Sea Devils

1953 "Six-Feet-Four of fighting Man ... to Tame a Wildcat Beauty !"
5.6| 1h31m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 23 May 1953 Released
Producted By: RKO Radio Pictures
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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Gilliatt, a fisherman-turned-smuggler on the isle of Guernsey, agrees to transport a beautiful woman to the French coast in the year 1800. She tells him she hopes to rescue her brother from the guillotine. Gilliatt finds himself falling in love and so feels betrayed when he later learns this woman is a countess helping Napoleon plan an invasion of England. In reality, however, the "countess" is an English agent working to thwart this invasion. When Gilliatt finds this out, he returns to France to rescue the woman who's true purpose has been discovered by the French.

Genre

Adventure, Action

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Director

Raoul Walsh

Production Companies

RKO Radio Pictures

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Sea Devils Audience Reviews

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Spikeopath Sea Devils is directed by Raoul Walsh and written by Borden Chase. It stars Rock Hudson, Yvonne De Carlo, Maxwell Reed, Denis O'Dea, Michael Goodlife and Bryan Forbes. Music is by Richard Addinsell and cinematography by Wilkie Cooper." Guernsey in the Channel Islands near the coast of France in the year 1800, where fishermen, prevented by war from following their usual livelihood, turned to other occupations..."That occupation is of course smuggling, which lends one to think that Sea Devils is about to buckle our swash with a tale of derring do on the high seas. Unfortunately it doesn't pan out that way, for the pic is essentially a spy adventure set partly at sea that involves Hudson and De Carlo going backwards and forwards between England and France. They bicker, they swoon, she looks sexy, he takes his shirt off, he makes dumb decisions (he's no dashing hero type here) and she does her bit for King and Country as she hopes to stop Napoleon in his watery tracks. It's nicely colourful, the costuming adequate and the cast are fun to watch. But Walsh lets the film meander at times and it never really amounts to being more than a dressed up time filler of a movie. 6/10
ma-cortes A panoramic adventure during the Napoleonic Wars set on location in Guernsey , the Channel Islands , near the coast of France in the year 1800 , where fishermen, prevented by war from following their usual livelihood turned to other occupations . Gilliatt (enjoyable hero Rock Hudson) along with his partner (Bryan Forbes , subsequently a good filmmaker) are two fisherman-turned-smugglers on the agree to transport a gorgeous woman (an attractive Ivonne De Carlo) to the French coast in the year 1800 . The smuggler Gilliatt finds himself falling in love for her and they come together but he feels betrayed when he later aware this woman is a countess helping Napoleon scheme an invasion of England and the nasty Fouche (Brunius who gets all the best lines and makes the most of them) pursues his beautiful bride-to-be . This exciting story packs sea romance , thrills , spectacular struggles , intrigue , and lots of gutsy adventure . Brawling , sprawling , almost primitive action in cracking pace , teeming across the screen . Raoul Walsh demonstrates a special talent for making the densest action sequences seem uncomplicated and uncluttered and his characters , like the scenes distinguished , often have an unfettered , raw power . Developed in untroubled-gusto and hardly seems to matter that many scenes are inexplicable . The movie marked the third teaming of director Raoul Walsh with star Rock Hudson who worked together on ¨Horizons West¨ and ¨Lawless breed¨, they would work together again on ¨Gun fury¨, their fourth and final movie together . Gorgeous Ivonne De Carlo as a spy who bears a mysterious past , she does an enjoyable and prominent acting . Good secondary cast with familiar hearted features as Maxwell Reed as Rantaine , Denis O'Dea as Lethierry , Michael Goodliffe as Ragan , Bryan Forbes as Willie , Jacques B. Brunius as Fouche , Arthur Wontner as Baron De Baudrec and special appearance of Gérard Oury as Napoleon . Colorful cinematography by Wilkie Cooper , filmed on location in Channel Islands ,Concarneau, Finistère, France and Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK . Spectacular and evocative musical score by Richard Addinsell . The motion picture produced by David Rose was well directed by Raoul Walsh . From his starts in the silent cinema he achieved successful films until the 50s and forward , early 60s , when he was less dominant , but is still stayed lots of lusty adventure , stories of comradeship and friendship , and Raoul makes the most of plentiful action scenes . Walsh was an expert director of all kind genres but with penchant in Western as ¨Colorado territory¨ , ¨They died with their boots on¨, ¨Along the great divide¨, ¨Saskatchewan¨, ¨King and four queens¨ , ¨The sheriff of fractured jaw¨, ¨A distant trumpet¨ ; Adventure as ¨Thief of Bagdad¨, ¨Captain Horatio Hornblower¨, ¨World in his hands¨, ¨Blackbeard the pirate¨ ; Warlike as ¨Objetive Burma¨ , ¨Northern pursuit¨, ¨Marines let's go¨ ; and Noir film as ¨White heat¨, ¨High Sierra¨, ¨They drive by night¨, ¨The roaring twenties¨. Rating : Fairly straightforward movie and acceptable flick . This briskly-realized action film makes it of the various of Raoul Walsh genre entries being worthwhile watching .
bkoganbing New top Universal Pictures leading man Rock Hudson was sent on a loan out to RKO to co-star with Yvonne DeCarlo in Sea Devils. Though the film is somewhat at sea there aren't any real devils in this picture.It's a spy story set in the Napoleonic era with spymaster Denis O'Dea trying to implement a plan to send Yvonne DeCarlo over to hostile France from the Channel island of Guernsey. The guy who was going to take her over Maxwell Reid gets himself indisposed after a brawl with Rock Hudson in a tavern.Reid and Hudson are rival smugglers who make a good living trading with the continent and breaching Napoleon's continental blockade on one side and avoiding the customs folks on the other. They also hate each other passionately and steal frequently from each other. But now Hudson has the only boat in town and DeCarlo has to use him.As for the rest of the film, Hudson is not so much a romantic figure, but something of a lout who up to the end seems more of a hindrance all around than a help. As for DeCarlo although she's a spy she's no Mati Hari and it ain't clear just who she's a double or triple agent for until the end.This is a minor league swashbuckler directed by the always good Raoul Walsh that didn't hurt Rock Hudson's career any, but I don't think it especially helped.
junk-monkey The dialogue in this movie is ploddingly pedantically awful - and there is so much of it! Maybe it is because the film is set the early 19th Century and people are trying to make it look classy but everyone in this film gives full weight to every syllable of their every line. There is not a single "ain't," "shalln't," "can't," or "won't" in the whole thing. Everything is delivered in a very stagy mock-formal manner that, had it been camped up might have been amusing, but, as it wasn't, is merely grindingly dull.The writer, Borden Chase, was obviously much happier with westerns - he wrote the classic Red River amongst others - and seems to have been overawed by the language when adapting a novel by such a revered writer as Victor Hugo (who also wrote Les Misrables) - or he was just plain out of his depth when attempting to write a 'period' piece. For whatever reason, the dialogue is stilted and clumsy; sounding at times like a dubbed Italian movie rather than a film written by someone who's first language was English.Not as bad as some - but dull.