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Warner Bros. Pictures
Not part of a collection.
Jack London's great novel of terror afloat.
Shipwrecked fugitives try to escape a brutal sea captain who's losing his mind.
CinemaSerf
Jun 24, 2026 · via TMDB
This is a sort of briny equivalent of out of the frying pan and into the fire, as "Leach" (John Garfield), "Ruth" (Ida Lupino) and "Van Weyden" (Alexander Knox) find themselves unwilling passengers on a schooner. It's skipper "Larsen" (Edward G. Robinson) must have gone to the William Bligh school of seamanship as he rules his vessel with a ruthless rod of iron. What begins to puzzle our reluctant passengers is just what the ship's mission is and why their host refuses to drop them off at any port but, eventually, at their home of San Francisco. As that mystery deepens, we become immersed in a darkly characterful study of a bully and of the shrewd tactics he uses to keep control amongst a crew of men who would as readily keel haul a colleague as rescue him. There's a slightly romantic element from Lupino and Leach but rather than dominate the proceedings, this actually serves to introduce an extra layer of menace as the captain finds yet another tool to use to manipulate his new quarry. Robinson is on super form here. On the face of it, he's just a gnarly brute but as the plot thickness up nicely we start to see a little more of the man and of what drove any humanity he ever had from him - and question the role of his absent but omnipresent brother in all of this. Knox also delivers powerfully here as the more cultured character whose nature is entirely ill-fitted for any life on the sea that doesn't involve an ocean liner and some champagne and so is going to have the toughest time trying to adapt, and Lupino offers quite a solid portrayal of a woman who is anything but the screeching damsel in distress. The photography is dark and grainy, Korngold's score and the remarkably convincing visual effects of a torrid life at sea all contribute to craft a nasty seafaring drama in which Robinson shines. Not quite Charles Laughton, but nearly...!
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Edward G. Robinson
'Wolf' Larsen
Ida Lupino
Ruth Webster
John Garfield
George Leach
Alexander Knox
Humphrey Van Weyden
Gene Lockhart
Dr. Prescott
Barry Fitzgerald
Cooky
Stanley Ridges
Johnson
David Bruce
Young Sailor
Francis McDonald
Svenson
Howard Da Silva
Harrison
Frank Lackteen
Smoke
Ernie Adams
—
Cliff Clark
—
Richard Cramer
—
William Gould
—
Ralf Harolde
—
Ethan Laidlaw
—
Wilfred Lucas
—
George Magrill
—
Louis Mason
—
Frank Mills
—
Charles Sullivan
—
Anton Grot
Art Direction
Byron Haskin
Special Effects
Michael Curtiz
Director
Hugo Friedhofer
Music Arranger
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Original Music Composer
Jack London
Novel
Robert Rossen
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Wasting, sinking, dazzling, floating
2024
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1926
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Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
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2008 · 14 wins
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1978 · 13 wins
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2000 · 12 wins
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1981 · 11 wins
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