"A High Wind in Jamaica" ("Cyclone à la Jamaïque") d'Alexander Mackendrick
Lobby card originale/Vintage lobby card
Format/Size : 28x35 cm
A High Wind in Jamaica is a 1965 DeLuxe Color film, based on
the Richard Hughes novel of the same name, and directed by Alexander
Mackendrick[2] for the 20th Century-Fox studio. It stars Anthony Quinn and
James Coburn as the pirates who capture five children. Other cast members
include Deborah Baxter, Nigel Davenport, Isabel Dean, Lila Kedrova, Kenneth J.
Warren, and Gert Frobe. One of the child actors is the author Martin Amis.
The film is regarded highly today because of Mackendrick's
direction and Quinn's lead performance as the pirate captain whose relationship
with the children betokens a subtle change in his character, finally leading to
his downfall and the pirates' end.
Mackendrick (1912–1993) was best known as a director of the
Ealing comedies The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955), as
well as Sweet Smell of Success (1957), now recognized as a masterpiece. The
material in A High Wind in Jamaica afforded the director an opportunity to
combine a light touch with serious drama. Essentially, what makes the film
fascinating is the theme of children growing up and their contact with a world
of adults (the pirates) who act as if they are grown-up children.
A hurricane hits Jamaica in 1870. The Thorntons (Nigel
Davenport and Isabel Dean), parents of five children, feel it is time to send
them to England for a more civilized upbringing and education.
During the voyage, pirates board the ship and the children
end up accidentally leaving on the pirate ship. The pirate captain, Chavez
(Anthony Quinn) and first mate Zac (James Coburn) do not wish to risk a
kidnapping charge and decide to sail to Tampico and leave the children in the
safe keeping of Rosa (Lila Kedrova), a brothel madam with a good heart.
Rosa warns the pirates that the law is after them. Since
they are innocent of the crimes attributed to them by the authorities — namely,
the murder of the children — Chavez and Zac are unconcerned. But then one of
the children, John (Martin Amis), slips from a window of the brothel and falls
to his death. Rosa does not want any involvement in a potential murder case and
tells Chavez to take the remaining children away. The crew feel that the
children are unlucky and demand that they be abandoned on the next island. When
Emily (Deborah Baxter) falls ill, Chavez refuses to attack a passing Dutch
vessel, wishing to ensure that it remain undamaged and fully manned in order to
take Emily to be treated and the children to safety. His men mutiny, lock up
Chavez, seize the Dutch boat, and capture its captain (Gert Fröbe).
A Royal Navy cutter appears and the pirates re-board their
own ship in panic. Emily, awakened from sleep by the bound Dutch captain as he
is approaching her with a knife so that he can have her cut his bindings, and
dazed by the sleeping draughts she has been given by Chavez to soothe her pain,
mistakes his intentions. In a frenzy, she stabs him to death. The shocked
Chavez intervenes too late and is left with blood on his hands. He and his
former crew are taken prisoner and shipped to Britain for trial. Under
questioning in court, Emily blames Chavez for killing the Dutch captain. The
pirates are hanged for this death, instead of simply being imprisoned for
piracy.
In the final scene children play innocently by a lake. Emily
stands amongst them—staring at a model ship with adult eyes.
Cast
Anthony Quinn as Chavez
James Coburn as Zac
Deborah Baxter as Emily
Dennis Price as Mathias
Lila Kedrova as Rosa
Nigel Davenport as Frederick Thornton
Isabel Dean as Alice Thornton
Kenneth J. Warren as Capt. Marpole
Ben Carruthers as Alberto (as Benito Carruthers)
Gert Fröbe as Dutch Captain (as Gert Frobe)
Brian Phelan as Curtis
Trader Faulkner as Pirate
Charles Laurence as Tallyman
Charles Hyatt as Pirate
Dan Jackson as Pirate
The title song was produced and written by Larry Adler and
sung by Mike LeRoy.
Reception
Reviews were mixed to positive, with some critics expressing
disappointment that aspects of the novel were lost in the transition to film.
A. H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote, "Although hands involved are
either experienced or willing, a good deal of the nuance, philosophy and
insight into the human condition for which the book was lauded, appear to be
missing on the screen. This is simply a voyage full of sound and fury but one
without much conviction or meaning."[2] Richard L. Coe of The Washington
Post called it "an absorbing, unusual and fit-for-the-family film, though
it will not satisfy those who treasure the Richard Hughes novel ... By shifting
the focus onto the pirate-captain, the film all but buries the role the
children play."[3] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "it
is a good movie, an entertaining movie, but it lacks the dirk-sharp bite of the
author's prose, and the antic madness that made it such an astonishing delight
now cuts through only fitfully."[4] Variety was generally positive, noting
a "warm screenplay" and "often spectacular treatment" given
to the color photography.[5] A review in The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that
although Hughes' novel had "undergone a softening process," it was
"surprising how well the film manages to suggest the feeling that the
children are living in a world of their own as they play happily throughout
their ordeal ... Equally good is the atmosphere of superstitious terror among
the native crew, fed by the children's innocent teasing."[6]
Box office
According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $6,300,000
in rentals to break even and made $2,260,000, meaning it made a loss