Outward Bound

Although modern audiences will probably guess what is happening before the characters on the screen do, "Outward Bound" is still a pioneering film thematically, in the way it bends and breaks the reality of what we are seeing. Leslie Howard is a little too theatrical in his talkie debut, but Dudley Digges scores points by playing the Examiner in a quite unorthodox way. An intriguing movie from start to finish. *** out of 4.

The story of the man who wrote Outward Bound is probably more interesting than the play itself if that's possible. Sutton Vane was an actor who joined the army at the outbreak of World War I and was invalided out due to a bad case of shell-shock. The horrible memory of the war stayed with him even though he tried to go back to performing.

The play Outward Bound was written by Vane as a catharsis, his own message about how differently people view life at the moment of judgment. Vane could not interest any of the mainstream producers in London to back his play, he raised the money and produced it himself. It struck a chord with post World War I audiences in first the United Kingdom and then in America.

When Warner Brothers got the rights to the play they were lucky indeed to get several of the original cast from Broadway to repeat their roles for the screen. Leslie Howard, Lyonel Watts, Dudley Digges and Beryl Mercer did these parts on Broadway in 1924 when the play ran for 144 performances.

Several people find themselves on board a most mysterious ship which seems to be continually traveling in fog and only one crewman, a steward is on duty. It turns out that only a young couple, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Helen Chandler, seem to know what's happening. They're all dead and the ship is heading towards a meeting with the Great Examiner who will determine their fates.

Why they and steward Alec B. Francis are the only ones of the passengers that knows what's happening and what happens to each one you'll have to see the film for. Outward Bound with a message that's less Christian centered might very well find an audience today. Unless you believe that their are similar ships carrying people from an Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, etc. cultures to their fates which the author by no means excludes.

Though melodramatic in spots, Outward Bound is still a haunting film about people on the brink of eternity.

Many years ago, I happened to catch a 1944 film called "Between Two Worlds" on television. Knowing that this was a remake of the seldom shown "Outward Bound", I was eager to see it,and I wasn't disappointed. Unfortunately, I have seen that version only once, but I do remember that the plot was striking and that Sydney Greenstreet, in a rare sympathetic role, was utterly memorable and just about stole the film.

Just this past Monday, I managed to finally see the original "Outward Bound". It turns out to be a beautifully photographed (by the great Hal Mohr) film with a striking use of light to create both an eerie effect and,at one point, a breathtaking otherworldly effect, something that Mohr would later win an Oscar for in the 1935 "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

As for the script, it is by far the best-written, most eloquent dialogue I have ever heard in an early talkie, rising very nearly to the level of poetry at times.The sound quality of the print that I saw(on TCM) was also quite good, with every word clearly intelligible.

But what unfortunately, and perhaps unavoidably, ages this movie, is the acting. Some of it (from Alison Skipworth) is quite good, and Leslie Howard, as Tom Prior, is excellent, as long as he is being a charming rogue.

But, the minute the plot starts to gain in intensity, his performance starts to fall apart and become unintentionally funny (something I definitely don't remember happening in "Between Two Worlds", where John Garfield played Tom Prior). There is a climactic moment, at which Howard finally guesses the secret of the voyage, when we can almost sense a first-act curtain descending, because of the way that Howard delivers his lines and the fact that the camera lingers on him several seconds as he stands frozen, a demented, uninentionally hilarious, pop-eyed expression on his face.

Other actors are also hammy, though they don't all reach the level that Howard does when he goes momentarily berserk. The lovers, played by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Helen Chandler, are actually worse, almost always wildly overacting, and Leslie Howard looks restrained compared to them. Montagu Love overdoes his pompous business tycoon,but he never quite gets to the point of being unbearable--he is actually supposed to be rather aggravating. Alec B.Francis is stilted and unremarkable as the ship's steward,and totally devoid of personality in comparison to the actor who would play his role in "Between Two Worlds"--Edmund Gwenn (Santa Claus himself in "Miracle on 34th Street").

The little-known Lyonel Watts is nearly unbearably unctuous and even whiny as a defrocked priest. But Dudley Digges, another member of the original cast, is quite good in the stern and mysterious role of Thompson,the Examiner--he seems to be one of the few early film actors who understood that acting for film and live theatre are different.

The film's direction has all the staginess of an early talkie---only a few imaginative camera movements, but those eerie lighting effects would have been difficult to duplicate on a stage in that era. There is no music except for the opening and closing credits, and this also dates the film, although it adds to the spooky atmosphere.

"Outward Bound" is certainly worth checking out, but despite what Leonard Maltin says, it is an unfortunately dated film, and its remake,"Between Two Worlds" seems more preferable.

The chirons at the beginning of 1930's "Outward Bound" tell us in aching detail how Sutton Vane's play took the London stage by storm. It subsequently was done on Broadway not once but twice (the second time was some years after this film), and the film uses three of the play's original cast: Leslie Howard, Beryl Mercer and Dudley Digges. The film was remade in 1944 as "Between Two Worlds" and the plot was changed slightly to reflect World War II.

"Outward Bound" is the story of several people on board ship, but none of them knows the reason for being there or where they're going. Finally they figure out that they are all dead and face the judgment of The Examiner (Digges) who arrives to tell them their fate. Heaven and hell are really the same place, it turns out, and those going to the less desirable place merely have some things to work on before heading upward. Two people, however, will not be leaving the ship - that's the suicide couple (Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Helen Chandler) who, like the purser, are "halfways" and must stay on the ship for eternity.

The film is very bizarre looking, in a good way, very foggy, with an amorphous skyline when the outside of the ship (a toy boat) is shown. The atmosphere is appropriately dark and eerie. The problem with "Outward Bound" is two-fold. The acting is melodramatic and very stagy; also, the actors don't have the talkie "rhythm" down yet, so they sound very stilted. Leslie Howard, who in the film takes the part played on stage by Alfred Lunt, gives no indication that he will become a great film star - his performance is for the stage and terribly hammy. Interestingly, both he and Fairbanks Jr. not long after this movie would give wonderful performances, Howard in "The Petrified Forest" and Fairbanks in "Love is a Racket." Fairbanks in particular had a remarkably modern acting technique, but not in "Outward Bound." Strangely enough, as with "Between Two Worlds," there is something compelling and sympathetic about most of these characters. Perhaps it's a fascination we have with the afterlife, but the story does hold together, and we do care what happens to the "good guys" on the ship. I admit to liking "Between Two Worlds" better, especially the suicide couple plot, which is better handled in the latter film.

"Outward Bound" today is an interesting artifact but worth seeing, especially if you can follow it up with "Between Two Worlds."

Massive stage hit was an early talkie starring Leslie Howard as a man who finds himself on a ship that is "outward bound." Stunning dialog and beautiful cinematography help this allegorical tale of passengers stranded onboard a mysterious ship. A huge stage hit in London and New York, Outward Bound was am ambitious talkie for 1930 and features some wonderful performances (a bit stagy, but wonderful) from Howard as well as the great and underrated Alison Skipworth. Also good are Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Beryl Mercer, Helen Chandler, Alec P. Francis, Dudley Digges, and Montagu Love. Lyonel Watts is a bit much as the vicar. This was remade in the late 40s as Between Two Worlds, starring John Garfield and Eleanor Parker.

Leslie Howard always seemed to be wasted in blah film roles and its nice to see him here in a worthy role. And Skipworth is a total delight in any film you can catch her in...... Here she plays a most unusual part, and plays it beautifully. All her little hmmms and gutteral sounds add fathoms to the dialog. And note her first name is misspelled in the opening credits.