Sea Spoilers finds John Wayne as the commanding officer of a Coast Guard Cutter on duty in the Pacific Northwest looking for seal poachers. This was the first of six films that Wayne did in 1936-1937 for Universal in an effort to broaden his acting horizons. Not one of these B films for Universal was a western.
It gets real personal after Wayne's sweetheart, Nan Grey, witnesses the murder of a drunken playboy on his yacht. The playboy, Ernest Hilliard realizes he's been the dupe of these seal poachers for some time and threatens to spill to the authorities. The head of the outfit, Russell Hicks, has a thing for Grey and instead of just killing the only witness, kidnaps her and takes her to his Aleutian hideaway.
In the meantime Wayne also has been superseded in command of his vessel by William Bakewell who is the son of the commanding officer George Irving. Believe it or not Bakewell has a phobia about water and wants to be in the air. He eventually gets his wish, but the villains capture him for his trouble.
Sea Spoilers is a competently made action film and the final battle with the Coast Guard and the poachers is very well staged, especially considering this is a B film. Fuzzy Knight fulfills the role of sidekick, just as if this were a western. He and the Duke worked well together, a pity he didn't do any more films with Wayne other than Shepherd of the Hills.
I have a hard time though wrapping my mind around the concept of a Coast Guardsman with a water phobia. It's explained, but how did Bakewell get in the service in the first place even with a father that had a lot of pull? And did Russell Hicks have that bad a thing for Nan Grey?
Sea Spoilers could have used a better story. Still it's not a bad action film and some of the westerns the Duke was doing for Lone Star films were a whole lot worse at this time.
