MANFISH
(1956; d. WLee Wilder, w. Joel Murcott, story Myles Wilder)

Plane arrives at Montego Bay, Jamaica (island in Atlantic-unconscious; rough, elemental setting the archetypal tropics) bearing Inspector Frank Warren o/t Yard (consciousness entering dream-arena from proprietary homeland), serving extradition on "Professor" Fenton (nickname not-the-consc’ss for character serving similarly investigative role in Unconscious, Warren’s mission analysis bringing psychic material to awareness) but stopped short by local authority (mediating mental faculty) who offers "strange, colorful, exciting" story (equated w/ Jamaica itself, story also about inner workings o/t psyche) as explanation:

$-man Bianco (dressed in white à la name, he unknowable Moby-Dick God/Self holding fate in hands) threatens boyish pilot Swede (neutral nationality à la manchild personality) w/ trashing title ship (similarly conjunctive name the semi-evolved self, threat push twd maturity) if not paid up by Captain Brannigan (rake + a cheat, himself avoiding growing up, living offshore lack of commitment to world), whom Swede seeks out for crew’s salary (upkeep o/t physical self, which disappears early on + returns only twd end of film/dream) while Cap’n playing cards (risky behavior threat to own well-being: loses, turning playboy-hero expectations on ear, he following WLee template of rotter-protagonists from Pretender to Bluebeard + Omegans); Brannigan elbows in on old "Prof’s" native woman Elita (oedipal ambitions à la Swede’s coveting boat), bringing Prof’s vow to kill him (skull + x-bones ring Death himself, which B tempts many times, His fickle partner Chance).

Turtle-hunting next day (amphibious quarry cfg later buried treasure, subaquatic vs subterranean, less "solid" pursuit), Brannigan saves crewmen Domingo + Big Boy (latter mate preserving arrested self) from shark w/ trident (White Devil covering but in no way benevolent twd "protectorate" Jamaica), Swede demonstrating likewise protectiveness twd ship ("the only wmn I’ve got," locket around neck bearing photos of mother + sweetheart, both gone: he btwn spirit of both mother-attachment + mature romance) before diving + finding skeleton holding bottle (he exploratory intermediate doing ego’s mentalwork) containing French treasure map (free-flowing rum à la subconscious yielding similar psychic riches/coded messages) rolled up in similar ring to Prof’s (omen for avaricious Cap’n); chanteuse-friend Mimi (film's constant song à la drink in playful, anarchic unconscious) translates truncated directions (½-map: treasure only attained when disjoined opposites – un/consc, youth/maturity, creative/pragmatic [+, conspicuous in its absence, fe/male] – work in concert), then S+B head for Prof’s (not-the-conscious island off an island, he emerging from water on their arrival à la unconsc material).

Prof pursues diving Brannigan (psychic threat in evolutionary-unconscious waters: playing out archetypal oedipal animus) w/ harpoon (reversing earlier shark-hunt + questioning which more vicious), Elita (libidinous native instinct) urging Bran to kill Prof on return + Prof asserting importance as codebreaker (necessity of imaginative analysis); 3 men head on expedition (Prof-mind/Bran-body/Swede-soul the Self unified in objective) + locate skull on ledge (remains of conscious self), which leads them to treasure (via 2 other sulls: [spiritual] death way to reward, as Swede later discovers) containing map to 2nd chest (never 2B found: higher spiritual reward accruing to no one).

Back at ship, Prof hides harpoon gun (not-the-father possessor of phallus continued pwr of unconscious over ego even tho ego sleeping w/ libidinous not-the-mother/anima/Elita: oedipal project ½ complete) + burns 2nd map (w/ "I told you I’d kill you" warning: message to ego from unconc just before sending him to Big Sleep), then has endless trouble dumping body (self’s final descent into [shallow] sleep + impossibility of transcending base physicality); Bianco retuns w/ authorities (reemergence of superego as consciousness looms) + Swede notices missing oxygen tank (now anchoring corpse, tell-tale bubbles breath – indicating Self not dead, only sleeping, awareness of body dawning consc’ss [as also betrayed by floating cap]).

Swede dives in + retrieves body (resurfacing physical self, arresting Prof returning not-the-consciousness to incarceration/submersion) then pays off Bianco w/ share of treasure + sets sail (he now "Cap’n" ascension of soul to possession of Self now having transcended body à la 1960 Screaming Skull), propeller ironically cutting loose Prof’s treasure chest/anchor (earthly/material goods no longer of value) as Inspector likewise boards plane back (propeller/propeller); as usual for Wilder (cf especially Phantom from Space), "treasure" (meaning) left behind, undisclosed, film taking ship’s name for own similar "vehicle" for goodhearted tho brainless navigator whose sense of direction is nevertheless sure + who’s unconcerned w/ any reward as long as he has his ship.