Sad to say that the miscast Gregory Peck brings down The World in His Arms down to the level of an ordinary action/adventure film than a classic. I agree with the reviewer who says that Gregory Peck was way too much the gentlemen to be believable as Jonathan Clark the lusty captain of a sealing vessel. I'd agree that Burt or Kirk would have been better. I'd even add John Wayne as a better choice and Universal studios had Jeff Chandler under contract and he would have been better in the part.
Adapted from a Rex Beach novel, The World in His Arms has Ann Blyth looking to get to Sitka from San Francisco where she will be safe because uncle Sig Ruman is the Governor of the territory. Why in the world she would be less safe in the USA as opposed to what was Russian territory at the time, I can't figure out. Because she's trying to avoid a match to a no account count played by Carl Esmond. Trouble is that Carl's got the Czar's blessing for the marriage.
Ann gets both Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn who is Peck's rival in the sealing trade in heat over who will take care her. In the end she goes with neither, but Peck and Quinn race to Sitka to pursue her where they fall in the hands of Esmond who has got Ruman by the short Russian hairs so to speak. Go figure why Ann thought she was safer there.
The sailing sequences are nice and the best performance in the film is from Anthony Quinn. Come to think of it, he would have been better in the lead. His performance is followed very closely by John McIntire as Peck's first mate and Hans Conreid as a flustered hotel clerk.
The World in His Arms also has one of the best action directors around in Raoul Walsh. A better cast leading man might even have made up for some of the deficiencies in the plot. Still everyone in the cast has been in worse films.
With a couple of songs, they could have cast Nelson Eddy in the lead.
Adapted from a Rex Beach novel, The World in His Arms has Ann Blyth looking to get to Sitka from San Francisco where she will be safe because uncle Sig Ruman is the Governor of the territory. Why in the world she would be less safe in the USA as opposed to what was Russian territory at the time, I can't figure out. Because she's trying to avoid a match to a no account count played by Carl Esmond. Trouble is that Carl's got the Czar's blessing for the marriage.
Ann gets both Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn who is Peck's rival in the sealing trade in heat over who will take care her. In the end she goes with neither, but Peck and Quinn race to Sitka to pursue her where they fall in the hands of Esmond who has got Ruman by the short Russian hairs so to speak. Go figure why Ann thought she was safer there.
The sailing sequences are nice and the best performance in the film is from Anthony Quinn. Come to think of it, he would have been better in the lead. His performance is followed very closely by John McIntire as Peck's first mate and Hans Conreid as a flustered hotel clerk.
The World in His Arms also has one of the best action directors around in Raoul Walsh. A better cast leading man might even have made up for some of the deficiencies in the plot. Still everyone in the cast has been in worse films.
With a couple of songs, they could have cast Nelson Eddy in the lead.