
two superstars. Interestingly, while The
Sea Chase founders badly as a thriller it remains highly watchable because
of John Wayne and Lana Turner. There is no romantic chemistry between these
two, and yet, apart – even together –
they illustrate unequivocally what real ‘star power’ can do, even when working
with subpar material. There is definitely something to be said about this
intangible quality. It can draw audiences in on ‘name above the title’
recognition alone. Hollywood no longer grooms such unicorn talent. But Wayne
and Turner are larger than life and prove it in The Sea Chase; an inferior product – in Cinemascope – yet able to
command our attention for the duration of its 117 min. run time. John Farrow’s
direction leaves much to be desired. Arguably, he is hampered by the
constraints of early Cinemascope; a lot of dead space to fill in confined
spaces with less than interesting art and set decoration by Franz Bachelin and William
Wallace. After all, there is only so much you can do with the drab set
interiors of a beat-up freighter. William H. Clothier’s cinematography helps
some, as does Roy Webb’s infrequent outburst of underscore. But in the end, The Sea Chase remains a tepid and
unprepossessing movie at best. For Wayne completionists, it’s a must. For the
rest of us…not so much.
There is
nothing tepid about Warner Archive’s (WAC) Blu-ray. As with virtually all of
WAC’s endeavors, this one looks spectacular. Despite the inherited
inconsistencies of Warner’s own patented color process – WarnerColor is a
disaster…usually – most of The Sea Chase
belies these shortcomings with a razor-sharp transfer whose virtues are
bold and fully saturated colors and a good solid smattering of film grain. Yep,
this one is a winner with only some very minor haloing sporadically cropping
up, but never to egregious levels where it distracts from our viewing pleasure.
WAC must get top marks here as The Sea
Chase looks and sounds, in 2.0 mono, as good as it probably ever did,
including on its opening night in 1955. Predictably, we get NO extras here. WAC
has spent its money correctly, on the transfer rather than the fluff. A bare
bones disc is good enough for The Sea
Chase – a movie more deserving of our curiosities than admiration. We
champion the effort if not the content. Now, pretty please WAC – how about
doing the same justice to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, High
Society, The Student Prince, Show Boat, National Velvet, Marie Antoinette, The
Great Ziegfeld, Around the World in 80 Days…etc. et al. Lots better in
your archive deserving of this much care and preservation. Bottom line: for
Wayne/Turner fans – a must have.
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
2.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
4.5
EXTRAS
0
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