Taglines: Cecil B. DeMille's GREATEST TRIUMPH! OUT-THRILLS ALL OTHER SCREEN SPECTACLES! (original ad - all caps)

Plot: Florida ship salvager, Loxi, falls for Jack, captain of a ship wrecked on the Key West shore. However, their romance is complicated by the arrival of another suitor, and eventually leads to tragedy.--IMDb

Storyline: Clipper ships taking the shortest route between the Mississippi and the Atlantic, often ended up on the shoals of Key West in the 1840s. Salvaging the ships' cargos had become a lucrative business for two companies -- one headed by a feisty young woman. Then she falls in love with the captain of a wrecked ship while he recuperates at her home. She travels to Charleston and is charming to the man most likely to be head of the captain's company, thinking she will be able to get the captain the position he wants on the company's first steam ship.--IMDb (by Dale O'Connor)

1) John Wayne did not like Cecil B. DeMille. He felt the director had passed him over for the role of Wild Bill Hickok in The Plainsman (1936), which Wayne had felt certain would make him a star.

2) Although John Wayne was pleased to have been cast in such an important movie, he was unhappy with his part and once complained he was only there to make Ray Milland look like a "real man".

3) Cecil B. DeMille had wanted Errol Flynn to play Stephen Tolliver, but Jack L. Warner refused to loan him out.

4) During the filming of a fight scene with John Wayne, an accident cost actor Victor Kilian the use of one eye.

5) The giant rubber squid used in the underwater battle was donated by the studio to the war effort in 1942. The Japanese had conquered British Malaya and French Indochina, then the sources of most of the world's rubber.

6) The shots of the squid wrapping its tentacles around the actors was done by wrapping the actors in the tentacles, then unwrapping them and showing the film in reverse.

7) For the 1954 theatrical re-release, John Wayne was given top billing in the posters because of his increased star status, and Susan Hayward, who had since 1942 become a major star instead of a supporting player, was misleadingly billed second. Formerly top-billed Ray Milland got third billing in the new posters, whilst leading lady Paulette Goddard was demoted to fourth billing

9) The world premiere was held on 18 March 1942 at the newly renovated El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, California, USA. In conjunction with the premiere was a celebration of Paramount's 30th year in business and Cecil B. DeMille's 30th year in films. It was attended by about 3,000 people with the proceeds going to the Navy Relief Fund.

10) A song, "Reap the Wild Wind" (1942), music by Lew Pollack and lyrics by Ned Washington, was published to promote the film.

11) "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 8, 1943 with Paulette Goddard and Ray Milland reprising their film roles.

12) The voice of the character "The Lamb,'' played by former wrestler William 'Wee Willie' Davis, was dubbed by Paramount contract player Akim Tamiroff, who had previously acted for Cecil B. DeMille in North West Mounted Police (1940)

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