Pluskylang Great Film overall

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

HotToastyRag Get ready for an epic love quadrangle aquatic adventure with Cecil B. DeMille's Reap the Wild Wind. Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, John Wayne, and Susan Hayward all sneak behind each other's backs, deceive, seduce, and fall in love for real. And it takes two hours to sort it all out!It's a little complex, though, and miraculously at the same time, a little tedious. It's as if screenwriters Charles Bennett, Jesse Lasky, Jr., Alan Le May, and Jeanie Macpherson, wanted the audience to take so long to figure out who's who and what they're doing that it would stretch the running time out. But, if you like large-scale adventures with lots of boat scenes, you might not mind. It reminded me of Tap Roots in a way, an attempt to recapture the epic splendor of Gone with the Wind but not really succeeding. You can tell everyone in this movie thinks it's an incredible blockbuster-which, to be fair, it was at the time-but nowadays with so many ship movies out there with more up-to-date special effects, it doesn't feel the same. The famous crane shot in Gone with the Wind doesn't feel the same today, either, so if you like stepping back in time, and you're totally riveted by hurricanes and shipwrecks, you might like this one.

matttaylor-65065 This film was made when all the cast were truly at their peak. I simply love it. The stars all look so young and glamorous, Paulette Goddard was for me the stand out actress. In my humble opinion Paulette has been overlooked by so many people, she was a beautiful gorgeous star. When they released this movie I think it was a real shame they didn't promote her name on the sleeve. They chose to put Susan Hayward's name instead and she didn't even have a big part to play! To be honest it wasn't the first time they put Paulette's name last. Paulette was the star of the movie. She was such a gifted actress who could turn herself to comedy or drama as the need arises.

Ben Larson This film had a plethora of stars from the 40s: Ray Milland who won an Oscar for The Lost Weekend, Paulette Goddard who was nominated for So Proudly We Hail!, Raymond Massey who was nominated for Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Susan Hayward with an Oscar for I Want to Live!, and four other nominations, Charles Bickford with three Oscar nominations in the 40s, Milburn Stone who played Doc Adams on Gunsmoke, and John Wayne who got his Oscar for True Grit, and who had two other nominations.It was directed by the great Cecil B. DeMille, who won three Oscars and had two other nominations. He was best know for The Ten Commandments.The film itself won an Oscar for Special Effects, and had two other nominations for Cinematography and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration.The film is full of storms, ship wrecks and gang fights, and will entertain for the full 123 minutes.

Robert J. Maxwell This colorful sea action yarn of shipwreck and illegal salvage in 1840s Key West was directed by Cecil B. De Mille so you shouldn't expect subtlety. When a woman is supposed to look "frightened," her eyeballs extrude as she claps her hands to her cheeks and gasps. A man who is "mean" looks like a Turkish pederast.It isn't slow, though. It zips along, plowing through the seas, charging through the courtroom scene, brawling through fist fights, lacking anything like pauses for character, humor, or whimsy, as bloodless as if drained by a vampire.The model work is pretty good for the period. It's true that the texture gradient is ignored, so that a distant splash of sea water throws up spray with drops as big as basketballs, but compared to a contemporary movie like "The Sea Hawk" it's convincing enough. And the color photography is above average. In some of the model shots, the many-masted rigs seem to sail under lenticular lavender clouds glowing with underbellies of a soft rose in the setting sun. The seas scintillate. The image is as pretty as a travel poster. Take Your Next Vacation In San Placebo, Getaway Of The Stars!It's taken from a story in the magazine founded by Benjamin Franklin, "The Saturday Evening Post." The weekly magazines were the source of many stories made into screenplays. "Stagecoach," for another instance, was from an Ernest Haycox story in "Collier's" magazine. The public used to READ MAGAZINES in the 1940s! I no its hard 2 believe.John Wayne has the role known as second male lead in this one -- second to star Ray Milland -- and it's just as well. Wayne would shortly turn into a serious performer but he wasn't there yet in 1941. Milland doesn't walk around in a cloud of pheromones either but he's animated, hits his marks, and delivers his lines with vigor.The two principal Southern ladies -- the charming and innocent Susan Hayward and the spirited, unconventional Paulette Goddard, whose character owes a lot to Scarlet O'Hara -- are amusing on screen together. Hayward was from Brooklyn and Goddard was born in Queens. They never forgot their New York background. Goddard left most of her estate to New York University when she died.The racial relations remain as stereotyped as ever. May I mock them? If Goddard resembles Scarlet, Louise Beavers resembles Mammy -- always shaking her head, mumbling about voodoo drums and scolding her charge -- but she's a pale imitation. De black folk, day neber called "slaves." Day be de friends of de buckra who hob de ballroom full wit people dat be dancin round in circles called de waltz in de Big House. I done forgit who be the darkie wit de big white eyes but he ain't de same booger who say in annudder movie, "Feets, don't fail me now!" One of the most memorable lines occurs when the indefatigable Ray Milland is pursuing the spunky young Goddard and she slaps him or something and he says, "You're very desirable when you're angry." That translates as, 'You're cute when you're mad," in case you missed it.It's not often that John Wayne plays a heavy, even a confused one, but he does here. He sells his integrity to spite Milland, whom he has been led to believe is his enemy. Wayne pays the price the code of the time demanded.Despite the portentous narrative introduction by De Mille himself, there isn't much in the way of spiritual nourishment to be had from this flick but you're not likely to be bored. It's designed specifically to prevent that from happening.