Pacific Liner

A ship sailing from Shanghai, China to the United States is suddenly stricken with a cholera outbreak after the disease is brought aboard by a Chinese stowaway. That's the basis of the story here. It sounds as though a pretty good movie could be made out of that, as the cholera spreads throughout the ship and causes rising panic. Somehow, though, that was never really accomplished. Instead, from the very beginning, the disease was pretty well contained - kept in the boiler room where the stowaway was found. Yes, some of the boiler room crew died, but there was never any sense that the entire ship was at risk, the biggest issue seeming to be how much of a delay would be caused as the boiler room crew keep succumbing to the disease. On the side, there's a competition going on between the ship's doctor and the chief engineer for the attention of a beautiful nurse, and a lot attention paid to the relationship between the chief engineer and his men. All those things, though, seemed to keep distracting the movie from what should have been its real focus - the cholera outbreak. The only point at which there was any real drama - and when it looked for a moment as though this was really going to become a suspenseful movie - was the point when several of the boiler room crew started to mutiny and threatened to take the disease above decks, which would have put the passengers at risk. But that just fizzled out. The story overall was disjointed and disappointing.

The problems with the story were somewhat (but not totally) compensated for by pretty good performances, especially from Chester Morris as the ship's doctor and Victor McLaglen as the chief engineer. Unfortunately, their talents could have been made better use of. 4/10

In light of the hysteria currently surrounding the Corona Virus recently, TCM showing "Pacific Liner" seems very timely! The film is about a cholera outbreak among the stokers on an ocean liner...and the Chief Engineer (Victor McLaglen) and Doctor's (Chester Morris) actions to try to contain the illness.

Much of the film is set in the lower depths of the ship among the lowly stokers who shovel coal in to the ship's steam engines. Oddly, although temperatures among the furnaces should be at least 100-120 degrees Fahrenheit, the Chief Engineer's uniform seems always clean and sweat-free...and he wears a very heavy uniform throughout the movie. His way of dealing with the crew is to slap them around and intimidate them but this bullying is tested when Cholera breaks out, as these tactics might stop working once panic sets in among these men. At the same time, the Doctor is against these tactics and the two men are pitted against each other during much of the story. They also are rivals for the attention of the pretty nurse aboard the ship (Wendy Barrie).

This is a tense and well made film despite looking in some ways like a B-movie (though at 78 minutes it wouldn't qualify as a B). Worth seeing and exciting.

Pacific Liner (1939)

** (out of 4)

Disappointing RKO picture about a ship going from Shanghai to San Francisco and the crew coming down with cholera. The Captain (Victor McLaglen) tries to keep the men calm but soon they're threatening mutiny while the ship's doctor (Chester Morris) tries to find a way to keep the epidemic from spreading. Being a fan of McLaglen and especially Morris, I found this film to be pretty disappointing and it was made even worse when I noticed Landers was the man behind the camera as I usually enjoy his "B" pictures. What didn't work for me was the fact that the film seemed to forget what type of story it was trying to tell. The screenplay is all over the place as we're sometimes looking at the feud between the Captain and the doctor but then we'll jump to stories involving the crew members and then jump again to the outbreak on the ship. The movie just keeps jumping all over the place and at times I started to wonder if it had completely forgotten the stuff dealing with the outbreak, which seemed to be the main story for most of the running time. McLaglen gives his usual tough performance as he was born to play this type of role. Morris really doesn't get to do too much and I must admit that he left me a bit disappointed in terms of his performance. Not only is the character laid back too much but it seemed like Morris just wasn't all that interested in anything that was going on. The supporting cast includes Alan Hale, Barry Fitzgerald and Wendy Barrie. The film runs 76-minutes but it feels much longer due to the slow pacing and the lack of any real energy or thread of danger. Landers lackluster direction really doesn't help matters but I guess it's worth noting that RKO would use this ship again in Val Lewton's THE GHOST SHIP. It's also worth noting that the music score got an Oscar nomination even though you hardly hear it here.

This 1939 film has a plethora of great supporting actors including Barry Fitzgerald ("Going My Way", "The Quiet Man"), Alan Hale Sr. (Little John in "Robin Hood"), Paul Guilfoyle, and Halliwell Hobbes. Look for a young Eddie Bracken among the sailors. Of course you need to love Victor McLaglen who chews through the scenery as few can do.

What begins as a cheap, stage-bound love triangle featuring two brutish leading men, Victor McLaglen and Chester Morris, and coarse humor, "Pacific Liner" becomes something of a commentary on class and contagion when an infectious disease breaks out aboard a cruise ship. Sound familiar? In the case of this film, it's cholera infecting the crew in the engineering section of the liner. As men slaving away shoveling coal into furnaces are dropping dead or ill below, ignorant passengers above continue dancing, while the captain requests more steam power--and McLaglen's foreman ridiculously obliges! Meanwhile, the vessel's doctor runs around admonishing the crew to stop touching stuff, as he ignores his own advice by touching everything and everyone and in between brushing his own sweaty hair back with his bare hands. His idea of hand washing, too, seems to be dipping his hands in two buckets of water or some solution.

Also of interest is that cholera is, first, referred to as "Asiatic cholera" and is brought on board by a Chinese stowaway. The picture's representation of an African-American stoker, referred to as "professor" because he's smarter than the others, however, is comparatively benign, if not enlightened, for being released in the same year as "Gone with the Wind" (1939). To top it off, an Oscar-nominated musical score helps maintain the claustrophobic tension.