Heavy-breathing translation of the Yukio Mishima novel, the key characters of which are a fatherless boy with an obsession about the sea, a handsome, multi-scarred sailor who forsakes the hardships of a seafarer's life for the cozy bed of the boy's mother, and a bullying schoolmate of the boy, a sort of crypto-fascist who presides over an extracurricular sect of adult-haters. A portion of credibility is sacrificed automatically with the transplanting of the story from Japan to an English coastal town of tea shops, antique stores, and such; and the damage is worsened considerably by the portrayal of the fair-haired, pink-cheeked sect leader as a sort of Gestapo gangster (feet on the desk, cigar in hand, sneering "Idiots!" at everybody). A couple of amorous bouts between Sarah Miles and Kris Kristofferson are rather bold, certainly, for actors of their status. But Lewis John Carlino, in his directing debut, strains too hard for an overall sensuousness with unending dissolves and an unending doleful piano theme by Kristofferson. (1976) — Duncan Shepherd
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