oscaralbert Review of Wake of the Red Witch

Wake of the Red Witch (1948)

The plot of this flick is so confusing that the packagers . . .

[6/10 · 25 October 2015]

. . . of its 2001 Artisan "John Wayne Collection" DVD release could not even keep the main facts straight themselves on their WAKE OF THE RED WITCH jewel case. Angelique, the brunette flashback chick, is the NIECE--not the "daughter"--of Evil Island Commissioner Desiax. First Mate Rosen's blonde chick of the present, Teleia, also is only the niece--not the daughter--of Angelique and Captain Sidneye. Where the parents are of all these nieces running around underfoot in this story NEVER is explained; nor is the alleged existence of Angelique's daughter ever fleshed out. (Sometimes it might be wise to spring a few bucks and cast a few "extras" to make plot points a little more plausible.) Maybe one should not be too harsh in blaming the Artisan copy writers, as this flick is NOT close-captioned, preventing them from rechecking anything on the nonexistent subtitles, and the sound of many scenes has NOT been digitally restored, leaving it virtually inaudible (and forcing the poor Artisans to work under "garbage in, garbage out" conditions). John Wayne fans may wish to skip this picture, as the Duke's character "Capt. Ralls" is a drunken loser who flogs his sailors on capricious whims and destroys a Native Islander religion and deity. Capt. Ralls loses a pearl, loses his girl, loses his ship, loses ANOTHER ship, loses a cargo of gold bars, and loses his life. The final scene shows explicitly that this man is better off dead.