About

When a cargo ship travelling from the West Indies is hired to transport explosives to England during World War Two, tensions run high, and suspicions amongst the motley crew simmer below deck. Directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, this wave-lashed adventure is a far cry from the Westerns they are best known for.

Cinematographer Gregg Toland (who would go on to shoot Citizen Kane 1941) used intensely bright lighting, special lenses and fast film stock to craft images with extraordinarily deep focus. To draw the eye through images in which the fore, mid and background are rendered in equally crisp detail, Toland harnessed stark shadow and silhouette to block out sections of the frame and draw viewers into the action. This chiaroscuro technique would go on to influence the famously moody lighting of Film Noir. Here, the claustrophobic conditions inside the ship, and glittering expanses of moonlit sea, craft a palpable sense of the sublime isolation of the open ocean.

PG | Mild themes and violence