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Cowboys, Creatures, and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures
Greed for gold starkly stands forth as the theme of Wake of the Red Witch. Set in the 1860s in the South Pacific, Captain Ralls, skipper of the Red Witch, has a series of adventures involving sunken gold bullion, pearls, natives, an unscrupulous ship owner, and a giant octopus. The film cost $1.2 million to make: one hundred thousand dollars was paid for the screen rights for the book by Garland Roark from which the film was adapted. It was the most money the studio had ever paid for a story.
Republic built a full-scale replica of a three-mast sailing vessel on one of its largest soundstages. The schooner, over two hundred feet long, was an exact duplication of the one used in the ocean sequences that were filmed on location in Catalina Island.
Audiences flocked to the movie many referred to as “Wuthering Heights on the water.” Moviegoers praised the picture’s non-stop action and listed the underwater sequences and John Wayne’s battle with the giant octopus among the best moments of the film. Wake of the Red Witch performed well at the box office, finishing forty-third on Variety’s list of the top money makers in 1949.
