John Wayne’s Westerns Get All the Glory — but This Overlooked, Underrated Mystery Drama Proved He Was More Than a Cowboy

When people talk about John Wayne, the picture painted is usually him on a horse, not chasing seal poachers through icy waters. But for a brief moment in the 1930s, The Duke swapped his cowboy hat for a Coast Guard uniform, and the result was a lot more fun than anyone expected it to be. Sea Spoilers isn’t just an old-school mystery drama set on the Alaskan coast; it’s a time capsule offering a rare look at Wayne who was trying to prove he could hold his own in modern-day adventure stories. The film itself has the actor playing a tough-as-nails Coast Guard officer in pursuit of smugglers who’ve been sneaking stolen contraband across U.S. waters.