Luxury Liner

Luxury Liner is a terrific, entertaining drama from 1933 with a very talented cast. Alice White gives a delightful performance and the movie is worth watching just to see her.

As the film begins we see a large ship ready to depart from Europe to America and we meet some of the passengers. There is Dr. Thomas Bernard (George Brent) who is trying to win back his ex-wife (Vivienne Osborne), Miss Morgan (Zita Johann) is the ships nurse who never dates, Milli Stern (Alice White) a third class passenger who desperately wants to be in first class, Edward Thorndyke (C. Aubrey Smith) a former millionaire who's just been released from jail, and Alex Stevenson (Frank Morgan) who wants to romance an opera singer.

While Dr Bernard fights to get his wife back, Milli comes up with a scheme to make money in stock market. Of course there is a lot of drama and fighting and a little romance.

Luxury Liner is a 1933 film starring George Brent, Zita Johann, Frank Morgan, Alice White, Vivienne Osborne, and C. Aubrey Smith.

A doctor, Thomas Bernard (Brent) boards an ocean liner and demands to travel on it, which is good news for the ship's doctor who hasn't had a chance to visit with his family.

Bernard is on the ship for one reason - to see his wife Sybil (Vivienne Osborne), who has left him for a wealthy man, Alex Stevenson (Morgan). Meanwhile, he is very helpful to the people on board ship who need him, and he has the help of a nurse (Johann), who seems to have a crush on him.

It all gets pretty messy when Stevenson meets an opera star (Veree Teasdale) he admires on board and wants to leave Sybil.

There are two other subplots, one involving Alice White as a gold- digger dying to get to first class, and C. Aubrey Smith as a former wealthy man stuck in third class.

Very dated and filled with a lot of old acting style - actors used to pause in the middle of a line for emphasis. "Does it make you feel...like a god?" That was done constantly, and the lines are somewhat weighty.

It is interesting nonetheless and the acting for the most part is okay. Alice White, whose story would have made a better movie, is quite funny, George Brent does a good job, and Zita Johann, who looks a little like Sylvia Sydney, is very good as the nurse.

I think it's always worth seeing these precodes, to see how the acting has changed, how the stories were different and emphasized wealthy people, and to see actors like Brent early on. And I liked reading about people I was less familiar with. Teasdale was married for 28 years to Adolphe Menjou, and the two had a popular radio show for some time. Zita Johann was married to John Houseman. And Alice - read her bio.

GRAND HOTEL was a marvelous film by MGM and featured the studio's best actors, writers and director...so it's not surprising based on its success that the studio then repeated this great formula with DINNER AT EIGHT. Here with LUXURY LINER, Paramount is trying to piggyback off MGM's success with a similar sort of sophisticated soap opera...but with only fair results. Why were the two MGM films great and this one not even near great? Read on...

Unlike the MGM films, Paramount did NOT pull out all the stops to make this film. It doesn't star their best talent and the film is anchored by the competent George Brent but no one else of consequence. Additionally, the film's writing is completely adequate at best...with too many soapy moments instead of subtlety. The result is only watchable.

The film begins with a German-American cruise ship about to leave for America. Dr. Bernard (Brent) begs a friend to find him a place aboard the ship, as his wife has just left him and is supposed to be aboard. Considering she just left him a terse not and disappeared, you can understand his position. The Captain makes Bernard the ship's doctor and he must attend to 1001 different problems as they arise. In the meantime, you see the stories of several other not especially interesting folks--such as the scheming cute lady who wants to work her way from 3rd class to 1st, the aging industrialist who is just out of prison, the cheating wife, her new boyfriend and much more.

None of the stuff that happens as the film wraps up comes close to being subtle of clever--especially with Dr. Bernard's story. Much of it didn't make any sense...especially when Bernard was ready to claim responsibility for a murder he didn't commit!!! The only story that was a tiny bit interesting was the 3rd class lady who was told "...you may have the rhinestones for nothing...but you'll have to work for the diamonds!" by a lecher! But her story, too, was anything but subtle. So what you have is a salacious but indifferently written time-passer...and nothing more. Very soapy, very moralistic and a bit of a disappointment.

