September Storm movie storyline. While vacationing on the Spanish island of Majorca, New York fashion model Anne Traymore meets Manuel del Rio Montoya when he returns the bracelet she lost while swimming in the sea. When Manuel, who works as a caretaker aboard the sleek sailing boat, the Swan, which is owned by Rene Le Clerc, a wealthy Parisian importer, invites Anne to accompany him spear fishing, Anne, thinking that he owns the craft, accepts.
As Anne and Manuel explore the sea below, Joe Balfour and Ernie Williams, two shady adventurers in need of a boat, board the deserted Swan with the intention of stealing it. When Manuel and Anne return from their dive, they find Joe and Ernie aboard, and when Joe asks to charter the boat, Manuel arranges to meet him for drinks later to discuss the details.
At a nightclub that evening, Joe, who has discovered that Manuel is merely the Swan ‘s caretaker, enlists Anne’s help in convincing Manuel to cooperate. The next morning, Joe shows Anne some Spanish doubloons and then tells her that he and Ernie need the Swan to help them retrieve $3,000,000 in sunken gold. Joe explains that he and Ernie were hauling the gold for its owners when a storm struck, sinking the boat with its treasure and killing all aboard except him and Ernie.
When Joe offers Anne a fourth of the treasure in exchange for persuading Manuel to join their venture, she eagerly accepts. After Manuel agrees to let them use the boat, he phones Le Clerc in Paris to advise him that his impending cruise must be postponed because the Swan needs to spend three weeks in dry dock. The next day, the four set sail and Joe assumes the post of captain.
As the days wear on, Anne begins to distrust the boorish Ernie. When a threatening storm approaches, Manuel insists on turning back, but Joe blackmails him into continuing by threatening to tell Anne that he is only a poor sailor. In Paris, meanwhile, Le Clerc discovers that Manuel has disappeared with the Swan and flies to Majorca to investigate.
When the hurricane hits, the boat and its occupants thrash helplessly in the high seas until the storm subsides. The propeller has been jammed by seaweed and when Joe dives in to free it, he is stung by a portuguese man-of-war. To save Joe’s life, Manuel sails the boat to a nearby island and there harvests some medicinal herbs that will counteract the poison.
Under Anne’s diligent care, Joe gradually recovers. One night on the beach, Manuel fervently proclaims his love to Anne, and after she rebuffs him, he angrily dives into the sea and swims out to the Swan , intending to leave the others stranded on the island. Ernie follows, and as the two battle on board, the Swan drifts precariously close to a rock embankment.
Arriving just in time, Joe takes the wheel and steers the craft to safety. Upon reaching the buried treasure, Anne warns Joe to watch Ernie. After days of retrieving baskets of gold from the scuttled ship, the sunken vessel’s hull begins to shift dangerously. Consequently, when a shark appears from the deep, Joe declares they have reclaimed enough treasure and it is now time to move on.
At Ernie’s insistence, however, Joe agrees to extend the hunt for one more day. The next morning, as Joe and Manuel dive for doubloons, Ernie commandeers the Swan, intending to hijack it with Anne and the gold onboard. When Joe tries to stop him, Ernie threatens him with a speargun, but Manuel gets the drop on Ernie and wounds him in the back.
September Storm is a 1960 American adventure film directed by Byron Haskin and starring Joanne Dru and Mark Stevens. Filmed in 3-D and DeLuxe Color and presented in CinemaScope, it is notable as the only U.S. feature film made in 3-D between Revenge of the Creature, which was released in the spring of 1955 and marked the end of the 1950s 3-D movie fad in the U.S., and The Bubble, which premiered in late 1966 and introduced the economical “over-and-under” single-strip format used by most of the 3-D films of the 1970s and 1980s.
Like the feature-length 3-D films of the 1950s when they were originally released, it was projected by the polarized light method and viewed through gray Polaroid filters in viewers which, according to the film’s poster, were “scientifically designed by master craftsmen!” Most theaters, however, presented it “flat”, in 2-D.
Although it is widely believed to have been filmed in Stereovision, Bob Furmanek, who oversaw the 2016 restoration, says this is a myth. It was shot full-frame with the original NaturalVision cameras used on Bwana Devil. The center of the image was then extracted to create a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, in the manner of the then-current Superscope process. Unfortunately, it was poorly done, resulting in a large number of badly-framed shots; for example, the scene with the Flamenco dancers has a huge amount of headroom while their feet are cut off.
September Storm (1960)
Directed by: Byron Haskin
Starring: Joanne Dru, Mark Stevens, Robert Strauss, Asher Dann, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Véra Valmont, Claude Ivry, Ernesto Lapeña, Charito León, Adam Genette
Screenplay by: W. R. Burnett
Cinematography by: Lamar Boren, Jorge Stahl
Film Editing by: Alberto Valenzuela
Art Direction by: Boris Leven
Special Effects by: Jack Cosgrove
Visual Effects by: Ray Mercer
Music by: Edward L. Alperson Jr., Raoul Kraushaar
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: September 9, 1960
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