The Sea Hornet

I discovered this interesting little movie yesterday.

A mix up of film noir and modern adventure. It takes place among high sea divers in search of a bullion. Rod Cameron is as good as ever. So is Jim Davis as the bad guy.

I also found an exotic perfume in this flick, even in black and white.

Actually, it's not a surprise. Herbert J Yates produced it.

Remember "Fair Wind to Java" directed by the same Joseph Kane. Joseph Kane who shot especially western movies, not thrillers or adventure films.

Just Vera Ralston is missing.

Rod Cameron and his partner run a diving business, one of those ones where trained men go down in those big suits with air hoses connected to a pump on board a ship. They get an offer to blow up a ship, even though it's so deep it means nothing. The money is good, but Cameron isn't interested. His partner takes the equipment, goes to the town where the ship is, and winds up dead. Cameron heads in and discovers there's a million dollars in gold in the ship. He signs a contract with the insurance company to raise it.

At this point I recognized the story. It's based on Peter Cheyney's 1942 novel SORRY YOU'VE BEEN TROUBLED. Cheyney died in June of 1951, and five months later, this came out, writing credited to an original idea and screenplay by Gerald Drayson Adams.

Well, novelty in the movies is an iffy thing at best, isn't it, and the world is full of coincidence, and I have an evilly suspicious mind. So I compared the two. Neither is any great shakes. I do concede that this is a decent adventure movie, and that Joseph Kane is a better director than Willy Rozier. But even so....

"The sea hornet" is another Republic cheapy directed by Jo Kane. But sadly with no inventive direction, even with Bert Glennon as the cinematographer. The only interest in this oldie cheapy is Rod Cameron fighting again and again, and I always admire Adele Mara. But that's all folks, only reserved for forgotten B movies fans. The song in the beginning immediately rings me a bell, it sounds like the Kingston Trio who began later in 1957, but they really sing the same way, we can even hear the words "early in the morning" which will be another song by the Kingston Trio.