"HELL AT SEA!" screamed the tagline for Sea Fury (1958), which marked veteran actor and Academy Award winner Victor McLaglen's final film appearance. The film, shot a year before his death, has the 72 year-old McLaglen starring as a salvage boat operator. Stanley Baker played his much younger second in command who battles McLaglen over the affections of a luscious young woman, played by Luciana Paluzzi. When not involved in this highly improbable romantic triangle, McLaglen and Baker, along with their crew, race against time and a Dutch salvage crew to be the first to reach a wreck and claim rights to salvage it. One of the crewmates who resents Baker's quick ascent to first mate is Gorman, played by a young actor named Robert Shaw, who would later become immortalized in another tale set on the water, Jaws (1975). After the ship returns to port, Paluzzi's amoral father tries to sell her hand in marriage to McLaglen, but she loves Baker and the triangle develops. Gorman, trying to undermine the first mate, sees him with McLaglen's intended and under the guise of his "duty as an officer and a friend", tattles to McLaglen. Before Baker and McLaglen can beat each other senseless, a ship is reported in distress and the crew must once again race their Dutch rivals to reach the wreckage first and claim it.

Written by director Cy Endfield (with John Kruse), Sea Fury was shot on location at Estartit and Girona, Spain for the British Aqua production company, and was distributed by J. Arthur Rank. Endfield, a former magician who had tutored no less than Orson Welles, had worked in Hollywood as director and writer on the Our Gang film series. After graduating to low-budget features like the Joe Palooka series for "poverty row" studios like Monogram, he had been forced to leave Hollywood for England during the House Un-American Activities Committee's witch hunt of Communist and suspected Communist sympathizers in the late 1940s and 50s. Once in England, Endfield directed movies and television series under several names, including Hugh Raker and C. Raker.

In 1956, he formed a partnership with actor Stanley Baker and the two produced Hell Drivers (1957), which was noted for its fast pace and visual excellence. The partners produced Sea Fury the following year. Their most famous collaboration would be the 1964 film, Zulu.

Producer: Benjamin Fisz
Director: Cy Endfield
Screenplay: Cy Endfield, John Kruse (writers)
Cinematography: Reginald H. Wyer
Art Direction: Michael Stringer
Music: Philip Green
Film Editing: Arthur Stevens
Cast: Stanley Baker (Abel Hewson), Victor McLaglen (Captain Bellew), Luciana Paluzzi (Josita), Grégoire Aslan (Fernando), Francis De Wolff (Mulder), David Oxley (Blanco), George Murcell (Loudon), Percy Herbert (Walker), Rupert Davies (Bosun), Robert Shaw (Gorman).
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by Lorraine LoBianco

SOURCES:
Mayer, Geoff Guide to British Cinema
Pettigrew, Terence British film character actors: great names and Memorable Moments
Erickson, Hal, The All-Movie Guide
The Internet Movie Database