Sea Devils (1953) User Reviews

I was a toiler on the sea.

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 5 April 2014]

Sea Devils is directed by Raoul Walsh and written by Borden Chase. It stars Rock Hudson, Yvonne De Carlo, Maxwell Reed, Denis O'Dea, Michael Goodlife and Bryan Forbes. Music is by Richard Addinsell and cinematography by Wilkie Cooper.

" Guernsey in the Channel Islands near the coast of France in the year 1800, where fishermen, prevented by war from following their usual livelihood, turned to other occupations..."

That occupation is of course smuggling, which lends one to think that Sea Devils is about to buckle our swash with a tale of derring do on the high seas. Unfortunately it doesn't pan out that way, for the pic is essentially a spy adventure set partly at sea that involves Hudson and De Carlo going backwards and forwards between England and France. They bicker, they swoon, she looks sexy, he takes his shirt off, he makes dumb decisions (he's no dashing hero type here) and she does her bit for King and Country as she hopes to stop Napoleon in his watery tracks. It's nicely colourful, the costuming adequate and the cast are fun to watch. But Walsh lets the film meander at times and it never really amounts to being more than a dressed up time filler of a movie. 6/10

Adventure movie about smuggling and Napoleonic espionage by the great Raoul Walsh

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 4 August 2012]

A panoramic adventure during the Napoleonic Wars set on location in Guernsey , the Channel Islands , near the coast of France in the year 1800 , where fishermen, prevented by war from following their usual livelihood turned to other occupations . Gilliatt (enjoyable hero Rock Hudson) along with his partner (Bryan Forbes , subsequently a good filmmaker) are two fisherman-turned-smugglers on the agree to transport a gorgeous woman (an attractive Ivonne De Carlo) to the French coast in the year 1800 . The smuggler Gilliatt finds himself falling in love for her and they come together but he feels betrayed when he later aware this woman is a countess helping Napoleon scheme an invasion of England and the nasty Fouche (Brunius who gets all the best lines and makes the most of them) pursues his beautiful bride-to-be .

This exciting story packs sea romance , thrills , spectacular struggles , intrigue , and lots of gutsy adventure . Brawling , sprawling , almost primitive action in cracking pace , teeming across the screen . Raoul Walsh demonstrates a special talent for making the densest action sequences seem uncomplicated and uncluttered and his characters , like the scenes distinguished , often have an unfettered , raw power . Developed in untroubled-gusto and hardly seems to matter that many scenes are inexplicable . The movie marked the third teaming of director Raoul Walsh with star Rock Hudson who worked together on ¨Horizons West¨ and ¨Lawless breed¨, they would work together again on ¨Gun fury¨, their fourth and final movie together . Gorgeous Ivonne De Carlo as a spy who bears a mysterious past , she does an enjoyable and prominent acting . Good secondary cast with familiar hearted features as Maxwell Reed as Rantaine , Denis O'Dea as Lethierry , Michael Goodliffe as Ragan , Bryan Forbes as Willie , Jacques B. Brunius as Fouche , Arthur Wontner as Baron De Baudrec and special appearance of Gérard Oury as Napoleon . Colorful cinematography by Wilkie Cooper , filmed on location in Channel Islands ,Concarneau, Finistère, France and Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK . Spectacular and evocative musical score by Richard Addinsell .

The motion picture produced by David Rose was well directed by Raoul Walsh . From his starts in the silent cinema he achieved successful films until the 50s and forward , early 60s , when he was less dominant , but is still stayed lots of lusty adventure , stories of comradeship and friendship , and Raoul makes the most of plentiful action scenes . Walsh was an expert director of all kind genres but with penchant in Western as ¨Colorado territory¨ , ¨They died with their boots on¨, ¨Along the great divide¨, ¨Saskatchewan¨, ¨King and four queens¨ , ¨The sheriff of fractured jaw¨, ¨A distant trumpet¨ ; Adventure as ¨Thief of Bagdad¨, ¨Captain Horatio Hornblower¨, ¨World in his hands¨, ¨Blackbeard the pirate¨ ; Warlike as ¨Objetive Burma¨ , ¨Northern pursuit¨, ¨Marines let's go¨ ; and Noir film as ¨White heat¨, ¨High Sierra¨, ¨They drive by night¨, ¨The roaring twenties¨. Rating : Fairly straightforward movie and acceptable flick . This briskly-realized action film makes it of the various of Raoul Walsh genre entries being worthwhile watching .

