An aberration for Hollywood, this wartime romance stars two character actors who rarely made it to a happy ending and was put together by a director more comfortable with non-stop action. Perpetual tough guy Neville Brand, one of the most decorated soldiers during World War II, is a grizzled Naval officer who's so married to the sea he's never had time for romance. Then he meets war widow Jan Sterling, one of the screen's best hard-boiled dames. This time, she has a heart of gold as a woman whose tough exterior masks her wounded soul. Before they can settle down on the avocado ranch of their dreams, he's called back to service in Korea for some strong action sequences filmed with help from the U.S. Navy. The film's moving love scenes may come as a surprise to anybody familiar with the career of director Lesley Selander. He began his career shooting low-budget Westerns, eventually settling in at Monogram (later Allied Artists), where he only got a break from sagebrush sagas for the occasional war or crime film. With Return from the Sea, however, he got to demonstrate the subtlety he could bring to more heartfelt material.

By Frank Miller