La furie des tropiques

Richard Widmark flies into what becomes known as "Slattery's Hurricane" as he looks back on his life in this 1949 film. Directed by Andre de Toth, the film also stars Linda Darnell, John Russell and DeToth's wife, Veronica Lake.

Widmark plays Slattery, a former Navy man who, with his girlfriend Delores (Lake), works for drug smugglers. Slattery is unaware of this, though subconsciously he probably knows, but Delores, an addict, knows everything. (Delores' addiction is only hinted at.) When Slattery meets an old Navy friend, Hobbie (John Russell), he finds out that Hobbie married his former love, Aggie (Darnell). Though Delores is in love with Slattery, Slattery is still in love with Aggie and goes after her, not caring about Delores' feelings or Hobbie's marriage. When a hurricane hits, Hobbie is called in for pilot duty so he can get the hurricane coordinates, but he's too drunk to fly. Slattery takes his place, and while flying through the storm, looks at his mess of a life.

This isn't a particularly good film, but Richard Widmark does a great job, creating a fully fleshed-out character. It's impossible to believe that Lake, her signature haircut gone, was only 27 when this film was made. I would have guessed she was 40. Even with her husband directing the movie, she's not well photographed. It's a shame, because the petite actress was perfect for films, radiant, beautiful, with a great presence; no matter the role, she projected an intelligence and femininity. She just doesn't register here. The gorgeous Darnell has very little to do.

All in all, mediocre, but worth it for Widmark.

I hardly recognized Veronica Lake when she first appeared. That short hair was a surprise! Too bad she had so little success beyond her first few successful films.

"Slattery's Hurricane" is a well polished black and white action film that does hold the viewer's interest. It's not a great film, nor even an exceptionally good one. Still, I would recommend it for a number of reasons. Widmark is good as always, and the location work and flying scenes are interesting. Also, at 87 minutes it is pretty well paced. I see in the cast that nearly half a dozen actors had their scenes deleted. That's a sign that the producers decided to tighten the film up a bit, and I think they probably were right in doing so.

As I said, it's worth a look, if only to see how Hollywood in the late 40s was breaking the bonds of the sound stages in which such a high percentage of movies were made prior to that time.

"Slattery's Hurricane" is not a particularly good film and is a rare career misfire for a young Richard Widmark. Oddly, the bizarre and unlikable plot was from a story by Herman Wouk--a very accomplished writer. Perhaps the screenplay completely botched his story...perhaps he just had a misfire.

Slattery (Widmark) is flying into a hurricane when the film begins. He then has a series of flashbacks that take up most of the rest of the film. It seems that after leaving active duty in the Navy, Slattery's made money flying charters. While he might be working for drug dealers, the money is good and Slattery asks no questions. Additionally, while he has a long-suffering girlfriend (Veronica Lake), he completely ignores her and begins chasing after a friend's wife!! All in all, he's a total jerk and only later, when receiving the Navy Cross (awarded for service during WWII--it was given to Slattery while he was in the Naval Reserves) does he start to reassess his life. But who cares?!

The film has many problems--the biggest of which is the blandness of most of the characters. Darnell cheats on her husband...but you know nothing more about her. Lake is a doormat and nothing more. And Slattery's 'friend' (John Russell) is also quite bland--which is odd considering he often had a commanding presence in films. Add to that that Slattery is thoroughly despicable, you really wonder why you're even watching this film in the first place!

After a brief meteorology lesson on just what causes hurricanes, we start with a pilot coshing his mate and stealing a plane. Sadly, that's about as exciting as this gets as we discover that the pilot is WWII veteran "Slattery" (Richard Widmark) who has been quite happily flying around Florida delivering what needs delivering - regardless of what it is! Anyway, as he powers through the sky and into the path of the eponymous storm, he starts to have flashbacks of just what led him to his current predicament. That's where we come in. We get to share those memories as his fairly selfish behaviour impacted on the lives of "Aggie" (Linda Darnell), "Dolores" (Veronica Lake) as well as on his military buddies led by the typically unremarkable Gary Merrill's "Kramer". There are plenty of windy audio effects and the sound stage sprinkler system was well put through it's paces, but the rather episodic style of the presentation along with way too much verbiage and a really rather lacklustre who did what to whom melodrama really never quite takes off. I always found Darnell to be a bit hit or miss, and here she hasn't loads to work with as the story takes us to where we know we have to end up... It's watchable, Saturday afternoon B-fayre, but I doubt you'll recall it for long afterwards.

VERONICA LAKE was married to director Andre deToth at the time she made SLATTERY'S HURRICANE, a tale told in flashback by RICHARD WIDMARK as he pilots a plane through a horrendous storm and recalls a love affair he had with his best friend's wife (LINDA DARNELL). The friend is well played by JOHN RUSSELL, an actor under contract to Fox who never got to do much of anything but seemed as competent as any of the other up and coming contract players.

LINDA DARNELL, looking every inch a femme fatale, is only given a minor role in the proceedings and is quite forgettable. VERONICA LAKE, on the other hand, this time playing a good, sensible woman and not her usual femme fatale, is convincing enough as the right gal for Widmark.

Slow in getting started, it actually only gets into high gear once the storm scenes reach hurricane proportions--but by that time, you might have trouble staying awake through a very mediocre plot.

Based on a book by Herman Wouk (THE CAINE MUTINY), it's hardly a distinguished work.