06 Jun The Sea Chase
The Sea Chase, WWII Movie starring John Wayne and Lana Turner.
(1955) As war is breaking, a German sea captain tries to get his freighter from Sydney, Australia back home. Australian and British ships are hot on his trail.
Sounds plausible doesn’t it? Except that John Wayne is the German sea captain. He just talks, looks and acts too much like a cowboy. All right. He’s against the Nazis, but he’s loyal to Germany.
Better yet, James Arness (filming Gunsmoke that same year) is on his crew. So is Tab Hunter, at the time just beginning his heartthrob period.
When Lana Turner showed up I was sure Edith Head was doing her wardrobe (she wasn’t) because she was way too glamorous for a ride on an old boat. Well, she had a mink coat … might as well wear it. And the Lana babe is a Nazi.
The Sea Chase is based on a 1949 novel by Andrew Geer. He also co-wrote the screenplay for The Wild Blue Yonder, a 1951 movie starring Wendell Corey. It was about the Boeing B-29 Superfortress air raids on Japan during WWII.
My favorite WWII movie critic Bosley Crowther didn’t like either movie.
Robert m jenkins
Posted at 12:36h, 30 JulyWhat is the real name of the freighter used in the film Sea Chase?
Not the name given by the film makers.
Thanks.
Bob
Pat DiGeorge
Posted at 20:16h, 30 JulyBob, thanks for checking in! This is what I found online on Wikipedia, very interesting: The fictional HMAS Rockhampton is played by HMCS New Glasgow, a River-class frigate built in Canada as a wartime emergency anti-submarine escort. She was placed in reserve in 1945, but in 1954 had recently been updated and recommissioned as a Prestonian-class frigate. This class has a classic wartime outline, similar to the Black Swan and Grimsby class sloops operated by the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy in 1939 including HMS Morecambe Bay and Wellington, which served in the Pacific, and is now a museum ship on the River Thames in London.