Before Gilligan's Island, Alan Hale Jr. Appeared In A Forgotten John Wayne Flop

John Wayne might be best known for representing the archetypal Western hero of the mid-20th century, but he didn't spend his entire career playing gunslingers. The Duke made his fair share of war movies, too, including the notorious "Green Berets" that Roger Ebert called "cruel and dishonest." Then there was the barely remembered "The Sea Chase," which saw Wayne play a German sea captain in a film that also featured a pre-"Gilligan's Island" Alan Hale Jr.

1955's "The Sea Chase" was a World War II drama that boasted an impressive cast, including a couple of future stars. Aside from Wayne and co-star Lana Turner, the film featured a pre-"Gunsmoke" James Arness alongside Hale Jr., who was then almost a decade away from his best-known role as Captain Jonas Grumby, aka The Skipper, on "Gilligan's Island." Still, by the mid-50s, Hale Jr. had established himself in the industry, having starred in the CBS adventure series "Biff Baker, U.S.A.," from 1952 to 53 and sharing the screen with Kirk Douglas in 1952's "The Big Trees." He also appeared alongside James Cagney in 1950's "The West Point Story" and Audie Murphy in 1954's "Destry."

So, even if he hadn't yet become a household name, by the time he shared the screen with the Duke, Hale Jr. was no rookie. Sadly, his collaboration with the great John Wayne was not a particularly well-remembered one. "The Sea Chase" debuted to some fairly harsh reviews and has since been mostly forgotten.

In 1956, John Wayne made one of his most essential films in "The Searchers." The year prior, he made a less-than-essential movie with "The Sea Chase," an adaptation of Andrew Geer's 1949 novel. Directed by John Farrow, the movie sees Wayne play Karl Ehrlich, captain of the German freighter Ergenstrasse. Ehrlich and his crew set off from an Australian port to make the perilous trip back to Hamburg just as World War II broke out. Why on earth would the staunchly conservative Wayne agree to play a German sea captain? Well, Ehrlich is vehemently anti-Nazi, which perfectly suited the Duke.

As the Ergenstrasse makes its way across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, it's pursued by Allied ships, including a British vessel overseen by Lieutenant Commander Jeff Napier (David Farrar). Complicating matters is that Napier's former love turns out to be the German spy Elsa Keller (Lana Turner), whom Erlich has been entrusted with ferrying back to Deutschland unharmed.

Besides its top-notch cast, "The Sea Chase" had a lot working in its favor, including being shot on location in Hawaii aboard a real freighter that, according to Turner Classic Movies, Warner Bros. bought specifically for the film. That said, there were several bad omens during filming, including Wayne being hospitalized with an ear infection. According to actor Paul Fix (via TCM), the Duke was on strong painkillers to allow him to work. "You'd see this glazed look come over his eyes from the medication," said Fix, "and his ear was so swollen that for several days John Farrow could only shoot him from his good side." Not the most fortuitous circumstances for Alan Hale Jr.'s only collaboration with Wayne, then.

Alan Hale Jr. didn't have a big part in "The Sea Chase." The actor portrayed Wentz, an Ergenstrasse crew member who, as you might imagine, isn't given all that much to do. But that might have been for the best, given how the World War II drama was received.

The New York Times' Bosley Crowther certainly described "The Sea Chase" as "a conventionally heroic and ideologically silly sea romance." As Crowther saw it, the film could have been "a genuine saga of Nazi arrogance on the sea if producer-director John Farrow had stuck faithfully to Andrew Geer's book." The reviewer wasn't any more complimentary of John Wayne, who he claimed played his role "as though he were heading a herd of cattle up the old Chisholm Trail." Another review from Variety surmised that while the film was "seemingly equipped with all the elements for exciting screenfare," it "never quite lives up to its promise."

Box office figures are hard to determine, but according to Turner Classic Movies, "The Sea Chase" was not a box office hit. On the other hand, IMDb lists the movie as one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1955, and The Numbers quotes a domestic box office total of $12 million (though $6 million has been reported elsewhere). Whatever the case, "The Sea Chase" isn't one of the Duke's most memorable films.

The same year "The Sea Chase" debuted, Wayne helped launch James Arness' career with "Gunsmoke." It would take some time for Alan Hale Jr. to similarly rocket to TV stardom, but regardless, it must have been a thrill to appear alongside the biggest movie star of the Century.