bkoganbing Had Sea Devils been done over at Warner Brothers, this film would have found an honored place in the Cagney/O'Brien buddy films. As it was done at RKO we have the Victor McLaglen/Preston Foster combination doing parts that fit O'Brien and Cagney like a glove. This was the kind of film that might have prospered better under John Ford. Ford had directed McLaglen and Foster in The Informer also for RKO, a film a lot more serious in subject matter.McLaglen is playing cupid here. His daughter is Ida Lupino and he's a much decorated Chief Petty Officer in the Coast Guard. He's got both Preston Foster and Donald Woods courting her. Foster is cut a bit too much from the same cloth that produced McLaglen and he doesn't want to see Lupino end up with him. Vic much prefers Woods who is studying for officer candidate's school.McLaglen abuses his rank to pick on Foster and finally Foster and he have it out. The only problem is that they tangle while on ice breaker duty and Woods is seriously injured while they're brawling. It results in court martial, but both get a chance to redeem themselves.Sea Devils is not a bad film, but it feels like a bargain basement Cagney/O'Brien or John Ford service comedy, a combination of both to be sure.

Robert J. Maxwell Not a very imaginative or subtle story but it's full of movement and adventure. McLaglen is a Chief Boatswain's Mate on a Coast Guard cutter in the north Atlantic, conducting periodic ice patrols and searching for dangerous ice bergs. Preston Foster is a low-ranked enlisted man who becomes interested in McLaglen's daughter, Ida Lupino. McLaglen is angry because he wants Lupino to marry a bright young enlisted man headed for officer status.On a berg, the nice young man is accidentally killed while McLaglen and Foster are having a fist fight. Both men are court martialed. McLaglen is busted down to Boatswain First Class and decides to resign out of pique. Foster winds up in the brig but busts his way out in order to join a rescue group on a dangerous assignment. Both perform heroically and save half a dozen yachters in jeopardy. However, after Foster is saved, the rescue apparatus collapses and McLaglen is left alone on the wrecked yacht as it slips beneath the stormy seas.It's not a bad movie. It's B level, true, but effectively directed. The performances vary a good deal. Ida Lupino has never looked better and she delivers the goods. McLaglen's range was limited but this role was within his limits and he blusters his way manfully through it, though without any of whatever texture he brought to his award-winning role as Gypo Nolan in "The Informer," two years earlier. Just before the ocean gushes into the dying yacht's saloon, the drenched and grinning McLaglen pops open a bottle of champagne, up ends it, shouts, "Put it on the slate!", then is demolished by the waves. He was good at that sort of thing.I don't know about Preston Foster. He was always professional but never quite seemed the leading man. Perhaps his best role was as the avuncular priest in "Guadalcanal Diary." The film isn't really worth much analysis or attention. It was designed to be a crowd pleaser and it probably got the job done. There are interesting scenes of ships at sea -- the model work is pretty good for the period -- and some exciting action during the scene on the foggy ice berg and aboard the doomed yacht.It's curious that McLaglen's rank of Chief Petty Officer is consistent with his age and experience, while Foster's uniform indicates that he has spent between four and eight years in the Coast Guard and still is a non-rated seaman. His highest rank couldn't be any greater than E-3. I suppose promotions were slower during the Great Depression.Just a few other observations. The international ice patrol was established after the Titanic disaster and discontinued after aircraft and radar were able to do a better and faster job. Also, when the distress call comes into headquarters from the yacht "Mona," subtitles gives us the translation of the Morse code. The subtitles are accurate -- word for word.Not worth seeking out but diverting.

malcolmgsw Victor Mclaglen was an actor of very limited range and ability.He found fame in his role as Flagg with Edmund Lowe playing Quirt in a series of military comedy adventures that started in the twenties and went through to the 40s.It seems that if Lowe wasn't around they hired a similar actor,in this case Preston Foster,to fill the void.It has to be said that after 5 minutes you can guess the plot and anticipate what is going to happen.It becomes utterly tiresome.Was it supposed to be funny or dramatic because it is neither.It is just totally formulaic.One can only assume that they did not have much money for special effects as the shipwreck scenes seem as if they are filmed in someones bathtub.So if you don't like Victor Mclaglen then don't bother with this film.

classicsoncall The movie opens with a gimmick that I've seen a number of times in films of the era that just doesn't make sense, with a newspaper headline describing an event that's occurring in real time. In this case it's a steam ship that's on fire with a Coast Guard ship to the rescue. It makes you wonder just how quick news could travel in a pre-internet world.The picture's story boils down to a romantic triangle between Ida Lupino's character Doris Malone, and her two maritime suitors, Mike O'Shay (Preston Foster) and Steve Webb (Donald Woods). Actually, make that a quartet, as Doris's father 'Medals' Malone (Victor McLaglen) is actively involved in pitting Webb against the unprincipled and brash O'Shay. When you come right down to it though, Webb never even seemed a contender for Miss Malone's affections, though he does figure in the climactic finale. But even though he dies from injuries sustained in an explosives accident, there's never any time to dwell on it, as the picture rushes off to a Coast Guard rescue of a yacht in hurricane trouble.By that time, O'Shay was in the brig of the U.S.S. Taro awaiting court martial for aggressively opposing Chief Mate Malone one too many times. Keep a sharp eye on that scene when he escapes by tricking a fellow seaman, the key was already in the cell lock - he could have gotten out at any time he wanted!Though the film is somewhat formulaic, the highlight comes near the end with the rescue scene mentioned earlier. You might be amazed as I was to see how the seamen used a shot line to rescue passengers from the distressed ship. If that's the kind of work the Coast Guard does, they're not paid enough!