Across to Singapore

Odd silent romantic drama starring Ramon Novarro and Joan Crawford. Joel (Ramon) and Priscilla (Joan) have been in love since they were children. But before Ramon can tell her how he feels, his older (and I do mean OLDER) brother Mark (Ernest Torrence) declares his intention to marry Priscilla. Mark's set the whole thing up between his and Priscilla's fathers so Priscilla has no say in the matter and Joel, for whatever reason, won't speak up about it. From there, the whole thing gets weird as Mark and Joel ship off to sea and a series of things happen that I won't spoil, as they are the movie's primary sources of entertainment. Anyway, it's a melodramatic movie that I'm sure will appeal to Novarro fans. I'm not really one of those but I found the movie interesting, if not entirely entertaining. For Joan fans this isn't a strong role for her but completists will want to check it out.

"Taste the iron, you crummy lubbers!" as the final ship board fight begins This film moves along plot wise, They, director and production team, really worked on this one, with tons of scene set-ups and good close ups with great smooth editing throughout, that add to feeling of story line rather than being so accurate to the master shot. Check out the ship, rigging and attire: 19th century 3 master and rope laden, so real all the way throughout the film. Great ship at sea storm sequences is great action, making it one for a highlite reel of 20's great movie sequences of action. I was getting seasick. Yes other reviews posted here are quite accurate: acting comments & story from book, plot holes (funny comment sinking & not leaving port) , terrible print (TCM Aug/31 showing) yes a bit like watching thru a porthole in storm, but only adds authenticity to date of making for me, etc. Piano scoring intelligent but a bit relentless. But if you enjoy this sort of realness, this movie is a gem.

A rare chance to watch Joan Crawford just before her breakthrough in silent pictures the same year, when she starred in `Our Dancing Daughters' as the epitome of the '20s flapper. In this movie she plays the lady-in-between (and the cause of sibling rivalry) seamen brothers Ramon Novarro (Joel Shore) and Ernest Torrence (Captain Mark Shore).

Crawford does a fine job playing the ingénue, and boy! does she look different from the trademark image she adopted from the 1930s onwards: in this picture her features look much softer, she has `smaller' lips, etc. (sort of the '20s look).

But, I must have to note that this is Novarro's film all the way, playing devil-may-care Joel Shore, the youngest of four seaman brothers, who becomes a full-fledged, grown-up man, the hard way.

Novarro's flair for comedy, playing and foolin' around, making practical jokes and having lots of fun, is at full display in the first half of the picture (these scenes are heartfelt and very believable), before he has to confront life and his much admired eldest brother (Torrence), because of their love for the same woman. A very entertaining film, you almost forget it's silent.

The same story had been filmed before by Metro pictures in 1923, using the original story's title "All the Brothers were Valiant", starring Malcolm McGregor, Lon Chaney and Billie Dove. Then again, it was remade by MGM in 1953 as "All the brothers were valiant" with Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger and Ann Blyth.

What interested me most into seeing 'Across to Singapore' was seeing Joan Crawford in one of her earliest films. The story did not sound great and reviews are very, very mixed here, but Crawford was a fine actress and it was interesting to see how she was like very early on in her career when she was still learning her craft and not completely found her style. That was true for a lot of actors and actresses though back then and it's always been apparent come to think of it.

'Across to Singapore' intrigues somewhat and it is watchable, with some things done well. It is a pretty strange film though and is more a curio if anything, primarily to be seen if a fan of Crawford and want to see everything she did. Crawford did do much better than 'Across to Singapore' since. Both in regard to performances and overall film quality, for me this was one of not many cases of her being outshone and that is not something said often.

Some of the sets look quite nice, the storm scenes look impressive, and there is the odd exciting set piece such as the climax. Some of the first half is entertaining, partly because of Ramon Novarro's comic timing.

Novarro does very well here, his character is a reckless one in terms of attitude but he portrays him endearingly and not obnoxiously. Ernest Torrence does curmudgeonly with gusto and Anna May Wong is perfectly alluring.

Crawford however is less convincing. Her character is not a particularly meaty one, Crawford was at her best when she had a character that she could sink her teeth into (literally too), and required a lot more subtlety than seen in her quite histrionic interpretation. The direction doesn't really engage and tends to be merely workmanlike and not much more. 'Across to Singapore' started off well, but by the halfway point all the way through to the end it became generally increasingly silly and muddled. One knows even from reading the quite cliched synopsis that it would be pretty predictable and nothing new is done here, this is standard stuff and silly and unfocused standard stuff at that.

The pace lacks energy and in the second half when the film runs out of ideas pretty much it creaks quite badly. The only chemistry to convince is between Novarro and Torrence, bland everywhere else. Some nice sets aside, the production values look pretty primitive. Evident in some disorganised editing and nothing really stands out in the photography either.

Good from curiosity standpoint but not really recommended. 5/10

Buoyed by the strength of its cast, for the first 55 minutes or so this is a pretty decent silent film, featuring two brothers (Ramon Novarro and Ernest Torrence) in a love triangle with a young woman (Joan Crawford). Novarro is magnetic and was at the height of his stardom, Crawford a pretty young thing just about to hit it big (albeit in very different types of roles), and Torrance perfectly cast as the hulking seaman. The brothers sail off to Singapore and face misadventures along the way, including a storm while rounding Cape Horn, the special effects for which are well done for the era.

While I liked the performances from the principals, I confess what brought me to the film was Anna May Wong, who briefly appears (uncredited) as a Singaporean prostitute. The role is unfortunate but typical of those she was relegated to by Hollywood and I wish she had been getting the parts she deserved, but the sassy little flick of her hair while strutting away from a guy hitting on her at roughly 45:15 is one of my favorite moments in her filmography. In the biography he wrote of Wong, Graham Russell Gao Hodges says that preserved stills from the original footage reveal that passionate scenes between Wong and Novarro wound up on the cutting room floor, which is a damn shame (and somewhat surprising, since what we see has her ardor directed at Torrence's character ... it seems a machete was taken to the action out in Singapore, which may explain the film's narrative issues). Increasingly upset at these types of parts and unable to get a romantic type leading role because of the taboo against miscegenation, Wong left America the same year to make films in Europe for a few years.

Unfortunately, the film really fades in its final half hour, starting with an unexpected revelation when a repeat visit is made out to Singapore. Without spoiling it, I will just say it's an unfair turn of events because it defies what we've seen and been told before, and the characters then continue on without surprise or explanation. The film starts lagging and gets highly melodramatic in a fight sequence that's tiresome by the time we get around to it. It's a little unfortunate the script and storytelling didn't match the star power here, but it's worth taking a look.