Tag Archives: Rock Hudson

June 23, 2025 · 5:01 pm

ROCK HUDSON’S SWASHBUCKLER FILMS

Time for a look at Rock Hudson’s overlooked swashbuckler movies.

SEA DEVILS (1953) – As England and other nations battle France in 1800, English Captain Gilliatt (Rock Hudson) has abandoned his career as a fisherman to become a smuggler. He excels at the task and over the past few years he and his ship the Sea Devil have gained quite a reputation.

The wily and sea-savvy Gilliatt’s latest cargo to smuggle is Droucette (Yvonne De Carlo), a fugitive French aristocrat acting undercover to save her brother from the guillotine in Revolutionary France.

Amid much swordplay and other action during frequent trips across the Channel, Gilliatt struggles to keep her alive and understand the motives of this beautiful woman with whom he has fallen in love.

Droucette for a time seems to secretly be an agent for Napoleon but then turns out to be a double agent who is really working for England after all. Gilliatt prevails in the end, thwarting Napoleon’s plot to invade England and rescuing Droucette from death on the guillotine.    Continue reading →

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June 15, 2025 · 10:17 am

THE DEVLIN CONNECTION (1982) FOR FATHER’S DAY

THE DEVLIN CONNECTION (1982) – HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! Balladeer’s Blog marks the occasion with a look at this short-lived detective series starring Rock Hudson and Jack Scalia as father and son investigators.   

Hudson played Brian Devlin, a retired private investigator (but see below) who is now the director of the Los Angeles Arts Center. One day he is reunited with the son he never knew he had with an old flame. That son is Nick Corsello (Jack Scalia), a private investigator who works out of a bar (4 episodes) or a health club (9 episodes).

Before I cover the schizophrenic nature of this 13-episode series I’ll describe the father-son relationship. Brian and Nick try to form a bond, but Brian often puts a strain on their relationship by unofficially helping his son with the cases he’s working on despite his son wanting to accomplish things on his own.

Viewers get some laughs from Hudson’s character trying to hide his parallel investigations from Scalia and from the bickering between the pair when the son inevitably gets wise to Dad’s meddling. Continue reading →

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