Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round

Gene Raymond and Nancy Carroll lead a large cast in this entertaining but sometimes confounding ocean liner mystery. There's a lot going on:

Con man Gene Raymond boards the ship and immediately sets his sights on Nancy Carroll as a likely target; predictably, their relationship grows into something more complicated than he planned. Gangster Sidney Blackmer is also aboard, blackmailing and threatening right and left. Police inspector Robert Elliot is on a holiday but finds himself quickly pressed back into service when a man is murdered two days into the voyage.

Jack Benny plays a radio personality in charge of entertainment on the ship; his little troupe puts on a show that offers an interesting glimpse of Benny early in his radio career (but distracts from the film's plot, such as it is)—a skit, a song or two, and a big dance production, Busby Berkeley style, that looks great.

Another subplot involves cranky old Ralph Morgan and his runaway wife Shirley Grey….everything kinds of ties together by the end, but I have to say that with all of the musical and comic interludes it's a bit hard to follow.

Very enjoyable and certainly not boring—but it kind of left me scratching my head.

"Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round" is a Gene Raymond film with Jack Benny on hand for comic relief. Sadly, however, despite Benny as well as Patsy Kelly in the film, it's not humorous at all. In fact, it's a rather dull film filled with weird production numbers and a difficult to like leading man.

The story is set aboard an ocean liner. One of the passengers, Jimmy Brett (Gene Raymond) is a crook....and he spends much of the film trying to get the better of a gang of crooks. During the course of the film, there is also a lot of entertainment emceed by Benny....and most of it is downright silly. After all, no ship would have had such elaborate and over-the-top musical numbers...complete with camera tricks to make things appear...which makes no sense for a live show. Eventually something happens...a man is murdered and late in the movie it becomes a murder mystery...an overly wrought and silly one at that.

None of this is particularly entertaining nor interesting...and apparently Raymond's character is supposed to be a hero, but being a crook is hardly heroic. Overall, a film which looked like a comedy but ended up being a very dull movie. Not much to recommend this one.

Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round starts out with the murder of noted gangster/ gambler Sidney Blackmer. As is usual there are a flock of people with plenty of good reason to do him in on this voyage. But instead the film starts with the murder and then flashes back 48 hours to see how Blackmer interacted with the rest of the passengers and crew.

But we have more than a murder here. Jack Benny plays a Broadway and radio star who is bringing his troupe along which includes Nancy Carroll who has history with Blackmer and her brother Carlyle Moore who forged a check with Blackmer's name and now Blackmer has him working off the debt and a lot more so to speak. But those are just two of the people who have it in for him.

We get to see Benny's troupe perform on the voyage and among the performers are Patsy Kelly, the Boswell Sisters, Frank Parker and Mitzi Green. Green was mostly on Broadway and on radio and so this is a rare chance to see her. During her song she does a devastating impression of George Arliss. The troupe also does a satirical skit of Grand Hotel.

If the murderer didn't announce intentions during the film this would have been a great mystery and rated a notch or two higher. Still it's pretty good entertainment.

This little gem of a movie is getting harder and harder to find. It is almost 70 years old. All of the stars in this film may have been well known then but they, except for Jack Benny, are almost all unknown to viewers today.

The story is centered around a well known actress and a thief that fall in love on the cruise. She has connections to a crime boss and is trying to protect her criminal brother from the same crime boss he owes money to. The thief begins by stealing on board the boat and swindles and steals from just about everybody he sees along with his partner who works on ship as a steward. A police detective on vacation begins to figure what the thief is up to and later on attempts to solve the murder of the crime boss. In the end all the loose ends are tied up and the thief and the actress resolve their differences and move forward with their relationship.

The story is good and the support case is great. Jack Benny plays a well know radio personality that is providing the ship board entertainment along with the rest of his cast and staff. He is the quick witted, street smart good guy that has everyone pegged and helps to direct the other passengers in the right direction.

This film has several good musical numbers, typical of the day, and the comedy holds up well by todays standards. If you are able to locate this film or see that it is being aired give it a try. My guess is that you will be glad that you did.

This is a great film from the golden age of cinema. Jack Benny's Role in this is great. He has great comedic timing with the other cast members as well as some dramatic elements to his character. The best reason that this film is enjoyable today however is the fact that much of the humor in this film is still relevant today. The great screenplay includes jokes and humor that is still funny today. The music composed by Richard A. Whiting is absolutely fantastic. In fact a song that is jokingly credited as the first ever Rock and Roll song is featured in this film by the great Boswell Sisters, called "Rock and Roll." Another humorous thing about this movie is Nancy Carol's striking resemblance to the great actress Claudette Colbert.