Not one of the great swashbucklers

[JamesHitchcock · 6/10 · 26 March 2014]

Swashbuckling movies in the best Douglas Fairbanks/Errol Flynn tradition enjoyed something of a revival in the fifties, probably because they provided the colour and spectacle which the cinema needed as a weapon in its battle with television, and Rock Hudson was one of several actors (others included Stewart Granger and Burt Lancaster) endeavouring to prove themselves the heir to Flynn.

In "Sea Devils" Hudson plays Gilliatt (we never learn his Christian name), a Guernsey fisherman-cum-smuggler during the Napoleonic wars. The plot is nothing particularly original; it is essentially a basic Cold War or World War II espionage story sent back in time to an earlier period of British history. Gilliatt agrees to transport a beautiful woman to France in return for payment. She tells him that she is a refugee from the Revolution and that she needs to return to rescue her brother, who is being held captive in a dungeon, but he later comes to suspect that she may in fact be a spy for the French. Gilliatt may cheerfully disregard British law, at least as regards the evasion of import duties, but remains a patriot at heart, so is horrified that he may have played a part in assisting the enemy. Or is the lady in fact a double agent who has been working for the British all along? A sub-plot involves Gilliatt's rivalry with another smuggler, the villainous Rantaine, who has no qualms about helping the French provided he is paid enough.

Hudson's leading lady here is Yvonne De Carlo who (like a number of his leading ladies from the fifties, Jennifer Jones in "A Farewell to Arms" being another example) was slightly older than him. Although the age difference in this case was not great (Rock was 28 in 1953, Yvonne 31), this perhaps made him unusual in a decade when Hollywood's leading male stars were often cast against much younger women. I certainly can't agree with the reviewer who found Yvonne too old for the part; in the early fifties she was one of Hollywood's loveliest female stars.

"Sea Devils" is reasonably entertaining, but it has no great action set- pieces and it cannot compare to the really great swashbucklers like the Errol Flynn "Adventures of Robin Hood" or "The Sea Hawk". It does, however, remain watchable today, if only for the charisma of its two leads. 6/10

Some goofs. Although the film is set in 1800, Napoleon is referred to as "Emperor" of France. He did not become Emperor until 1804; in 1800 his title would have been First Consul. The French name "Lethierry" is consistently mispronounced as "Letheery".

SEA DEVILS (Raoul Walsh, 1953) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 31 December 2008]

After a bit of trial-and-error, I managed to acquire a workable copy (unlike another Rock Hudson vehicle in the same vein, CAPTAIN LIGHTFOOT [1955]!) of this swashbuckler set in the Napoleonic era – with the Emperor himself played by Frenchman Gerard Oury; incidentally, I had intended to close off 2008 by revisiting the latter's most popular directorial effort i.e. the WWII farce DON'T LOOK NOW – WE'RE BEING SHOT AT! (1966), but had to forego it due to time constraints!

While I can't say that SEA DEVILS is very well-regarded within the genre (Leonard Maltin dismisses it with a :star::star: rating), in spite of the revered Walsh's involvement, I have to admit that I rather enjoyed it. Hudson is an impetuous rum-shipper, flanked by an amusingly grumpy Bryan Forbes, who's constantly clashing with rival Maxwell Reed; their quarrel comes to a head when they involve a woman (Yvonne De Carlo) whose activities as a spy, however, are jeopardized when Hudson misconstrues the situation! De Carlo's contribution here is far more engaging than when she played the BUCCANEER'S GIRL (1950), which I watched earlier in the month; for the record, she and Hudson had already been teamed for SCARLET ANGEL (1952), yet another costumer but which I'm not familiar with.

