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Now restored to perfection, this genuine classic hasn’t been seen intact for way over sixty years. Michael Curtiz and Robert Rossen adapt Jack London’s suspenseful allegory in high style, with a superb quartet of actors doing some of their best work: Robinson, Garfield, Lupino and newcomer Alexander Knox.

The Sea Wolf

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 100 min. uncut! / Street Date October 10, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Alexander Knox, Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Gene Lockhart, Barry Fitzgerald. Stanley Ridges, David Bruce, Francis McDonald, Howard Da Silva, Frank Lackteen, Ralf Harolde

Cinematography: Sol Polito

Film Editor: George Amy

Art Direction: Anton Grot

Special Effects: Byron Haskin, Hans F. Koenekamp

Original Music: Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Written by Robert Rosson, from the novel by Jack London

Produced by Hal B. Wallis, Henry Blanke

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Chopping up films for television was once the...

With the arrival of the auteur theory, filmmakers like Michael Curtiz no longer get as much sway among the current generation of directors. Curtiz (born Kertész Kaminer Manó in Hungary in 1886), was a journeyman, a man who flourished in the studio system after being picked out by Jack Warner for his Austrian Biblical epic "Moon of Israel" in 1924. He stayed at the studio for nearly 20 years, taking on whatever he was assigned at a terrifyingly prolific rate -- he made over 100 Hollywood movies up to "The Comancheros" in 1961. And some of them are terrible, as you might expect.

But Curtiz was also responsible for some of the greatest films of the era, and those who diminish his abilities (including the director himself, who once said "Who cares about character? I make it go so fast nobody notices") are ignoring his enormous skill behind the camera, and his undeniable capacity for...

Jack London’S The Sea Wolf ****

Stars: Sebastian Koch, Tim Roth, Neve Campbell, Stephen Campbell Moore | Written by Jack London, screenplay by Nigel Williams | Directed by Mike Barker

Adapted for television in it’s latest outing, from the original book written by the American journalist and author Jack London, The Sea Wolf is an enticing tale of life on the high seas, and in particular on board a sealing schooner named ‘Ghost’. Bound for Japanese poaching grounds, ‘Ghost’ is captained by Wolf Larsen (Koch), who is a man not to be crossed, as he is as strong and tyrannical as he is cunning. It is the unlucky fate of Humphrey Van Weyden (Moore), that he should find himself on board the ‘Ghost’ and under the service of the Sea Wolf, Larsen.

We follow Humphrey, as he enters the story and finds himself in service on board, after being rescued from...

The Sea Wolf started life in 1904 as an adventure novel written by American journalist and author Jack London. Since it was first published, the story has been adapted for the screen no fewer than thirteen times. The latest version, released on DVD last week, was made in 2009 as an epic two part 3 hour TV movie co-produced by Canada and Germany. The film’s truly international cast includes Sebastian Koch, Neve Campbell and Tim Roth.

Wolf Larsen (Koch) is the tyrannical Captain of the notorious seal hunting vessel, the Sea Wolf. While on the high seas, he takes on castaway Humphrey Van Wyden (Stephen Campbell Moore). But instead of abandoning him at the next harbour, Wolf puts the mild mannered literary critic to work and rules over him with an unyielding iron fist. Much to Wolf’s surprise, the graft transforms Van Wyden into a hardened adversary – every bit as formidable as Wolf himself.

Paul Dunlap was a prolific film composer in the 1950s and 1960s, scoring over 200 features. He was best known for providing themes and scores for numerous science fiction and horror thrillers of the decades. His music highlighted attacks by prehistoric beasts in 1951’s Lost Continent starring Cesar Romero, and an alien robot invasion in 1954’s Target Earth with Richard Denning and Kathleen Crowley. He scored Michael Landon’s transformation from man to monster in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), and provided music for such other Aip and United/Allied Artist cult classics as I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957), Blood of Dracula (1957), How to Make a Monster (1958), Frankenstein – 1970 (1958), Invisible Invaders (1959), The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), Angry Red Planet (1959), Shock Corridor (1963), and Black Zoo (1963).

Dunlap was born in Springfield, Ohio, on July 19, 1919. He began working in films in the early 1950s, scoring westerns, war and action films including The Baron of Arizona...