Requins de haute mer

This film's sole claim to fame is as the last big screen appearance of veteran actor Victor McLaglen. His character, Bellew, is an aging tugboat captain working out of a Spanish port on the Bay of Biscay. His eye is taken - and who could blame him - by the beautiful young Josita (Lucianna Paluzzi). Her father - whom the value-system of her time and place tells her she must obey - wants her to encourage him. When she objects to the idea of marrying an old man he tells her that, because he's old, Bellew won't last long. When she inherits his wealth she can provide her father with a small pension, take the rest and go to live in Madrid or Barcelona and marry for love. Unsurprisingly Josita is more taken with Abel (Stanley Baker), a young sailor whom Bellew had taken under his wing. Much of the film is taken up with this unremarkable love/lust triangle. By far the best part is a well-done action sequence where the tugboat's crew try to salvage a ship carrying a dangerous cargo. A solid cast includes such future stars as Barry Foster, Robert Shaw, Rupert Davies.

Firstly can I make the point that although this site shows Baker as top billed it is Mclaglen who was top billed and the name above the title.Mclaglen was an actor who was rarely capable of giving a restrained performance.He needed someone of the calibre of John Ford in getting him to be more restrained.Here he is rather odd because he lusts after a woman young enough to be his granddaughter.Difficult to know whether the director was serious about suggesting this romance.Anyway all the action is reserved for the climax which involves Stanley Baker.IThe end of a long career for Victor.

The continuity announcer for 'London Live' said the star of this film was Stanley Baxter (what a film 'Zulu' would made with him in it!).

It's great claim to fame is that it marked the final film role of Victor McLaglen, predictibly cast as a drunken old curmudgeon (complete with walking stick) who comprises one corner of the screen's most unlikely triangle with Stanley Baker and Luciana Paluzzi.

The film finally lives up to it's title with the dramatic finale of Baker saving a ship in distress carrying drums of highly combustable sodium with a surprising appearance by a dazed-looking Dermot Walsh as the ship's seriously concussed captain.

For a man who lived and tasted more of life before his movie career began in the late twenties than most actors, indeed most people will ever know, it is fitting to see Vic in his old form one last time. The film is peppered with references to his life both on and off stage. From the opening sequence with him barking orders and bodily shoving people aside, we see that though in his early seventies, he's still got enough for one last performance.

The scene where he pins a medal on Stanley Baker, and plays his trademark rough-an-tumble drunk is classic McLaglen. His half-hearted attempt at courting the lovely Luciana Paluzzi culminates in an amusing treat of a scene that ends with Paluzzi storming out of the captain's cabin and Victor picking himself up off the floor.

Later we find Vic's character Captain Bellew with Stanley Baker's Abel Hewson on the bridge, as Bellew describes an experience from his early days at sea, and declares that he's done a bit of everything in his time. He says it with an honest conviction because he is quite easily telling the truth about his own life.

In all, I rate it a great watch for anyone who admires the man's irrepressible zest for life and the adventurous tale of his winding course through it. One of the last great men of the Victorian Era takes his bow with this one.

Victor McLaglen, the captain of a tug boat service forms a misplaced affection for Luciana Paluzzi, her father (Delgado) happy to oblige for a significant dowry and ongoing prestige. Paluzzi, of course, at least thirty-something years McLaglen's junior, isn't so willing to be matrimonially arranged and finds mutual attraction with the newly hired mate, Stanley Baker. The ensuing tension creates friction between those loyal to the embattled skipper, and others swayed by Baker's courage and the prospect of a changing in the guard.

McLaglen's final film role is a great individual swansong, but he's better than the matinee grade material. Baker's loner character will draw parallels with that of "Hell Drivers" (another Endfield-Kruse collaboration), as the tough, uncompromising rogue, his professional and disciplined approach initially welcomed by McLaglen starts to wane when it becomes clear that Paluzzi is forming affections for the new first mate. The inevitable transition is made more dramatic by those loyal to the old captain (Shaw, being the most impacted by Baker's sudden arrival and elevation up the pecking order), opposing the vanguard.

The action sequences are competent, but Paluzzi's characterisation (whilst undeniably attractive) lacks the depth which perhaps a Sophia Loren or Pier Angeli would have found in the role. I'm a fan of Paluzzi although I just didn't think this was a role in which her acting talents were utilised beyond being an object of desire and wedge for the ensuing conflict between the male leads.

Quality British supporting cast (aforementioned Shaw and Delgado joined by DeWolff, Aslan and even Barry Foster in a minor role) are mostly spectators to the tepid love triangle and Endfield's direction is not as taut or narratively fluent as in "Hell Drivers" (the similarities with which are too obvious to deny and is possibly where "Sea Fury" suffers as a comparison). But for Baker's charisma and McLaglen's jealous-turn invoking equal amounts of scorn and sympathy accordingly, this would be a largely forgettable experience. A solid climax briefly elevates the picture, but not sufficiently to redeem the otherwise soap-operatic storyline from mediocre status. Fair, but far from memorable.