By the way, despite American leads, director and studio (RKO), this is a British-made effort – with typically reliable supporting cast (including Dennis O'Dea as De Carlo's superior and Michael Goodliffe as her contact in France) and production values (ensuring stunning color photography throughout and a suitably rousing score). As expected, then, we get plenty of action and intrigue – spiced with equally obligatory bouts of romance and comedy relief; the result hardly makes for a classic film but, in this agreeable company, it's perhaps more satisfying than such hokum has a right to be!

Far From Perfect but Still Pretty Good

[ldeangelis-75708 · 6/10 · 11 January 2023]

I checked this movie out from curiosity and was surprised (and pleased) to find both rock Hudson and Yvonne DeCarlo starred in it. Also, it takes place during one of my favorite time periods, the Napoleonic Wars. Rock plays a fisherman who's involved in smuggling, while Yvonne is a spy for the British, and impersonates a countess as part of her cover, while he mistakenly thinks she's betraying her own country. There's action and adventure (Rock gets into quite a few fights and angrily kidnaps Yvonne from the mansion where she's staying, interfering with her mission, which includes spying on Napoleon himself!

It's a bit silly at times, like when Rock goes on a bit much about how Yvonne's betrayed his rust, but most of it is entertaining.

Not a bad way to pass the time.

Smuggling and Spying

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 28 June 2012]

New top Universal Pictures leading man Rock Hudson was sent on a loan out to RKO to co-star with Yvonne DeCarlo in Sea Devils. Though the film is somewhat at sea there aren't any real devils in this picture.

It's a spy story set in the Napoleonic era with spymaster Denis O'Dea trying to implement a plan to send Yvonne DeCarlo over to hostile France from the Channel island of Guernsey. The guy who was going to take her over Maxwell Reid gets himself indisposed after a brawl with Rock Hudson in a tavern.

Reid and Hudson are rival smugglers who make a good living trading with the continent and breaching Napoleon's continental blockade on one side and avoiding the customs folks on the other. They also hate each other passionately and steal frequently from each other. But now Hudson has the only boat in town and DeCarlo has to use him.

As for the rest of the film, Hudson is not so much a romantic figure, but something of a lout who up to the end seems more of a hindrance all around than a help. As for DeCarlo although she's a spy she's no Mati Hari and it ain't clear just who she's a double or triple agent for until the end.

This is a minor league swashbuckler directed by the always good Raoul Walsh that didn't hurt Rock Hudson's career any, but I don't think it especially helped.

Sea Devils

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 17 January 2024]

Gilliatt, a fisherman-turned-smuggler on the isle of Guernsey, agrees to transport a beautiful woman to the French coast in the year 1800. She tells him she hopes to rescue her brother from the guillotine. Gilliatt finds himself falling in love and so feels betrayed when he later learns this woman is a countess helping Napoleon plan an invasion of England. In reality, however, the "countess" is an English agent working to thwart this invasion. When Gilliatt finds this out, he returns to France to rescue the woman who's true purpose has been discovered by the French.

Sea Devils isn't a swashbuckler, but a spy adventure set in the Napoleon era with plenty of boats and the sea and coastal area and inns. It's quite entertaining with nice Technicolor, cinematography and a plot that swerves into each event seamlessly. It meanders just a tad, but not much, not with the inspired pairing of Rock Hudson and Yvonne DeCarlo. Maxwell Reed plays Rantaine, the oily villain of the piece. The last ten minutes are quite tense with our heroine being captured and then let go by the French in order to capture her rescuers. It's pleasant viewing all round.

Disappointing...

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 9 May 2009]

This is a disappointing minor swashbuckler considering it was written by a fairly competent screenwriter (Borden Chase) and directed by the usually dependent Raoul Walsh. Rock Hudson plays a fisherman turned smuggler during the Napoleonic wars who becomes embroiled in some routine espionage shenanigans after falling for Yvonne De Carlo. Hudson has a sidekick in the bizarre diminutive form of Bryan Forbes, who looks faintly ridiculous in the role of a spirited, hard-drinking smuggler. Their relationship put me in mind of the great Errol Flynn and Alan Hale flicks of the 30s and 40s, which was a bad thing for this film because Hudson and Forbes are no Flynn and Hale.

