Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

The Sea Wolf Blu-ray Movie Review

Sympathy for the Tyrant

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 27, 2017

Jack London published The Sea-Wolf in 1904, and it has proven to be one of the author's most popular novels for filmed adaptations. The book's Wikipedia page lists twelve (12!) versions for movies and television, in multiple countries and languages. I haven't seen them all, but I doubt anyone has surpassed the layered complexity of the title character's portrayal by Edward G. Robinson in Warner's 1941 film of the same name (but without the hyphen).

The Sea Wolf represented an attempt by Warner to capitalize on the success of the previous year's Errol Flynn vehicle, The Sea Hawk, which was also directed by the reliable Michael Curtiz, though the later film was anything but a swashbuckling adventure. Indeed, the screenplay by Robert Rossen (future writer/director of The Hustler) jettisoned entire sections of the novel's plot, the better to focus on Wolf Larsen, the tyrannical ship captain whom Rossen saw as a variation of the fascist dictators then subjugating the European continent. The Sea Wolf has some effective action set pieces and was nominated for an Oscar for its visual effects, but audiences expecting a thrill ride were disappointed (though the film was a box office success).

The effects technology may have dated, but Robinson's memorable portrayal has not, and over time it has emerged as the film's defining quality. Unfortunately, fans have had to make do with a truncated version, after Jack Warner had the film cut down by some fourteen minutes for its 1947 re-release, which was a common practice in that era. In another common practice, the negative of the cut scenes was not preserved, and until recently it was believed that the only complete version of the The Sea Wolf was a 16mm print originally owned by co-star John Garfield. However, in one of those serendipitous discoveries that encourages lovers of classic cinema never to lose hope, a 35mm element of the film's full-length version recently emerged from the nitrate archives of the Museum of Modern Art. That element is the source for a superb new Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

Wolf Larsen (Robinson) commands the Ghost, which is purportedly a sealing ship but is really little more than a pirate vessel manned by a crew of losers and outcasts. Larsen rules over his floating empire with a merciless hand, using a combination of physical intimidation and psychological manipulation to maintain order. The captain seems invigorated by the palpable fear he inspires whenever he steps on deck. The Ghost may not be much of a kingdom, but it's his kingdom. His motto is a line spoken by Lucifer in Milton's Paradise Lost: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."

On its latest voyage from San Francisco, the Ghost picks up three new residents. Two of them are barely a step ahead of the law. George Leach (John Garfield) joins the crew to evade a police search, but Leach quickly realizes that he's effectively sentenced himself to a seafaring prison with a ruthless warden at its helm. Ruth Brewster (Ida Lupino) is an escapee from a woman's reformatory, whose flight ends abruptly when the ferry on which she's riding collides with a steamboat. Rescued by the Ghost, Ruth sickens from exposure, and her life is now in the hands of Larsen and his ship's doctor, Prescott (Gene Lockhart), a pitiful drunk who is the special object of Larsen's contempt and persecution.

The third new passenger is rescued from the ferry wreckage with Ruth, and he is a truly out of his element. Humphey Van Weyden (Alexander Knox) is a writer with zero experience as a sailor, and Larsen forces him to assume the duties of cabin boy, the most menial job on the ship. Although it is Leach who is introduced first, and who ultimately leads a rebellion against Larsen, it is Van Weyden who provides the perspective from which we experience Larsen's regimen of cruelty. Upon discovering the author's background, Larsen begins to use him as a kind of confidante—or perhaps it would be more accurate to say "audience". It amuses Larsen to show the writer the extensive literary collection he keeps in his cabin, thereby impressing on Van Weyden that the captain is a thinking man's brute. His cruelty is backed by a well-considered philosophy, on which Larsen is only too happy to expound eloquently and at length. Like Kurtz in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Larsen has passed through civilization and emerged with the nihilistic conviction that raw power is the only worthy commodity. He exercises it whenever possible, as the unfortunate Dr. Prescott discovers.

