User Reviews

Rod La Rocque was technically a star in Hollywood's silent era ... but he was certainly not a first-rank star, and perhaps not even third-rank. He tried to be an action hero who was also a romantic leading man ... but La Rocque lacked the gymnastics of Douglas Fairbanks, the moral complexity of William S Hart or the sheer buckaroo bravado of Tom Mix. La Rocque usually played the same type on screen as Richard Bathelmess: the sensitive youth who comes through in a crisis. But Barthelmess was both better-looking and a better actor than La Rocque. Rod La Rocque's acting technique -- delicate hand motions garlanding his face -- is exactly the sort of histrionics that has given silent-film acting a bad name for modern audiences. It doesn't help that La Rocque tended to work with undistinguished supporting casts. The most notable actor in 'Code of the Sea' is Charles Ogle, in a very small role.

'Code of the Sea' is probably typical La Rocque fare. It's none too good: several key events in the plot and backstory are established in title cards rather than shown, La Rocque is Bruce McDow, son of a disgraced sea captain. John McDow made a command decision with unfortunate consequences, and he's now considered a coward. When Bruce McDow goes to sea, his fears and phobias cause him to be branded a coward too. But, through a series of plot contrivances, he has a chance to repeat the circumstances of his father's fatal decision. Will it end differently this time?

This film's depictions of seamanship are laughable. When McDow is dismissed from his posting on the crew of a schooner, he simply puts on a pea jacket and disembarks: no seaman's papers, no ditty bag. There's also some inaccurate material dealing with how merchant officers obtain their postings. In another scene, McDow tries to prove his bravery by holding his hand in an open flame ... but that only proves he's a masochist.

Cameraman Charles Edgar Schoenbaum (who?) makes some odd decisions. "Rough seas" and "storm clouds" are depicted by filming a schooner on smooth seas under cumulus clouds, while lurching the camera! Even more awkward is a sequence in which La Rocque and Jacqueline Logan, aboard separate vessels, use binoculars to look at each other. Schoenbaum frames both actors in the same camera plane -- making it seem they're both looking at the same object -- instead of reversing the camera planes so it's clear they're looking at each other.

The use of miniatures in the climactic sequence is more obvious than it needs to be. I was impressed by a double-exposure shot, when grotesque faces suddenly appear to taunt McDow: these are his nameless fears. But instead of walking away from them, he tries to push them aside with some of those hand gestures. Rod La Rocque would have been a much better actor if he'd used his hands half as often. This storm in a teapot barely rates 5 out of 10.