Hell Ship Mutiny

If 1957's "Hell Ship Mutiny" looks like three TV pilots strung together (and with two directors listed) that's because that's exactly what it is, a 1955 unsold series titled KNIGHT OF THE SOUTH SEAS. Jon Hall, his acting career winding down (just two more features ahead), his recent TV series RAMAR OF THE JUNGLE now past, actually helped build up his father's acting career, as Swiss-born Felix Locher went on to do "Curse of the Faceless Man," "Frankenstein's Daughter," "House of the Damned," and STAR TREK's "The Deadly Years." Having opposed each other in "The Hurricane" and "The Invisible Man's Revenge," Hall and John Carradine are nearly the whole show in these poverty stricken circumstances, until Peter Lorre joins them in the third act, as a corrupt French commissioner whose interest in pearls almost equals Carradine's. Still looking fit and trim at 42, Jon Hall makes for a stolid hero, this vehicle designed to show off his underwater cinematography (his production company named after his grandmother Lovina), but its shipboard intrigues remain claustrophobically studio bound, the final battle beneath the sea rendered an unwatchable bore (the multi expensive James Bond film "Thunderball" encountered the same problem). Lorre as usual is underused but amusing, so it's up to the mustachioed Carradine to carry the perfunctory villainy; you can't be very effective if a tired Jon Hall can defeat you three times in the course of a 66 minute excuse for a feature. Carradine had previously crossed swords with Peter Coe in 1944's "House of Frankenstein," going back to the old contract days at 20th Century-Fox with Peter Lorre, equally memorable as hobos in "I'll Give a Million" (together again even in Lorre's last film, 1964's "The Patsy").

Jon Hall, who starred in several exotic adventure-romances with Dorothy Lamour and Maria Montez in the thirties and forties, seems to have had a dual purpose in making this rather retro sarong film. One was to promote his new underwater movie equipment rental business (the plot provides for lots of shots of Jon and friends diving for pearls, engaging in underwater tussles, looking at fishies, etc.) The other was to express a love that dared not speak its name, at least to Dorothy or Maria. The lumpish Polynesian princess that's Jon's nominal love interest appears to take second place in his affections to a puckish little brown boy in an abbreviated pareu, and there's a lot more buff male bodies on display on his island paradise than the expected female ones. As ever, however, the cutest item on display is Peter Lorre, in an all too brief comic turn as a visiting colonial circuit judge.

Hell Ship Mutiny (1957)

** (out of 4)

A Captain (Jon Hall) travels to a tropical island to see some friends when he learns that three bad men (led by John Carradine) are holding the natives hostage. Hall's team are able to take them over and on the boat back to the main land they escape and take Hall hostage. This here has been a film I've been meaning to watch for over fifteen years but could never locate it on video and I didn't even realize until a week ago that budget label Alpha had released it on DVD. This was a Republic film so it's doubtful the Alpha release is too official but at least it's finally out there. The movie wasn't as bad as I had heard and even though it's not that good I'd still recommend it to fans of Carradine and Peter Lorre who has a brief role at the end of the film. The production values are incredibly low and that takes away quite a bit. It appears very little thought went into anything and it's rather shocking to see Carradine and Lorre in the film. Both men certainly did low budget movies but this one here is pretty low and it was surprising that the producers got both of them. Perhaps their salaries ate away at the rest of the film? Either way, both men are a lot of fun and especially Carradine as the bad guy. Hall plays everything pretty much by the numbers but he isn't too bad. With a running time of 66-minutes there's really nothing too boring here as long as you know what you're getting into.

Once John Wayne left Republic Pictures and the B picture western market had gone to television, the studio that Herbert J. Yates built was just marking time. Hell Ship Mutiny is a typical example of the product of Mr. Yates at this time. Yates was a penny pincher even when he was prospering and now that his market was drying up the production values were nil.

Jon Hall stars in Hell Ship Mutiny and he plays a South Seas schooner captain who on stopping at one of the islands on his course finds the people enslaved by some real bottom feeding pearl hunters. Told that the pearls to be found are way too deep for humans to be diving without benefit of equipment, the villains John Carradine, Mike Mazurki, and Michael Barrett. They dive until they die, one way or another.

In the short slightly over an hour the tables turn many times for the good and the bad guys. Hall has a romantic interest in Polynesian princess Roberta Haynes and Peter Lorre overacts outrageously as a greedy French commissioner.

Hall who was previously Ramar Of The Jungle probably saw this as a possible television pilot for himself. As we know that didn't work out.

It's almost impossible to make a bad looking film in the South Seas, but Republic managed to do it with cheap sets, bad lighting that's great for a noir film, but not for an outdoor adventure. And all done on Republic's back lot.

In another year Yates gave up the ghost, but I suspect in those last years Republic turned out a lot of cheap films like Hell Ship Mutiny.

This film essentially begins with a man by the name of "Captain Jim Knight" (Jon Hall) sailing his cargo ship to a small island somewhere in the South Pacific. With him is are two crewmembers named "Roxy" (Stanley Adams) and "Tula" (Charles Mauu) along with a passenger by the name of "King Parea" (Felix Locher) who is the tribal chieftain of that particular island. Unfortunately, once they arrive there, rather than being greeted by the natives in a friendly manner, they encounter several men with guns who have enslaved the local populace and are using them to dive for pearls in extremely dangerous waters. That said, having now captured Captain Knight, they intend on using him for the same purpose. What they don't realize, however, is just how resourceful Captain Knight can be-and that is their first mistake. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a rather lackluster adventure film which, from what I understand, was initially intended as a television series. To that effect, when the pilot was not picked up by any of the television networks, it was converted into a motion picture and released to American theaters instead. All things considered, although I don't consider this to be a good movie necessarily, it wasn't' terribly bad either, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.