This is a very moralistic story warning you of the perils of sin. Thou shall not commit adultery, kill, bear false witness and not covet are all laid out for us, showing what befalls us if we break these rules.

Coveting - or greed is probably the main theme in this none too cheerful little picture. Besides the adultery, dishonesty, revenge and killing stuff happening upstairs, the folks down in third class are not the happiest bunch in the world either. Unlike in TITANIC, where the stuffy unpleasantness of first class was contrasted with the happy-go-lucky earthy fun down below, on this ship, everyone is miserable. Our third class passengers are all consumed with jealousy and greed. The greed is so strong that for some bizarre reason they all try to club together and invest all their money in the on-board stock market! (Which is presumably next to the all-day breakfast bar?)

There's a very common trope running through 30s Hollywood films which is unusual for the so-called land of opportunity; the dangers of ambition or wanting the luxuries enjoyed by others. This is ultimately expressed in THE WIZARD OF OZ where despite experiencing the wonders of Oz, Dorothy comes to realise that there's no place like home. She knows her place in society and knows better than to try to rise above where Shea's placed. In this picture greed consumes the third class passengers so much that they are willing to gamble everything they have to get rich. You just know that this is not going to work out well. Only good old C Aubrey Smith, in a role that's a nice change from his usual pompous character, playing an ex-con, might be able to save the day?

The other person slumming it in steerage worthy of note is Alice white. Only a few years earlier Alice White was a huge star - she was the ultimate flapper and quite possibly the prettiest, cutest and loveliest actress in Hollywood. As the depression-soaked 1930s progressed 'the flapper' was no longer in fashion so she found herself in small supporting roles like this. She was also a pretty poor actress but with looks like that, who cared! In this picture she's actually got quite a meaty part and despite her acting limitations, she's probably the most well written character - and also adds a bit of fun.

There's not much fun elsewhere in the film. George Brent is his usual dull self, Zita Johann looks like her cat's just died, the other ladies are simply unpleasant and I think Frank Morgan wishes he'd missed this particular boat. The direction is fairly pedestrian but competent enough to keep your interest.

And now that we know not to rise above our stations, let us sing, All things bright and beautiful paying special attention to this lovely verse to keep us all in our places: The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate, God made them, high and lowly, And ordered their estate.

A multiple story soap opera set aboard a luxury liner sailing from Germany to America, this Paramount production's format appears to have been influenced by MGM's mega hit of the previous year, Grand Hotel. Nothing about either the stories or cast are as compelling, however.

There's George Brent, a doctor desperate to stop his wife (Vivienne Osborne) from leaving him with a Wall Street-type tycoon (Frank Morgan) aboard the ship so he hustles himself a position as ship's doctor.

But also aboard are a variety of other characters, among them Zita Johann as a nurse who socializes with no one and remains mysterious about her past; Alice White as an ambitious third class passenger eager to get into the first class section and using her charms with various men to try to achieve her goal; C. Aubrey Smith as a former textiles millionaire just released from prison who when asked why he is traveling third class replies "because there is no fourth class"; and Vera Teasdale as an opera singer who gains Morgan's interest.

At 67 minutes this pre coder certainly moves quickly as it jumps between its stories, even if some of the plot lines are not particularly well developed and may have been victims of the editor's knife. The performances vary in quality, with the highlights for me Alice White in wide eyed bubbly form, telling every man who pays attention to her that he's the nicest man in the world, and C. Aubrey Smith as the old industrialist now broke who doesn't let his misfortune dampen his spirits.

Luxury Liner is a minor but amusing time waster, not to be mistaken with the later MGM musical fluff of 1948 with the same title which also featured George Brent, along with Jane Powell.