Slattery's Hurricane Reviews

After crossing up a pal, pilot Widmark attempts to make up for the wrongdoing by flying a dangerous assignment in rough weather for the wronged friend. As the winds bounce his craft through the air, he begins thinking back over his life and the things he has done. Widmark's story is told in flashback. After serving in WW II as a pilot and singlehandedly sinking a Japanese ship, Widmark returns to civilian life. He takes a job as a pilot for a candy company with obvious mob connections. When he learns that his employers are also in on dope smuggling, he decides to get a piece of the action himself. After engaging in an affair with Lake, a company secretary and girl friend of a mob leader, Widmark runs into Russell, a buddy from the Navy. Russell is married to Darnell, an old flame of Widmark. His passion for her still runs deep, so he tries to wreck their marriage in hope of getting Darnell back. However, Darnell is not an easy victim for Widmark's schemes and makes the roguish man reform. As his own penance, Widmark takes Russell's place on a Weather Bureau hurricane flight and performs a heroic service. SLATTERY'S HURRICANE is an entertaining yarn that makes good use of the cast. Widmark gives the right amount of vileness to his character, an unsympathetic portrait with a moral turn that is honest and believable. Lake is solid support as his junkie lover. At this point both her professional and personal life were in disarray and this would be her last major film role. The cuts back and forth from Widmark in his plane to the events in his life occasionally bog things down, though, as the technique is relied on more than is necessary. The hurricane special effects are realistic, making Widmark's peril all the more suspenseful. Though essentially a routine melodrama, the film is injected with plenty of enthusiasm by its cast, thereby overcoming the weaknesses in the script. At the time Lake was married to the film's director, de Toth, though they would divorce three years later.