"Un capitaine de quinze ans" is an obscure Jules Verne's book which I read when I was about 14 and which I liked very much. An adventure yarn,it displayed Verne's disgust for slavery .It's also the initiatory voyage of a teenager who must surpass himself to save a mother and her young son.
A first version was made by Jesus Franco in the seventies : its lack of means and its could-not-care-less directing made the effort worthless.
If that was bad, "los diablos del mar" is worse , a mess of incompetent writing ,directing, acting,and editing .Besides Verne's cast of characters (Dick Sand, Mrs Weldon and Jack ,cousin Benedict, Hercule,Nan, the dog ,the villains Harris and Negoro (check the name!) )the screnwriters felt compelled ,to sound "hip",to add six young shipwrecked teenagers ,a gorgeous big sister of Jack ,which provides a soft erotic scene,which comes at the most awkward moment and seems taken by force from "the blue lagoon" .
The novel told an eventful story ;its best moment is when the hero and his mates discover they are not in America but in Africa .In the movie,the screenplay is so disjointed it's hard to catch up with the plot,even though you 've read the book ;acting is dismal , directing is,to put it mildly,amateurish, some characters (Mrs Weldon and son) disappear and reappear only to secure a happy end. Besides the young hero, Dick Sand , the young captain,has almost nothing to do and is reduced to a supporting role,and I mean supporting !Some horrible pictures were thrown in,now and then for good measure
Take to your heels !
