The wake of Moby-Dick ripples through Hawks's melodrama of deep-sea fishing, shot on location in Monterey. “There are elements of Ahab . . . in the character played by Edward G. Robinson, a Portuguese-born tuna boat captain who loses his left hand to a shark and his young wife to his handsome first mate. Zita Johann, as the wife, is an early embodiment of the typically free-spirited, tough-minded Hawks woman. When she realizes that she and Richard Arlen, as Robinson's best friend, are in love with each other, she is the one who initiates their affair. Hawks sustained a slower tempo and a more romantic mood than he did in later films . . . helped considerably by Tony Gaudio's beautifully modulated photography” (Charles Hopkins, UCLA Film and Television Archive).