Victor McLaglen, the captain of a tug boat service forms a misplaced affection for Luciana Paluzzi, her father (Delgado) happy to oblige for a significant dowry and ongoing prestige. Paluzzi, of course, at least thirty-something years McLaglen's junior, isn't so willing to be matrimonially arranged and finds mutual attraction with the newly hired mate, Stanley Baker. The ensuing tension creates friction between those loyal to the embattled skipper, and others swayed by Baker's courage and the prospect of a changing in the guard.
McLaglen's final film role is a great individual swansong, but he's a star among a galaxy of gas. Baker's character will draw parallels with that of "Hell Drivers" (another Endfield-Kruse collaboration), as the tough, uncompromising rogue who takes on the establishment for the common man, his highly principled stance diametrically opposed by the hard-line techniques employed by McLaglen. But the transition is by no means seamless, particularly with loyal mates (Shaw, being the most influential) opposing the vanguard. The action sequences are competent, but Paluzzi doesn't evoke enough depth to her characterisation, a role in which perhaps a Sophia Loren or Pier Angeli would have excelled.
Fair British supporting cast are merely spectators to the tepid love triangle and Endfield's direction is not as taut or narratively fluent as in "Hell Drivers" (the similarities with which are too obvious to deny and is possibly where "Sea Fury" suffers as a comparison). But for Baker's charisma and McLaglen's jealous-turn invoking equal amounts of scorn and sympathy accordingly, this would be a largely forgettable experience. A solid climax briefly elevates the picture, but not sufficiently to redeem the otherwise soap-operatic storyline from mediocre status. Fair, but far from memorable.
