Movie review - "The Sea Chase" (1955) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

If you thought John Wayne was miscast in The Conqueror wait til you see him as a German sea captain in 1939. He's one of those Good Germans - a brave soldier from World War I (because, you know, they believed in freedom so much) who has called afoul of the Nazis so is only captaining a crummy freighter, is best friends with a British naval captain (David Farrar) and breaks up his engagement to a girl with a trashy past (Lana Turner), is admired by his men except the Nazi first mate.

He's in Sydney Harbor (cue some location shots) when the Germans invade Poland. Realising things are going to get hot he slips out and is pursued by Farrar. Matters get especially hot when the Nazi shoots some innocent fishermen on Auckland Island, which makes Wayne and his gang a war criminal.

I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. Wayne is never for a second convincing as a German but he's believable as a sea captain of integrity. Lana Turner emotes all over the shop as a Nazi spy but her relationship with Wayne does work (they have sex several times). What gives it real emotional kick is they both die at the end - this cleanses a lot of sins. 

 

It's also an engrossing story with plenty of incident - fleeing Sydney, Auckland Island, running out of fuel, a South Pacific island interlude, going into Valpariso. Occasionally I didn't buy it lie Dave Farrar arranging for a transfer to the North Sea to chase Wayne - I know why they did it that way but I didn't buy it.

This must have been one of John Farrow's most personal projects: starting off in his home town of Sydney, about boats during World War 2, the navy, going across the Pacific and staying on a Pacific Island. Tab Hunter isn't on screen very much as an officer; there are other people with far bigger roles, such as the ancient sailor, the burly sailor who comes to respect Wayne, the Nazi, the shark victim who kills himself, etc.

NB In the 1950s there was a whole sub genre of "sympathetic German" films: The One Who Got Away, The Desert Fox, The Young Lions, The Enemy Below, this. All popular. People didn't mind a sympathetic German hero so long as he was anti-Nazi and died at the end.