5/10
Mediocre Spanish production by Juan Piquer , freely based on Jules Verne novel
23 August 2021
Dick Sand (Gabriel Jimenez as Gaby Jimenez) is assigned by his godfather Captain Hull (Gerad Tichy) to control the whaler "Pilgrim" as second-in-command , but his travel aboard is plenty of problems. The Pilgrim is a whale-ship captained by Captain Hull , with a motley crew , as a suspicious cook (Aldo Sambrell) , harpoonists , and on board is the ship owner's wife (Patty Shepard) and her daughter (Flavia Zarzo) , among others . After a while , they find a shipwrecked drifting boat with a group of teens , as six adolescents (Ian Sera , Jimmy Johnson...) of various nationalities are on their way to Australia when their ship was taken by evil pirates led by Van Hassel (Frank Braña) , a slave hunter who attacked the ship on sea . Shortly after , things go wrong when the brave seamen and the captain die attacking a Cachalote , following dramatic events, the ship becomes without a captain , then the fifteen Year Old Boy shall command the ship with the teens brought on board . As the young captain will attempt to keep all sailors in peace , and arrive in their destination . But along the way , they are shipwrecked and then disembark on a dangerous island inhabited by furious tribes and nasty slavers who chase them .

Adventure movie by Juán Piquer Simón, full of action , thrills , made in medium budget and filled with familiar faces from the 60s and 70s . The movie is narrated by means of a continuous pursuit in the jungle and we are seeing several African animals and use of stock-shots .Following dramatic and adventurous happenings , as the captain is attacked by a whale as the ship becomes without a captain and the second-in-command results to be a fifteen-year-captain , while Pilgrim crew find a boat shipwrecked adrift and a group of teens are picked and they are put on board , ultimately , they're taken prisoners and tied to be devoured by Killer Ants but they succeed in escaping. The picture starred by several unknown teenagers and various notorious secondaries in the ordinary co-productions as Western , terror , and Euro-spy, from the Sixties and Seventies , such as : Patty Shepard , Frank Braña , Aldo Sambrell , Gerard Tichy and Luis Barboo . Freely based on Jules Verne novel , and the movies have been adapted to Verne's best known films are the following ones : George Melies immortalized ¨From the Earth to the Moon¨ in an early silent film . Walt Disney did films on ¨Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea¨ and ¨The Children of Captain Grant¨ (the latter entitled ¨In search of the Castaways¨) . Ray Harryhausen's special effects are one of the treats of ¨Mysterious Island¨ directed by Cy Enfield . Mike Todd produced Around the world in 80 days with Cantinflas and David Niven . And James Mason did make that ¨Journey to the Centre of the Earth¨. What is usually not realized is the lesser known titles that have gotten onto the screen - for Jules Verne wrote nearly 80 novels . ¨Miguel Strogoff¨ was made into a film in Great Britain in the 1930s with Anton Walbrook . ¨Five weeks in balloom¨ was made into a comedy adventure with Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Red Buttons in the 1960s . A Mexican version of the long forgotten ¨Eight Hundred Leagues over the Amazon¨ was made in the 1950s . A French version title Matia Sandorff was made starring Louis Jordan in the 1960s and ¨Fifteen Year Old Captain¨ 1973 by Jesus Franco with William Berger , Edmund Purdom, among others.

This average and humdrum Los diablos del mar (1982) turns out to be a special version of the Jules Verne adventure yarn titled : Fifteen Year Old Captain . There's rip-roaring action , spirit of adventure , derring-do , humor, emotion , including copying some scenes from ¨Blue Lagoon¨ and resulting to be briefly entertaining but mediocre . Among the most attractive of its visuals there are the semi-spectacular scenes in which the tough fishers chase a whale , and the colorful backgrounds of the lost African places . It's a slight fun with primitive special effects by Emilio Ruiz , passable set decoration , and functional art direction . The fable is silly and laughable , and the effects and action are regularly made . Being clumsily made but the movie has some good moments here and there . Some illogical parts in the plot are more than compensated for the excitement provided by the scenes about the whale hunting , shootouts and moving pursuits . Shot on location by cameraman Juan Mariné in Islands Azores, Portugal , Africa Ecuatorial and interiors in Madrid, Spain . Being regular but professionally directed by craftsman Juán Piquer Simón.
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