L'incrociatore misterioso

I thought it was just me. I wasn't going to review 1935's Murder in the Fleet, directed by Edward Sedgwick, but then I found out others had the same reaction, so I wasn't just having an off day.

This film is awful. And as much as my dear departed mother worshipped Robert Taylor, it's a miracle MGM kept him on after this. Up and coming stars were trained on B films, but he has very little to do here. I mean, come on, a columnist sat through Girl's Dormitory twice to get Tyrone Power's name - and he had a little cameo. This was a supporting role and he barely registered.

The navy ship as to meet a government assignment deadline for some procedure. However, it seems that someone wants to keep it from happening. After a crew member is stabbed, the ship becomes a floating Holiday Inn. Anyone who boarded cannot leave. And it's a lot of people.

Una Merkel plays Nat Pendleton's girlfriend. Hers, Pendleton's, and Ted Healy's high-pitched, yelling voices and fighting throughout nearly broke my eardrums. They NEVER shut up.

Jean Hersholt, Mischa Auer, Walter Byron, and Jean Parker are also on board for various reasons. Too many people. Robert Taylor stands around and is not very interesting.

I stopped caring. It's rare for me to want to turn off something. I didn't. I wanted to.

Robert Taylor after a few loan outs and small parts got his career launched in this entertaining film about some murders done on a naval vessel. Someone will stop at nothing to see that the Navy does not carry out some tests of a new naval gun.

Frank W. Wead who was the subject of John Ford's Wings of Eagles wrote this story and while there's no threat to Agatha Christie posed by Wead, still it is a most entertaining story.

There are enough red herrings in this story to be a catch for a whole fishing trip. One of the better suspects was Mischa Auer, made up as an Oriental, to play the part of a visiting Asian dignitary. No names mentioned, but he looks very suspiciously like one of the Japanese diplomats photographed at places like the London Naval Disarmament Conference. I think Spig Wead was trying to tell us something there.

We've also got a reporter who can't file his story, an industrialist trying to bribe Taylor, his girlfriend who wants Taylor to leave the Navy, and a few more. When you reach the end it won't be who you might have thought.

Murder in the Fleet was a B picture, running only 70 minutes. Very soon Taylor would be an A list star. With those looks, how could he miss?

Between the 1921 Washington Naval Conference (which effectively limited the international arms race for over a decade) and the start of the crank up before World War II, the U.S. Navy co-operated with Hollywood studios on a regular basis providing locations and facilities for dozens of major and minor films showing off the country's ships (both sea and air) and service men to keep them in the minds of the general population as the admirals fought for ever constricting budgets with an isolationist minded Congress. Also well worth checking out are THE FLYING FLEET and HERE COMES THE NAVY (in which feuding Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien serve everywhere from the Arizona to the airship Macon - both to meet famous ends in later years).

MURDER IN THE FLEET may be among the least of these info-tainment efforts, but from the golden age of the classic murder mystery, it offers an enjoyable, more or less workable plot, an "about to be 'A List'" cast and some fascinating shots of actual elements of the U.S. fleet (the entire film is set on the USS Carolina aside from a few studio interiors and includes a number of exteriors of the ship under way including the actual crew).

Of special interest may be Key Luke's fleeting appearance as an aide to an ambassador/suspect from a (renamed to avoid "offence," but made-up to leave no doubt) fictionalized Japanese Empire. Someone might do a fun afternoon's mini-film festival of "Key Luke Afloat" with this, the 1936 ANYTHING GOES (Luke played one of a pair of gambling "Chinamen" on a civilian Atlantic crossing with Ethel Merman and Bing Crosby - a role somewhat reduced from the Broadway original) and (a year later) in his most famous role as Charlie Chan's "Number One Son" in CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS where Luke travels to Europe (these were the Berlin Olympics where Jesse Owens won Gold to Hitler's great displeasure and film clips of that race are included in the movie) by ship with the U.S. Olympic Team (he's competing as a relay swimmer)while his "Pop" rushes over on The Hindenberg.

The biggest "special effect" in MURDER IN THE FLEET is probably the flooding of a powder magazine with the film's hero in it - tame stuff by modern standards, but pretty exciting as played nonetheless. The film's McGuffin, the scientific equipment being installed on the Carolina, is pretty much science fiction (though finally, 70 years later, becoming less so), and as shown in action in the film it looks a bit silly, but it was good enough for its day, and in the spirit of the style of the film it doesn't distract.

Minor, but fun. Worth a look.

Captain John Winslow (Arthur Byron) is obsessed to have his cruiser, USS Carolina, be the best ship in the fleet. Their new secret fire control gear is being installed, but someone stole it and found at the Mexican border. Winslow assigns Lt. Tom Randolph (Robert Taylor) to be in charge of the installation. Sailor Spud Burke (Nat Pendleton) has his girlfriend Toots Timmons (Una Merkel). Tom has Betty Lansing (Jean Parker). There is a reporter snooping around. There are the Japanese and other suspicious characters. Someone gets shot.

This has some of the most lax security in the Navy especially with some secret equipment being installed. It is all chaotic and poor military work. I get the push to up the tension, but it has to be realistic. There are too many poorly behaving military men in this. The Navy is not looking good in this. This is probably one of the worst Navy ships ever put on film.

The plot is ordinary, but the movie has snappy dialogue, excellent as opposed to wooden acting, good direction and a great cast, including Robert Taylor, Ward Bond, Una Merkel, Jean Hersholt, and Nat Pendleton. It pulls off the comedy part very well. I always like 30s movies because of the witty dialogue and fast-paced, sly insults. Watch it for that if not for the story. It's the combination of acting and dialogue that shines. Many comedies of this or any other era just don't pull it off. The quality of filming is also very good. Look for other familiar faces among the actors. You can see them while they're relatively young.