One Way Passage

Kay Francis and William Powell are doomed lovers in "One Way Passage," a 1932 film also starring Frank McHugh, Aline McMahan and Warren Hymer.

Right after meeting the lovely Joan Ames in a bar, escaped murderer Dan Hardesty is caught by Sgt. Steve Burke and brought back to San Francisco via ship to be hanged. Ames is also on board ship; she's dying of an incurable illness (probably some form of heart disease they couldn't do anything about in 1932).

Knowing the sergeant can't swim, Hardesty, handcuffed to him, jumps overboard and, while trying to drown Burke, steals the handcuff key and frees himself. When Burke yells for help, it draws attention from passengers, and Hardesty has no choice but to save him.

To thank him for saving his life, Burke lets Hardesty walk around the ship with no handcuffs. Thus, when he and Joan meet again, she has no idea he's headed for a death sentence, and he doesn't know about her.

I saw Carol Burnett do a send-up of either this or the remake - just think if Burnett were on TV today, no one would have any idea what she was doing. How times have changed.

This is a beautiful film with wonderful performances, not only from Powell and Francis, but from Frank McHugh, Aline McMahon, and Warren Hymer. McHugh is a petty crook who runs into McMahon, another crook who is posing as a countess. She catches the eye of Sgt. Burke. It's a great subplot with some fun moments.

Powell is gallant, melancholy, and charming, and Francis is glamorous and lovely; both give very touching and sweet performances, each knowing he/she isn't going to live.

Each time they drink together, they break their glasses and cross the stems, and this crossing is something the camera focuses on as they sit in a cove in Hawaii and toss away their cigarettes. The ending is one of the best ever and will make the viewer smile and cry at the same time.

It's 1932, so some of the sound seems to have been done in an echo chamber, but that shouldn't bother anyone. "One Way Passage" is a treasure of a film.

In the grim year of 1932, with Warner Bros. losing money like all the major studios except MGM (RKO and Paramount both went into receivership thanks to the Depression), along comes the movie One Way Passage, dealing with what seems are the petty cares of grifters on a Pacific cruise. Only this movie is not a screwball comedy or a story about rich people in tuxedos chitchatting when they are not dancing. Writer Robert Lord's frequent writing partner in 1932 and 1933, Wilson Mizner, specialized in stories about people on the margins of society, peaking with the great Heroes For Sale. In one way or another, most of the characters in One Way Passage are nearing the end of their line. When Frank McHugh's character Skippy drinks alone at a bar in Agua Caliente on New Year's Eve, there is no longer the usual smile on his face as he stares at his drink. The opening credits of the movie put Kay Francis' name above the title, but she is just one of several Warners stock company actors at their peak in this movie, including Warren Hymer as the tough detective who always gets his man.

The year 1939 is described as Hollywood's peak year, when movies like Gone With The Wind and Gunga Din were in release. But judging movies by how they stand the test of time, movies released in 1932 and 1933 stand up better. One Way Passage is proof of that. Warner Bros. may have treated its employees like slaves, working stars and crew until 2:00 AM (with no overtime) to meet the 12 day production time limit the studio imposed on most movies, with a 6 day work week, but look at the results. One Way Passage. Baby Face. Mystery of the Wax Museum. Lady Killer. Joan Blondell described Warners Bros. studio then as a place where things were "really cooking." And now, almost 75 years later, One Way Passage can still hold a viewer's attention with its story of some passengers on a last voyage before everything changes.

In between his time with Paramount and MGM, William Powell did a two year stint at Warner Brothers where I don't think Jack and his brothers ever quite knew what to do with him. His films there, vary in quality, but the best of them is this doomed romance with Kay Francis, One Way Passage. The title itself tells how poignant this film will be.

Powell is a fugitive who is tracked down and brought aboard ship in handcuffs by San Francisco Detective Warren Hymer. Powell escaped while being transported to San Quentin to be hung for murder. At the same time good time party girl Kay Francis is traveling home essentially to die. Unsaid at the time because the audience knew what the effects of bootleg liquor were on some people from the Roaring Twenties. Her organs are generally failing and she's coming home to die.

These two people are as poignant a pair of lovers as has ever been brought to the screen. Neither knows about the other and the aura of heartbreak just permeates One Way Passage. It's a cosmic joke played on them, both finding in each other a reason to live and both knowing it can't be.

Warren Hymer plays it a great deal straighter than he normally does. He's not the brightest cop in the world, but he's a far from the dim witted hooligans he usually is cast. Aline McMahon and Frank McHugh are a pair of confidence workers who both team up to help the doomed Powell and Francis. McHugh repeated his own role in the remake of One Way Passage from 1940, Till We Meet Again.

The most cynical heart will melt in seeing One Way Passage.

I recently saw this movie on television and loved it. It is a beautiful love story, simply told. Kay Francis and William Powell are the doomed lovers and the Warner Brothers stock company provides excellent support. The contributions here by Aline MacMahon, Frank McHugh and Warren Hymer are especially worth noting. The cinematography shimmers. It's a four hanky tearjerker like they don't make anymore. I agree with the previous post, it's dreamlike perfection and the last scene is one for the books.

A dying woman and a condemned man fall in love on an ocean liner; how's that for high concept, circa 1932. No, I'm not giving anything away about this tightly plotted, exquisitely produced melodrama. Upper class sophistication, personified by ever-glamorous Kay Francis and gentleman crook William Powell, characterizes the tragic aspect of the story, while ethic warmth and humor, in the classic Warner Bros. style, are perfectly supplied by Aline MacMahon, Warren Hymer, and Frank McHugh. Lots of marvelous small touches, not the least being the way McHugh plays the final scene. If it's on, don't miss it.