But Wolf Larsen has his weak spots. One of them is the crippling headaches that strike him at unexpected moments. Like Cody Jarrett's attacks in White Heat, these migraines may be psychosomatic, or they may indicate a serious illness, but they incapacitate the captain until they pass. Larsen's other weakness is a brother whose implacable pursuit of the Ghost in his own ship bespeaks a falling-out of biblical proportions. Larsen's brother is never seen in The Sea Wolf, but the occasional appearance of his ship as a distant outline in the fog is the only thing that can scare the otherwise unflappable captain. Serving as the avatar of what remains of Larsen’s conscience, his brother cannot be outrun, and eventually it is the fraternal battle that destroys the captain and his ship, just as surely as Ahab’s feud with Moby Dick sank the Pequod and doomed its crew.

The Sea Wolf Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Sea Wolf was shot by Sol Polito, who had also teamed with director Curtiz on The Sea Hawk and who would be Oscar-nominated for his work the same year on Sergeant York. Polito's work on this film has rarely been seen in its entirety since 1947, when The Sea Wolf was cut by fourteen minutes for re-release, and the deleted portions of the negative were destroyed. Warner Brothers has spent years searching for an element of sufficient quality to restore the film to its full 100-minute length, but for a long time it was believed that the only surviving copy of the complete film was a 16mm print donated to New York University by the family of John Garfield. Experiments with combining 16mm and 35mm footage were attempted, with results that did not meet the high standards set by the Warner Archive Collection.

But one day, WAC noticed that it had two separate entries for The Sea Wolf in the nitrate storage facility for New York's Museum of Modern Art, and one of the listings did not include a running time. When this second element was retrieved and inspected, it turned out to be a fine-grain master positive made in 1941 before the film was cut for re-release. Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility proceeded to scan MOMA's fine-grain, and as per current Warner policy when dealing with the best surviving source, the scan was performed at 4K. MPI then undertook extensive color correction, followed by WAC's customary cleaning to remove dirt, scratches and age-related deterioration. The resulting 4K master has been used both to create this new Blu-ray and to generate preservation elements on high-grade contemporary stock, so that the complete Sea Wolf can now be safely lodged in Warner's library.

WAC's 1080p, AVC-encoded disc is yet another worthy addition to its growing collection of black-and-white classics on Blu-ray. The solid blacks and precise delineation of grays showcase Polito's noir-ish lighting, which helps make the Ghost a self-contained, otherworldly environment worthy of its name (and also helps sell the illusion that it's far away on the high seas, instead of floating in a tank in Hollywood). Sharpness and detail are perhaps somewhat less than might be derived from an original camera negative, but they are nevertheless impressive, especially given the copious fog that hangs over much of the film, even in its early San Francisco scenes. Opticals reflect the softening typical of that process, but they are few in number. The film's grain pattern has been naturally and finely resolved, and WAC has mastered The Sea Wolf at its usual high average bitrate, here just under 35 Mbps.

The Sea Wolf Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Sea Wolf's original mono track has been taken from the newly discovered fine-grain master positive, thoroughly cleaned of clicks, pops and noise, and encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA. I have been told that the track was also EQ'd to enhance the stirring score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, another veteran of The Sea Hawk and an Oscar winner for The Adventures of Robin Hood. The dialogue is clearly rendered, and the effects have solid impact for their era; the early sequence of ships colliding at sea is particularly effective.

The Sea Wolf Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.37:1; 3:13): A library patron seeking another adventure by Jack London is told that The Sea Wolf is London's best. A similar strategy was used to promote The Big Sleep.



• Screen Director's Playhouse Radio Broadcast 2/3/1950 (audio only; 29:41): This adaptation uses narration by Robinson's Wolf Larsen to provide essential exposition.

The Sea Wolf Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's hard to believe, when you look over Edward G. Robinson's résumé of masterly performances, that not only didn't he win any Oscars, but he was never even nominated. (The Academy did award him an honorary statue in 1973, which, in a sad irony, had to be accepted by his widow, because the actor died just a few months before the ceremony.) Robinson had a genius for bringing villains to life, and it would be years before the Academy acknowledged the artistry required to make even the most repellent evildoer a credible human presence (which, of course, makes them even more frightening). Wolf Larsen ranks with such memorable Robinson creations as Little Caesar's Rico and Key Largo's Johnny Rocco. They're all loathsome men—and you can't take your eyes off them. In WAC's new Blu-ray of The Sea Wolf, Larsen gets his full due. Highly recommended.