| Adventure's End | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Arthur Lubin |
| Screenplay by | Ben Grauman Kohn Scott Darling Sidney Sutherland |
| Story by | Ben Ames Williams |
| Produced by | Trem Carr Paul Malvern |
| Starring | John Wayne |
| Cinematography | Gus Peterson John Fulton[1] |
| Edited by | Charles Craft |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 60 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $90,000[2] or $100,000[3] |
Adventure's End is a 1937 Americanadventure film directed byArthur Lubin and starringJohn Wayne and Diana Gibson. It was distributed by Universal Pictures.[1][4] It is considered alost film with no known prints publicly available, though a surviving print ofAdventure's End is reported to be held by theLibrary of Congress.[5]
Duke Slade, a Pacific islands pearl diver, signs up to sail on a whaling vessel. Before they sail, Captain Drew marries Slade to his daughter Janet, to protect him against his first mate, Rand Husk. When the crew mutinies at sea, Slade sides with the captain.
Adventure's End was the last of six films John Wayne made at Universal.[6] Four of them were directed byArthur Lubin who later recalled they usually "had six days to shoot. There was no time schedule, as there is today, where if you go late at night or start early in the morning, you have to pay more. In those days, you could shoot twenty-four hours a day." Lubin says thatAdventure's End was "very extravagant", because "we were going to shoot in ten days", and "it was going to be a big picture." He says Wayne films were often inspired by "What sets are up these days that we can make pictures on, that won’t cost us much money".Adventure's Endwas made because "there was a boat on Universal lot, and they could use that."[2][7]
In November 1936Trem Carr purchasedMaid of Orleans, a 150-foot schooner, one of the last of the whaling ships on the west coast, in Vancouver. He purchased specifically for the film.[8] Filming was postponed due to a shipping strike (other films affected by this strike includeThe Hurricane for Sam Goldwyn andShort Haul also starring Wayne at Universal).[9] By February the strike was over and the film was officially on Universal's production slate; Carr sent a crew to Vancouver to sail the boat to Los Angeles.[10]
Filming started early July 1937.[11]
The New York Times called the film a "pale reflection of several recent Hollywood sea epics."[12]