Souls at Sea (SAS) is an unusual film from Gary Cooper's peak years with Paramount Studios. It is obscure and hard to find. However, SAS is now available on YouTube, so those who are unfamiliar with it now have the rare opportunity to judge its merits for themselves.
SAS was originally planned to be a much more important film than the one we now have before us. Somewhere along the way, Paramount abandoned its ambitions for SAS. What eventually emerged, while hardly an epic, is an interesting entertainment that deals with important issues and deserves a larger audience.
The plot considers a back story involving the notorious slave trade that persisted into the nineteenth century, and the efforts by some individuals to take matters into their own hands to curtail the practice. But the more important part of the film deals with an unexpected shipwreck and the resulting inadequate lifeboat space available to accommodate its survivors. Cooper as the first mate faces the incredible dilemma of suddenly having to "play God" and determine which survivors must be sacrificed in an effort to save the lives of all the others.
This part of the story is based on fact. The actual case, U. s. v. Holmes, is a famous Supreme Court precedent known to anyone familiar with Criminal Law and the legal subject of homicide. Holmes, the first mate, was actually tried for manslaughter in connection with the deaths of those he consigned to die hoping to save the rest of the survivors. Was the defense of justifiable homicide available to Holmes under these facts? The legal answer was no. However, shortly after he had been found guilty of manslaughter, Holmes was freed from imprisonment. So what does the case stand for? Legal scholars argue about it to this day.
SAS presents the Holmes case in a fictional setting, yet it retains a similar ending. The Cooper character, now called Taylor, is set free after his trial. But the circumstances of this development may be more the result of his involvement in the back story of the plot than in the moral and ethical quandary of having to "play God" with the lives of innocent people to save others who might otherwise have perished.
For another take on the Holmes story, check out the Tyrone Power British film Seven Waves Away/Abandon Ship! (1957).
SAS has an extraordinary cast of supporting actors and splendid camera work--particularly in the climactic sequence involving the shipwreck. Cooper and George Raft make a surprisingly good "buddy" pairing, and SAS provides a rare opportunity to see the exotic beauty Olympe Bradna in one of her few Hollywood films.
All in all, SAS is a film that is well worth seeing, and deserves a wider audience than it now enjoys.
SAS was originally planned to be a much more important film than the one we now have before us. Somewhere along the way, Paramount abandoned its ambitions for SAS. What eventually emerged, while hardly an epic, is an interesting entertainment that deals with important issues and deserves a larger audience.
The plot considers a back story involving the notorious slave trade that persisted into the nineteenth century, and the efforts by some individuals to take matters into their own hands to curtail the practice. But the more important part of the film deals with an unexpected shipwreck and the resulting inadequate lifeboat space available to accommodate its survivors. Cooper as the first mate faces the incredible dilemma of suddenly having to "play God" and determine which survivors must be sacrificed in an effort to save the lives of all the others.
This part of the story is based on fact. The actual case, U. s. v. Holmes, is a famous Supreme Court precedent known to anyone familiar with Criminal Law and the legal subject of homicide. Holmes, the first mate, was actually tried for manslaughter in connection with the deaths of those he consigned to die hoping to save the rest of the survivors. Was the defense of justifiable homicide available to Holmes under these facts? The legal answer was no. However, shortly after he had been found guilty of manslaughter, Holmes was freed from imprisonment. So what does the case stand for? Legal scholars argue about it to this day.
SAS presents the Holmes case in a fictional setting, yet it retains a similar ending. The Cooper character, now called Taylor, is set free after his trial. But the circumstances of this development may be more the result of his involvement in the back story of the plot than in the moral and ethical quandary of having to "play God" with the lives of innocent people to save others who might otherwise have perished.
For another take on the Holmes story, check out the Tyrone Power British film Seven Waves Away/Abandon Ship! (1957).
SAS has an extraordinary cast of supporting actors and splendid camera work--particularly in the climactic sequence involving the shipwreck. Cooper and George Raft make a surprisingly good "buddy" pairing, and SAS provides a rare opportunity to see the exotic beauty Olympe Bradna in one of her few Hollywood films.
All in all, SAS is a film that is well worth seeing, and deserves a wider audience than it now enjoys.