Cecil B de Mille must have looked longingly at the grosses for Gone with the Wind and thought “I want me some of that” so here’s Paulette Goddard, unsuccessful auditonee for Scarlett O’Hara, as a Southern minx getting up to period adventures in the old technicolour south, being lusted after by a rough neck (John Wayne) and a gentleman (Ray Milland). It’s set in 1840s Florida with Milland determined to stop a gang of wreckers from preying on ships they entice to their doom – Wayne starts off good but then turns bad (deliberately wrecking his ship) enabling Goddard to go off with rich Milland at the end.
This is enormous fun – I loved Goddard in this movie, she was full of energy and spunk and looked terrific. It’s less lively in the second half when Milland drives more of the action and she becomes more of a passenger. But there is gorgeous production value and photography, plenty of story, a strong support cast (also Raymond Massey, Robert Preston and Susan Hayward, who meets a movingly tragic fate, stowing away and drowning).
It is racist – the slaves are happy and wacky (Louise Beavers channels Hattie McDaniel, and there’s also the dreaded “comic negro" on board one of the ships), there’s no criticism of the Southern way of life, lots of sniffing magnolias and balls when action takes place on land – although the race issue isn’t central to the story (villain Massey is a slaver but mainly a wrecker). Oh and there's a bunch of storms and a fight with a squid.
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