The Big Picture

• John Wayne plays a bold and moral mariner, Jack Stuart, in this thrilling, swashbuckling romance, showcasing his all-American hero persona.
• Wayne's on-screen heroism is tested as Jack sacrifices for redemption, displaying selfless courage by facing a giant squid to save fellow divers.
• Wayne's character arc in Reap The Wild Wind highlights his courage and morality, staying true to his classic persona.

Just about everyone knows that John Wayne is one of the undisputed kings of the Western genre, but before finding stardom as the quintessential American cowboy, he flexed his acting muscles in various roles ranging from romance and horror to action-adventure. In 1942, Wayne portrayed Jack Stuart, the unfortunate captain of a wrecked ship rescued by marine salvage company heiress, Loxi Claiborne (Paulette Goddard), in the swashbuckling film, Reap The Wild Wind, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The film stands apart from John Wayne's usual six-gun stoicism and puts him smack dab in the heart of a rollicking romantic adventure on the high seas as a good guy in need of redemption.

What Is 'Reap the Wild Wind' About?

In the dog days of 1840 on the hurricane-embattled Key West of the Florida seaboard, the crew of the Jubilee finds themselves run aground by a duplicitous crew member working at the behest of a pirate gangster named King Cutler (Raymond Massey). Cutler is an unscrupulous salvager who has a knack for corrupting ship captains and getting them to wreck their very own ships so that Cutler can arrive on the scene to collect the salvage first. It's made him rich, but it has stoked the ire of Loxi, who runs a clean salvage business after her father's death. Being too slow, she arrives at the wreck of the Jubilee last with just enough time to rescue the crew while Cutler makes off with the cargo

It's here she meets Captain Jack Stuart (Wayne), bleeding from his head and reeling from the wreck, but she drags him to her schooner and nurses him back to health. The chemistry between the two is obvious; Jack is as handsome as they come, bold and charming, while Loxi is gentle and spirited, just as tough in her own right and imbued with an unbreakable will. Despite that, there's another suitor after Loxi, Steve Tolliver (Ray Milland), the fancy-pants lawyer who runs the shipping line that Jack works for. Loxi tries to seduce him to win a Captain's position for Jack aboard the Southern Cross, a huge cargo ship loaded down with enough silks and spices to make a mint. Tolliver falls in love with Loxi and moves to Key West permanently, much to Cutlers' dismay, so the scheming pirate arranges to have Steve shanghaied aboard a whaling ship.

Loxi discovers the plan and gets Jack to help rescue Steve, turning the tables on the cutthroats determined to kidnap him, but in the process, Loxi and Jack discover that he was given the appointment at the Southern Cross and Steve had attempted to hide it from him. Jack flies into a fit and knocks Steve unconscious, then, despondent over the entire thing and feeling betrayed by Loxi, he makes a deal with Cutler to wreck the Southern Cross. Unbeknownst to him, Loxi's friend, Drusilla Alston (Susan Hayward), has stashed herself aboard and dies during the planned wreck. Jack is put on trial for the wreck and—upon discovering the death of Drusilla—pledges to dive to the wreck with Steve to retrieve her body. While underwater, though, they're attacked by a giant squid that nearly kills Steve, but Jack, being the hero that he is, saves Steve's life. When Steve returns to land, he kills King Cutler, and he and Loxi live happily ever after.

John Wayne Is An All-American Hero in 'Reap the Wild Wind'

Jack Stuart is a bold, moral, and unbelievably tough mariner. John Wayne is, in many ways, the embodiment of the quintessential American Hero. In this film, the seeds of Wayne's Americana are on full display from the first moment he's on-screen languishing on the deck of a ship, crested with an American flag and a giant, golden eagle. Even while injured and being nursed back to health, he's polite, funny, and firm—qualities that lend a too-good-to-be-true vibe.

While they are the very qualities that attract Loxi to him, his ambition as a captain is the ticking point that allows Cutler to corrupt him to plan the crash of the Southern Cross. His competency as a captain and his morality are put on trial when Jack is accused of letting a woman die on his wrecked ship, much to the disbelief of Loxi, and it's this test that's the essential part of John Wayne's character arc in Reap The Wild Wind. By sacrificing his morality for his ambition, Jack's world is thrown into disarray, where his actions will result in the death of the innocent, which is an untenable position for Jack and for every character that Wayne will come to play throughout his long career.

John Wayne's On-Screen Persona Took Shape in 'Reap the Wild Wind'

Wayne's courage is fully displayed as Jack descends into the deep, and leagues below the ocean, he tangles with a giant squid to save the lives of his fellow divers, sacrificing himself in the process. The selfless heroism of Jack Stuart is a character trait that would follow John Wayne throughout his career, a beautiful example of how Wayne's trademark ruggedness easily transcends the Western genre. He is not so much the typical American cowboy as he is the quintessential American hero whose head-first dive into the fray is reminiscent of the type of man that many men dream of becoming; it's a quality that seems to come all too naturally for Wayne.

In Reap The Wild Wind, Jack's quick thinking and fearlessness save the day, as he could've easily let Steve die and escape himself. But Jack, while flawed, is fundamentally good; a character is only as interesting as his flaw, as it's the thing that creates conflict that pushes a character to do what's necessary. This is the fundamental truth of any character who John Wayne has ever played: they're good guys who will sometimes do bad things, but ultimately will pursue justice because that is the most American trait of all.