Hudson's character is as dislikeable as it's possible for a movie hero to be. he has the moody, impetuous temperament of a lovesick schoolboy for much of the film, and it's no coincidence that the film livens up only when he is off-screen. He spends much of his time on-screen dramatically baring his nipples and striking manly poses which should, when you think about it, lend this effort a fairly high camp quotient, but strangely the film stubbornly refuses to develop any kind of character. The ending, when it finally, belatedly arrives, is as rushed and anti-climactic as you are likely to find...

Good Raoul Walsh's film

[searchanddestroy-1 · 28 October 2023]

As I have already said before, Raoul Walsh did not bring his best part of career during the fifties or even the early sixties - he stopped in 1965 - but during the forties. But that doesn't mean the movies he gave us in the fifties are lousy or bad. No, they are just fine, entertaining, nt flaming. For instance this one could be a Joseph Pevney's movie, or Nathan Juran's, good Universal "home" directors, but without the Walsh's touch that you had in the forties for Warner Brothers, starring Errol Flynn...And as a French, I am always amused to see French villains in Hollywood films, and Gerard Oury as Napoleon is a pure delight.

Sea Devil Made Him Do it **1/2

[edwagreen · 6/10 · 15 July 2014]

This film needed to be somewhat longer and more scenes needed to be with the Napoleon character, as Yvonne De Carlo, a British spy desperately tries to learn military secrets from the French.

Rock Hudson is a smuggler who falls in with DeCarlo and then thinking that she is against England, kidnaps her.

The film could have used much more swashbuckling. There is intrigue and treachery, buy it is under stated tremendously.

Nice to see the carrier pigeon at work delivering messages to the British. The butler is an interesting character in the film, but too bad his character wasn't developed more.

More style than substance

[wilvram · 5/10 · 21 August 2020]

According to Bryan Forbes in his autobiography Notes For A Life, Raoul Walsh considered the original script to be a load of horse droppings, and engaged him to do a rewrite, not least for his own part which had originally been intended for, of all people, Barry Fitzgerald. Even so I guess he would have been rather embarrassed at his own performance had he caught it at a later date on TV. No doubt Rock Hudson pleased his fans, though saddled with playing a bit of a dimwit whose misunderstandings soon become tedious. Maxwell Reed is more convincing than usual as a villain and should have become more central to the action. There's glamorous Yvonne de Carlo, some glorious colour photography from Wilkie Cooper and Walsh keeps it all moving, but the story, despite the rewrites, remains too thin.

A throwback to yesteryear

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 25 September 2020]

SEA DEVILS is a British-made swashbuckling adventure yarn from experienced Hollywood helmer Raoul Walsh that's set in Napoleonic times and stars Rock Hudson as a loutish smuggler who gets caught up in a spy plot. Although Hudson's tough guy is the nominal hero, all eyes are on Yvonne De Carlo as the voluptuous and fiery femme fatale of the piece, although her role is underwritten. The film offers plentiful action and incident but nonetheless feels like a lesser work, a throwback to the pictures from the 1920s and 1930s rather than anything fresh or now. British film regulars Bryan Forbes, Michael Goodliffe and the grinning, gloating Maxwell Reed play in support.

Not as bad as some - but dull and over written (or under edited)

[junk-monkey · 1/10 · 9 March 2006]

The dialogue in this movie is ploddingly pedantically awful - and there is so much of it! Maybe it is because the film is set the early 19th Century and people are trying to make it look classy but everyone in this film gives full weight to every syllable of their every line. There is not a single "ain't," "shalln't," "can't," or "won't" in the whole thing. Everything is delivered in a very stagy mock-formal manner that, had it been camped up might have been amusing, but, as it wasn't, is merely grindingly dull.

The writer, Borden Chase, was obviously much happier with westerns - he wrote the classic Red River amongst others - and seems to have been overawed by the language when adapting a novel by such a revered writer as Victor Hugo (who also wrote Les Misrables) - or he was just plain out of his depth when attempting to write a 'period' piece. For whatever reason, the dialogue is stilted and clumsy; sounding at times like a dubbed Italian movie rather than a film written by someone who's first language was English.

Not as bad as some - but dull.

