UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Leofwine_draca WAKE OF THE RED WITCH is an unusual outing for John Wayne and a far cry from the typical western pictures that he's best known for. Here he plays a grizzled sea captain who hunts for a hidden fortune, fights with powerful rivals, and romances a girl in exotic climes. The story is slightly episodic and unusually downbeat, with harsh characterisation and an emphasis on conflict throughout, but it also feels quite fresh and engaging and the change of scenery for the star works well. It also has the inimitable scene of Wayne battling a giant octopus, which is worth the admission price alone.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . of its 2001 Artisan "John Wayne Collection" DVD release could not even keep the main facts straight themselves on their WAKE OF THE RED WITCH jewel case. Angelique, the brunette flashback chick, is the NIECE--not the "daughter"--of Evil Island Commissioner Desiax. First Mate Rosen's blonde chick of the present, Teleia, also is only the niece--not the daughter--of Angelique and Captain Sidneye. Where the parents are of all these nieces running around underfoot in this story NEVER is explained; nor is the alleged existence of Angelique's daughter ever fleshed out. (Sometimes it might be wise to spring a few bucks and cast a few "extras" to make plot points a little more plausible.) Maybe one should not be too harsh in blaming the Artisan copy writers, as this flick is NOT close-captioned, preventing them from rechecking anything on the nonexistent subtitles, and the sound of many scenes has NOT been digitally restored, leaving it virtually inaudible (and forcing the poor Artisans to work under "garbage in, garbage out" conditions). John Wayne fans may wish to skip this picture, as the Duke's character "Capt. Ralls" is a drunken loser who flogs his sailors on capricious whims and destroys a Native Islander religion and deity. Capt. Ralls loses a pearl, loses his girl, loses his ship, loses ANOTHER ship, loses a cargo of gold bars, and loses his life. The final scene shows explicitly that this man is better off dead.

thinker1691 From one of the many novels written by Garland Roark comes this dramatic story which the Legendary John Wayne enhanced with his mere presence. Directed by Edward Ludwig the story is masterfully written and tells the naval tale of an adventurous sea Captain named Ralls (John Wayne) who's a courageous soldier of fortune. Created with duel personalities, Ralls is both blessed and cursed because of them. Instintivly knowledgeable of the sea and his ship with many skills having to do with caring about his cargo and his 18 sail masted schooner, he's a skilled navigator who instills confidence in all of his crew. This bears well with his boss Mayrant Ruysdaal Sideye (Luther Adler) who is always trying to out think his chosen Captain. To insure that Sideye gets his way, he designates a second in command trustworthy enough to get the task done. What the ship's owner plans is to insure his precious cargo is scuttled to the bottom of the sea, so's as to collect on the insurance. What those involved don't know is that Ralls has his own way of doing things and puts in danger the owners plans. It's a story of deception versus skill, which may put all those involved in jail or get them killed. To complicate matter there are several beautiful women who believe their men and the Island native who trust in their gods as well. All in all, it a good movie for Wayne and any audience member will be hard pressed to select whether Wayne is playing a Good Guy or not. It's hard. The great cast is there to insure the quality of the film which is superior. They include Gail Russell, Gig Young, Luther Adler, Henry Daniell, Paul Fix and Jeff Corey. If this is your first Wayne movie you'll realize why he became a great star. The movie is listed as a Classic and I agree. ****

SimonJack I agree with others who liked this 1948 Republic gem of a film. And, although I could see where the story seemed disjointed at times, I think that worked in the film's favor. After all, this is a story of intrigue. Should not the plot have some mystery and inexplicable parts to it? I'm probably not the only movie reviewer here who did not read the book the film is based on. Nor had I ever heard of the book or its author, Garland Roark. I did look him up and found that he wrote a number of seafaring adventures as well as Westerns.So, I thought the plot developed very nicely with the right amount of intrigue mixed in with some action, sea scenes, and romance. We gradually discover the background of the animosity between John Wayne and his nemesis, played quite ably by Luther Adler. The acting was very good all around, with Adler and "Duke" having the more dramatic and expressive parts. I enjoyed John Wayne in most of the films he did outside his usual genres of Westerns and War flicks. Besides the good acting and plot, "Wake of the Red Witch" had some good cinematography with sea and sailing shots, and very good underwater action. All of this adds up to a very good and entertaining film.