Reap the Wild Wind 1942

I dare anyone to just look at this poster and NOT want to see this movie immediately. DeMille. John Wayne. Steampunk diving gear. Giant squid. There is nothing wrong with this combination. And I love a good old seafaring movie as much as I love a good old western. They're basically westerns on water, anyways.

I discovered the existence of "Reap the Wild Wind" (1942) by descending into one of the only below ground cellars in all of Key West. It was damp and smelled of the sea, and there was an impressive display of memorabilia behind glass. It showcased this epic piece of crowd pleasing cinema about my beloved Conch Republic's wild and surprising history.

It's set in the 1840's, when Key West was the hub of a maddeningly successful ship salvage industry in the caribbean. I squeed when that Ten Commandments voice started epically explaining the premise. Paulette Goddard plays Loxi, who runs a salvage business started by her father. She appears to be doing well, if her Gone With The Wind-style classic Victorian manse and mounds of petticoated skirts are any indication. But as soon as someone calls "WRECK ASHORE!" she literally jumps out of her frock and into galoshes, ready to sail. This opening sequence alone was enough to make me love her.

From what I remember of what I learned at the Shipwreck Museum, merchant ships wrecked against the shallow coral reefs just south of the Keys all the damn time. Wrecker crews were obliged to rescue the people on the ships first, but then the owner of the salvage ship who got to the wrecked ship first was entitled to half the salvage auction's proceeds. People came from far and wide to bid at top prices for tons of valuables: ivory, textiles, silks, gold, tobacco, and all kinds of luxury goods like musical instruments, jewelry, furniture, etc. 

You didn't even need a hurricane for this to happen often enough that several families on the island had a decent chance to make a sweet living. Key West, for a time, was the richest city in America per capita. Obviously, some people "arranged" shipwrecks by either cutting deals with ship captains to run aground or by simply sticking a lamp on the back of a mule to trick navigators into thinking it was a lighthouse, and therefore leading them into dangerous waters. The Key West wreckers were often suspected of such pirating behavior and often went to trial to determine if their salvage operation was on the level.

So we join Loxi when she misses an opportunity to be the wreck master of the latest wreck. The ship that does get there first gets there a little *too* fast, and people suspect they planned the wreck with the captain. Instead, she salvages something more exciting: a half-drowned Captain Jack (John Wayne). After she nurses him back to health in her own bedroom (a lady's bedroom, oh my!) she falls for him (and who wouldn't!). When she must go visit her cousin in Charleston, she is at first unenthused, but gets chuffed as soon as she finds out that Jack is sailing there as well to face his ship's owner.

Upon arriving in Charleston, she tries to convince Steve (Ray Milland)--who runs the shipping company Jack works for--to give Jack another chance. Steve has a thing for Loxi, of course, and gets Jack the job on the lush steamer the Southern Cross. Noticing that Steve is only doing this to please Loxi, Jack makes a deal with a rival Key West wrecker to purposely wreck the Southern Cross so they can share in the salvage profits. Steve takes Loxi's ship out to stop him, but because Loxi doesn't believe the rumors about Jack's shady plan, she sabotages her own ship to stop Steve from  accosting Jack. The Southern Cross wrecks on the reef, and a trial is held to investigate the matter. 

During the trial, information is revealed that leads everyone to believe Loxi's cousin may have stowed away on the Southern Cross and had died during the wreck. The trial is moved to the site of the wreck (OMG What the very fuck let's all just move the entire courtroom population to the deck of a ship during a storm like it ain't no thing). Jack and Steve both don awesome old school diving suits to descend into the Southern Cross' watery hold and find evidence of what may have happened. Just as Steve finds a telltale shawl, a gigantic orange squid sneaks in and starts attacking them. 

Now this ain't no B-roll Ed Wood squid folks. This is a Technicolor Cecil B. DeMille masterpiece of a puppet with tentacles that have a mind of their own. This squid even notices that the diving men need the ladder to escape the underwater ship and the clever beast manages to yank it out from under them. Like, how the earthly hell does a giant squid known how ladders work for humans? Doesn't matter, because John Wayne stabs the bastard to rescue Steve, who manages to escape to the surface before the raging sea causes the ship to tip off the reef into deep water, drowning poor Jack. Yes, you read that right. John Wayne stabs a giant squid. You ain't never lived till you've seen John Wayne wrestle a squid. Underwater. In a steampunk diving suit.

AMAZEBALLS.

Loxi ends up with Steve in the end, probably due to some dumb Hays Code rule that the man with the dark side must get his comeuppance by the end. Damn you, Hays Code! John Wayne steps off a horse this once and he gets drowned by a hideous sea monster. Go figure. 

Still, I TOTALLY LOVED THIS FILM. Paulette Goddard is spunky and full of chutzpah, John Wayne is super youthful and cool, and hey, GIANT SQUID ATTACK. Can't go wrong.