Madame Spy

[richardchatten · 4/10 · 9 February 2020]

More a bodice-ripper than a swashbuckler, with handsome smuggler Rock Hudson baring his chest on behalf of glamorous double agent Yvonne De Carlo (ironically released the same year Ethel Rosenberg went to the electric chair on charges of spying for Stalin).

The title is misleading, as there's only one Sea Devil, and that's the name of Hudson's boat; and despite Wilkie Cooper's lush Technicolor photography of the Channel Islands it's little different from the usual nonsense shot in Cinecolor on a soundstage back at Burbank.

Another Toiler of the Sea am I.

[rave195 · 5/10 · 13 June 2014]

I would definitely agree with the majority of reviewers here, a buckler without much swash. :o Really wasn't feeling it between Rock Hudson and Yvonne DeCarlo and he just seemed much too young for her, IMO. The dialogue between them just seem forced and stunted. I did appreciate the scenes with his shirt off though, no one can deny Rock Hudson was a handsome, well built man.

However, as a nautical fiction/ history fan, this movie hit on 7 out of 8 cylinders and I DVR'd it just to be able to see it again on that note.

First of all, it is loosely(very) based on Victor Hugo's 1866 classic "The Toilers of the Sea". (He wrote Les Miserables, 1862)Some of the main characters have the same names from the story, Gilliatt(the Cunning!),Rantaine, Lethierry, and Deruchette, the Yvonne DeCarlo role. Secondly, it was filmed in the same locale as The Toilers of the Sea was based on, Guernsey of the The Channel Islands off of France. This location is also where Victor Hugo lived(while writing) and of which he writes of extensively in the book. (Still used today as the most detailed account of that coastal/island geography).

As I have yet to visit those islands, it was wonderful to see in the movie the intermingling huge blocks of boulders/rocks, unique grasses and surrounding sea so beautifully depicted. The rocky points, towering cliffs and walls of an old harbor are all shown, in color no less although some scenes are at dusk and dark on purpose. My next viewing will be to solidly identify which of the castles or low built fortifications they actually filmed on. What fun for a nautical fan! :>

This is why I gave it a 5 out of 10. (obviously not on the merits of the movie itself, but it's quasi story origin and filming location!) Enjoy! :D

Sea scrapping

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 4 April 2014]

This is a wannabee swashbuckler set in the Napoleonic era with Rock Hudson as a bare chested dashing pirate evading the customs men and Bryan Forbes as his faithful mate. Maxwell Reid plays his rival who is a true bounder.

The lovely Yvonne DeCarlo is mixed up in this as a British spy send over to France to obtain important information but Reid ends up in jail after getting involved in a fight with Hudson.

DeCarlo has to use Hudson to get over to France but only for Hudson to be a hindrance as he thinks she might be a French spy and even worse he fell for her sob story to get her over there.

The film has no swash or buckle. There are some decent sailing sequences and Hudson will keep his male fans happy with his bare chest. However the story is pants, with little chemistry between DeCarlo and Hudson, we neither care if DeCarlo is a double spy or not and the sequence where Reid and Hudson join up is stupid because they hate each other and we can guess betrayal in in the air.

Director Raoul Walsh has made better films.

A film that did nothing to help Hudson's career.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 4 February 2022]

"Sea Devils" is a pretty film to look at, as RKO made it using Technicolor. There...I've pretty much said everything I liked about the movie!

The story is set on Guernsey in 1800, one of the Channel Islands controlled by Britain and off the French coast. During this time, Britain and France were involved in a very long and protracted war against Napoleon's forces. In the midst of this struggle, a local smuggler (Rock Hudson) is pulled into intrigue when a pretty lady (Yvonne De Carlo) enlists his help to smuggle her into mainland France. But she's a liar and her story is hooey...all because she's really a spy. But for which side? And, why would Hudson's character have anything to do with her once he realizes she's a Lying McLiarface?!

There are multiple problems with this film. Having two Americans without even a trace of an appropriate accent was bad, but the writing was even worse. Hudson's character is supposed to be ultra-manly but comes off as a simpering wimp...and De Carlo wasn't much better. And, to top it all off, the film is also very dull...and after a while I simply gave up caring.