Reap The Wild Wind

My Top 3

This lurid melodrama seems to take an interminable amount of time to reach its famous Oscar-winning climax with a giant squid, unless, of course, you happen to care whether it’s John Wayne or a miscast Ray Milland that ends up with southern belle Paulette Goddard. If that little bit of romance isn’t enough for Mills and Boon fans, there’s another involving Susan Hayward and Robert Preston. The beginning and end are spectacular — Cecil B DeMille proving yet again that, even as a director, he was a great producer — but this maritime vessel does get very watery amidships.