The Ship from Shanghai

In far eastern Shanghai, wealthy westerners enjoy singing and dancing to the hit song "Singin' in the Rain" (a contemporary hit then, memorably revived for MGM's 1952 musical). Among the party-goers, American playboy Conrad Nagel (as Howard Vazey) romances British socialite Kay Johnson (as Dorothy Daley). With three other upper-class passengers, they get on board a yacht bound for San Francisco. Brutish and angry steward Louis Wolheim (as Ted) is on "The Ship from Shanghai" and, as you quickly know, he hates snooty rich people – with a passion. "Willowy English girls, fair and pink" arouse Mr. Wolheim, who plans to take over the ship and abduct Ms. Johnson...

Making his "all-talking" feature debut, director Charles Brabin is clearly getting his feet wet under the new microphones. He is unable to lead an interesting cast to good, consistent performances. New to motion pictures, Johnson comes across best; she had just co-starred with Mr. Nagel in Cecil B. DeMille's "Dynamite" (1929). Watching Nagel's career falter is sad; he was an engaging and popular actor. "Silent" film stars Carmel Myers and Holmes Herbert (as Viola and Paul Thorpe) attend to the secondary roles, with veteran stage actress Zeffie Tilbury on board as an old society lady. Some of the acting works better with the sound turned down, but some is just overwrought, period.

**** The Ship from Shanghai (1/31/30) Charles Brabin ~ Louis Wolheim, Kay Johnson, Conrad Nagel, Carmel Myers

Thuggish steward (Louis Wolheim) leads a mutiny aboard a yacht. The first half of the film makes us kind of hate the rich passengers on the yacht, particularly the insipid romance of Conrad Nagel and Kay Johnson. But after the mutiny the film seems to shift sympathies back to them and away from the highly entertaining power-hungry steward. The whole movie centers on Louis Wolheim's intense performance. Wolheim died the year after this was released. I was surprised to find out he was actually a math teacher at Cornell before his acting career. This is an OK movie considering the age. It creaks a little but not as badly as some claim. Amusingly, despite living under harsh conditions adrift at sea for days or weeks with very little water or food, neither Nagel nor Johnson ever have their hair mussed up.

A group of wealthy socialites take a cruise on their yacht but a storm cripples the ship, making it possible for the disgruntled crew to mutiny.

Flat-nosed Louis Wolheim does his best in the role of an insane crewman with dreams of power but his exaggerated performance makes this dull film laughable and only mildly entertaining. The acting is stagy, the story melodramatic, and the early sound technology makes for long stretches of awkward silence. Unless you're interested in someone from the cast, or want to see how bad some early talkies could be, skip this one.

Yes, this early talkie is not the smoothest production to watch. And some of the acting could have been more subtle. But I found it interesting to watch--mostly because it represents an historic era in filmmaking.

The story is about a small group of idle rich who decide to sail a yacht across the Pacific. During the trip, they are ignorant of the crew's dissatisfaction with the way they are treated. The steward, Ted, especially is resentful of his lot in life. He privately vents his anger over having to wait hand and foot for people who, he feels, are no better than he.

Due to uncontrollable circumstances, the situation changes. Class distinctions break down and Ted makes a power play, motivated by revenge and his perception of "justice".

Variations of this story have been filmed numerous times since, which makes me wonder if some of them originated from this film. There are definite similarities between this film and "Swept Away", which I heartily recommend--the original directed by Lina Wertmuller.

Early talkie could have been good but the hideous performance of Louis Wolheim and bad direction kill this effort despite some good work by Kay Johnson, Zeffie Tilbury, and Carmel Myers. Even Conrad Nagel is not all that bad, but the endless monologues of Wolheim kill any tempo this film might have had plus he's just plain bad. This is one of several talkie flops that ruined Nagel's starring career; this is also Myers' first major talkie. Too bad. She was interesting. Johnson has a couple of dynamite scene, and Tilbury (famous as the grandmother in The Grapes of Wrath a decade later) is awfully good as Lady Daley. Holmes Herbert, Jack MacDonald, and Ivan Linow co-star.