Adventure's End (1937) Review - John Wayne on a Whaling Ship

If you want to see John Wayne running around on a wooden ship instead of riding a horse, Adventure's End is worth seventy minutes of your Sunday afternoon. Hardcore Duke fans will love seeing him in a tight sailor shirt, but people who hate cheap 1930s studio sets will probably turn it off.

It is a weird little movie that feels like it was filmed in a giant indoor bathtub. 🐳

The story kicks off with Wayne playing Duke Slade, a pearl diver who has to flee some angry islanders. He literally swims out to a whaling ship to save his own skin.

Once he gets on board, things get bizarre fast. The ship's captain is on his deathbed and decides that this random wet guy who just climbed aboard is the perfect husband for his daughter.

Yes, you read that right. The captain basically forces a marriage on them within about five minutes of meeting Duke.

The daughter, Janet, is played by Diana Gibson, and she is not exactly thrilled about this sudden arrangement. To make matters worse, the slimy first mate was already trying to win her over.

Montagu Love plays the villain with so much eye-rolling and sneering that you wonder how anyone on the ship trusts him. He looks like he belongs in a silent movie melodrama.

Honestly, the romance is the weakest part of the whole thing. Wayne and Gibson have about as much chemistry as a pair of wet socks.

There is one scene where they are supposed to be having a tender moment, but Duke looks like he is trying to remember if he left his oven on back in California. It is pretty hilarious.

Let's talk about the whaling action. The movie tries to convince us they are out on the wild Pacific ocean, but you can see the studio walls if you look closely enough.

The whale itself looks like a big grey balloon bobbing in the water. 🌊

It reminds me a bit of the cheap but fun production values in The Three Musketeers from a couple years earlier. There is a charm to this kind of old-school filmmaking that we just do not get anymore.

Strange Little Details I Noticed

• John Wayne wears some incredibly high-waisted pants in this movie. They go almost up to his armpits!
• One of the crew members has a parrot that seems to have more lines than some of the actual actors.
• The mutiny scene has about ten guys shoving each other in a circle, and it looks like a very polite dance.

The movie gets way more entertaining once the crew decides to start a mutiny. That is when the action actually picks up and people start throwing punches.

Duke finally gets to do some classic John Wayne fighting, even if he is wearing a funny sailor hat. It is a nice reminder of why he became a giant star later on.

The ending wraps up so fast it will make your head spin. One minute they are fighting for their lives, and the next, everything is perfectly fine and the music swells.

It is not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. But it is a fun, goofy slice of 1930s B-movie history.

If you have an hour to spare and want some silly sea adventures, give it a shot. Just do not expect anything close to greatness.