Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

r_w_a The first hour and a half centers around Paulette Goddard screaming, yelling at everyone, breaking and chopping things up and being very annoying. I have no idea how this won an Oscar. Far too much boring dialog. I was expecting a sea adventure down on the Florida keys with beautiful big sailing ships with great scenery. What you get is a lot of chaos on deck and meaningless chatter below deck. When you consider the budget, actors and atmosphere the potential was there. The last half hour finally gets going mostly because Paulette Goddard calms down. I am no expert movie reviewer but I know a good movie when I see one. I cannot and do not recommend this movie. A major disappointment.

abcj-2 Reap the Wild Wind (1942) There are many good reasons to watch Reap The Wild Wind at least once. First, it has an outstanding cast. Milland and Goddard are the stars. He plays the foppish Southern gentleman. She plays the spunky sea salvage runner who also looks beautiful in a hoop dress. Wayne and Hayward are not top-billed, but their stars were rising. He plays the down on his luck sea captain. She plays a lovely young woman secretly in love with the wrong man. Next, the color and costuming are brilliantly filmed. Money was obviously spent with the anticipation of money being made. It is no Gone With the Wind, but the two ultimately don't compare plot wise. The story is a clever one and has plenty of action at sea and in the courtroom. What looks quite hokey today would have looked pretty spectacular to a moviegoer in 1942. Is this a film I'll want to revisit often? Probably not. However, it was entertaining and engaging. That's why I like to watch films. That's also why I recommend it to anyone who finds the cast, premise, and ahead of it's time color and action the least bit interesting.

jpdoherty Paramount's REAP THE WILD WIND (1942) is arguably Cecil B.DeMille's best picture! There is little of his usual bluster, bombast and over the top special effects. Although his grip on actors was always somewhat slack the flamboyant jodhpurs clad producer / director managed here to elicit fine performances from an attractive cast and come up with a well structured screenplay by Alan LeMay, Charles Bennett and Jesse Lasky Jr. which derived from a novel by Thelma Strabel. Richly photographed in glowing Technicolor by Victor Milner, Dewey Wrigley and William V.Skall the movie, at the time of its release, was being touted as a sort of "Gone With The Wind" of the sea and not only because the leading lady Paulette Goddard and her co-star Susan Hayward had both tested for the part of Scarlet O'Hara three years earlier. Impressive also is the Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson nominated Art Direction especially for a party and a well staged ball sequence in Charleston. Combined with opulent set designs, lavish costumes and ravishing colour these scenes positively sparkle. REAP THE WILD WIND is about the pirate wreckers who prey on the shipping lanes along the coast of Key West in 1840's Florida and scuttle great ships on the jagged rocks so as to extract the rich booty on board. Then there's the honest salvage ships who's sole purpose is to save lives and the valuable cargo. One such ship helm-ed by Captain Philpot (Lynne Overman) and his feisty and impetuous niece Loxi Claiborne (Goddard) rescue Captain Jack Stuart (John Wayne) and nurse him back to health. But the shipping company headed by the smooth and foppish lawyer Steve Tolliver (Ray Milland) wants Stuart never to command another ship because of his recklessness. In the meantime Loxi has fallen for Stuart who now has to vie with Tolliver for her affections.The cast is quite wonderful! Top billed is Ray Milland who gives his usual convincing and engaging performance as the man trying to win the heart of the attractive and boisterous Loxi (the film's pivotal role well played by Goddard). But a revelation is John Wayne who is excellent in what is his first "big" movie and only his second in Technicolor. Surprisingly too in the engaging love scenes with Loxi, Wayne cuts an accomplished romantic figure ("Nights on watch I'll see like this Loxi, with your hair catching fire in the sunset and that look in your eyes ten thousand fathoms deep"). Then there's the young and really attractive Susan Hayward in one of her early appearances as Loxi's star-crossed cousin Drusilla. Also effective is Raymond Massey as a black hearted villain with the colourful name of King Cutler and Robert Preston as Hayward's dashing young lover. The highlight of the movie is, of course, the excellent set piece towards the end of the picture where divers Milland and Wayne battle it out inside a ship's wreck in the ocean depths with a giant squid. In these days of CGI it is amazing that this scene, that was always considered quite stunning, can still manage to look powerfully real and exciting. The film won the 1942 Acadamy Award for special effects.Complimenting the picture throughout is the splendid score by De MIlle's favourite and trusted composer the great Victor Young. His Main Title is a rollicking and bawdy sea shanty and his theme for the sea is a broad full orchestral piece with powerful horn figures against romantic strings. Then for the young lovers (Hayward and Preston) there is a tender and lyrical theme that gives their scenes together an engaging and heartfelt charm.REAP THE WILD WIND is another of old Hollywood's master strokes. A timeless romantic sea adventure with a memorable cast that has been enjoyed by past generations and no doubt will be enjoyed by many generations to come.

weezeralfalfa I don't know of any other Wayne film before the forgettable '47 "Tycoon" that was filmed in color. After his epic B&W western "Union Pacific", DeMille had the clout to insist all his future works be filmed in Technicolor: a rare luxury treatment in the early and mid'40s. Color films didn't become dominate until competition from TV forced Hollywood to provide more reasons for people to watch films in theaters instead of on TV, as color TVs didn't become common until the '60s. This film is perhaps my favorite Wayne flick(if we can consider it a Wayne film, as he didn't get top billing). I've seen it several times. The Technicolor treatment is certainly one reason, but I'm also hooked on DeMille's better films(In spite of several other fine '39 westerns, "Union Pacific" is my clear favorite for that year). The general style of the present film apes that of "Gone with the Wind", to which it is often disparagingly compared. I've never been a big fan of the latter. If given a choice, I would see DeMille's film again. It is also commonly compared to Wayne's latter film,"The Wake of the Red Witch", which I have not seen, but is said to be largely a reworked version of the present film.Considering the age of this film, I thought the DVD transfer quality excellent, with vivid colors. From the included background extras, we learn that much of the shooting took place on location in Charleston and the Key West area. However, the under water scenes were done in a huge tank. Both Paulette Goddard and Susan Hayward tried out for the role of Scarlett in "Gone with the Wind". It is speculated that Ms. Goddard lost out partly because of her uncertain official relationship with her lover of recent years, Charlie Chaplin. By the time the present film was begun, this relationship was over.There are many complexities to this film and so many interesting, if sometimes stock, characters. I thought all the main characters and most of the supporting characters were well cast. Captain Jack and Steve Tolliver seemed destined to be at each other's throats throughout the story. Yet, occasionally they fought together against a common enemy and helped the other in a desperate situation. Captain Jack is a tragic character, sometimes in hot water through no fault of his own, yet performing a dastardly deed to help win his love that precipitates the demise of many of the main characters. Raymond Massey sheds his Lincoln and John Brown images to become an engaging masterful villain. I found his performance in the courtroom, as Captain Jack's lawyer, riveting. In fact, the whole courtroom scene was masterfully done. In one of the many convoluted relationships, Susan Hayward's character falls for Massey's handsome younger brother, who lives in his brother's shadow as a marginal villain. This romance, on the sneak, will become central to the tragic and redemptive events near the end of the story. I thought the talking dog and mischievous pet capuchin served well to provide some comic relief. I also enjoyed Lynne Overman's portrayal of Captain Phil, a classic old salt and grandfatherly figure. My main gripe is I didn't like the ending: the parting scene specifically. It just didn't ring plausible or just.