In Guernsey, fisherman Gilliatt is in love with Déruchette, niece of shipowner Mess Lethierry. One day, Rantaine, the shipowner's partner, leaves with the shipowner's money. Sieur Clubin, the captain of the boat he's on, causes a shipwreck to steal the loot. Gilliatt goes to the scene of the disaster to recover the boat's engine...
Documentary takes a back seat to fiction ;but as André Antoine ("le coupable" ,"l'hirondelle et la mésange") essentially films on location, the Guernesey island is used with talent:the cliffs,the rocks, the sea, the seaweeds, are the scenery of the fishermen's life and of Gilliatt's epic.
Victor Hugo had a house on the island and his book was written there ;Antoine 's movie is faithful to the writer's work ; his directing is often looked upon as the most modern of the French silent age ; the sequences with the octopus bear this out:when the thief is dragged down towards the bottom,the monster does not appear :only water swirls ; the viewer sees it only during the fight with Gilliatt. Spielberg did the same with his shark in "jaws" (1975)
One can also mention the scene when the minister woos Déruchette, Antoine shows ,almost in the same shot Gilliatt's despair ; his self-sacrifice recalls that of Jean Valjean in "les miserables" .
NB : Raoul Walsh's "sea devils"(1953) supposedly based on Hugo's novel ,keeps nothing of the story but some proper nouns and pits Gilliatt (Rock Hudson) against a beautiful spy (?)(Yvonne De Carlo)
