Out of Singapore

Noah Beery has been First Mate on three ships that have sunk. Nonetheless, theres no one else with a ticket, and so Frank Hall Crane hires him, despite his daughter, Miriam Seegar, being a passenger. Crane grows weaker and weaker. When they stop at the next port of call, Beery meets with the merchant whose cargo is nominally being carried, and with whom he conspires to split the insurance money for an empty hold... despite ex-lover Dorothy Burgess now being a lover.

It's a really cheap second feature, with some mediocre pacing, and little to recommend it except for Beery -- who sounds like Bluto in the Popeye cartoons -- and Miss Burgess; she wears a harem outfit and does a belly dance that marks this as a real pre-code movie. With little in the way of surprises, either in the plotting or performances, there isn't that much to recommend it, but at least it's only an hour.

The film begins with a ship's captain agreeing to take on Woolf Barstow as his first mate. This is unusual because Barstow has a horrible reputation as ship after ship on which he served sank! However, the captain seems to think that perhaps it's all just due to bad luck. However, through the course of the film you see that Barstow is indeed an evil man--a guy who isn't above murdering his crew in order to commit insurance fraud! Nice guy, huh? However, his lady friend (Dorothy Burgess) is intent on stopping him one way or another--and WOW does she pick an unusual way to do this!!

In many ways, watching Noah Beery (brother of Wallace Beery, by the way) is a lot like watching a live action version of Bluto from the Popeye cartoons. His voice is nearly the same and he behaves much like Bluto would--with the over-active libido, streak of violence and the like! Because of this, it's really hard to take the film very seriously. The same could also be said for the ending--though it's very, very exciting to watch. Additionally, viewers might be surprised and enjoy watching the Pre-Code aspects of the film--such as the very seductive dancing of Burgess (such dancing would have probably not been allowed post-1934 when the new Production Code was enacted).

Out Of Singapore a small independent film that sadly had some real potential. Not necessarily a major studio, but even a place like RKO could have given Out Of Singapore a few production values to make this story a classic.

Some elements of Treasure Island are present here as Noah Beery like Long John Silver is signed on to a ship Out Of Singapore. Not as a cook like Silver, but a first mate. Beery has a track record of having ships sunk out from under him. That should have sent warning bells off, but they sign him any way.

Of course Beery's been doing the sinking and robbing the cargoes along with Montagu Love and a band of cutthroats. But Beery makes a big mistake when he overthrows girlfriend Dorothy Burgess for his captain's daughter Miriam Seegar.

A brutal before the Code sea saga that had a lot of potential wasted with a rotten production.

This film is short and sweet, and Top stars Noah Beery as a baddie. Dorothy Burgess is fiery and sensuous, and Miriam Seegar fine as the "good" girl. Typical entertaining low-budget programmer probably played small houses or the second half of double bills, but today is an painless way to spend an hour seeing some stars from the early sound era who are all but totally forgotten today. (The poverty row studios seemed to specialize in offering decent parts to players whose luster had dimmed a bit after the initial boom of the first talkies). I find more and more films from poverty row which are entertaining, even some with production values which are pretty good considering their low budgets. That so many have survived at all is amazing since these were made by companies that long ago went out of business and the films were thought to have no value beyond their initial releases. There is a satisfying ending to this film. I won't spoil it for you, but try to see this when you can't decide on anything else to watch. I think you'll like it.