THE SEA CHASE
US, 1955, 117 minutes, Colour.
John Wayne, Lana Turner, David Farrar, Lyle Bettger, Tab Hunter, James Arness, Richard Davalos, John Qualen, Paul Fix, Lowell Gilmore, Alan Hale Jr.
Directed by John Farrow.
The Sea Chase is an entertaining action adventure. It is a variation for John Wayne, whom audiences are so used to in westerns. It was made after Hondo and before The Searchers.
Wayne this time is a German freighter captain. Not sympathetic to the Nazis, he decides to head with his crew to Norway. He also has an attractive spy on board. In the meantime, the British are in pursuit, led by David Farrar. The film also has a number of young actors of the period on board, especially Tab Hunter and Richard Davalos as well as James Arness.
The film is expected action adventure. It was directed by John Farrow who made many action films but was also interested in the sea with such films as Two Years Before the Mast as well as John Paul Jones.
1. How enjoyable an adventure was this? what characteristics did it use? How well? Audience involvement and response?
2. How interesting was the film as a war film? Particularly with its German point of view? Audience response to this?
3. How enjoyable was the film as a navy and sea adventure? The characteristics of the chase? the storms, fuelling, crew relationships?
4. How good was the structure of the film? The English commander's reminiscences and commentary? His change of attitude during this commentary? Allowing for mystery at the end? Was this structure better than straightforward narrative or not?
5. The German captain: how central was he in the film? His relationship to the ship and its background? His own background as anti-Nazi? The fact of being caught in Sydney at the beginning of the war? The importance of his decisions? His loyalty to Germany? His integrity and pride, the driving force for achievement? His capacity for hardness, for suffering, for compassion? The quality of his ingenuity? Of his love for Elsa? What kind of man was he? How heroic? The significance of John Wayne playing this part?
6. How did the film highlight the significance of his achievement? The South American sequences? The ending of the film and the British commenting on his achievement? Human endurance and loyalty?
7. How interesting was the contrast of the Germans with the British? Comment on the motivations of the British? The war motivations, the personal motivations of the captain, the emotional motivations? How well illustrated and employed were they during the film?
8. The character of Elsa? The fact that Lana Turner played the role? First impressions? The truth about her as a spy? Her capacity for heroism alongside the captain? Her decision to stay with hin? The quality of her love? Her remaining with him at the end and his saving her? The fact that if she died with him she had achieved something?
9. How well did the film communicate the different personalities of the different men in the crew? The villain and his cruelty? The Nazi type? Th captain submitting him to his death?
10. The other members of the crew, the strong man, the old man on the look-out, the young sailors, the sailor mauled by the shark and shooting himself? From ordinary sailors on a small ship, what heroism did they achieve?
11. The importance of the sequences of refuelling at the Island, the getting of fuel, the captain's way of forcing the men to work, his use of psychology on them? This intercutting with the British pursuit?
12. The South American sequences, the heroism, ontrasting with German propaganda and the Nazis, the captain’s undergoing humiliation in public?
13. How interesting was the presentation and the using of such incidents in German and British propaganda?
14. How deep was the film mant to be? How much merely an adventure? successful on each of these levels?
