Strange Cargo

In this shipboard mystery, a party of wealthy people are traveling when one of their number, Cosmo Kyrie Bellew goes missing. He is presumed dead, murdered and oddly enough, everyone agrees that his body is aboard the ship. No one seems to have any motive, despite Andre Beranger having bribed an officer to stow away. This is the first thing that displeased me. Were I to kill someone on board ship and it was night, that body would go overboard.

The other thing that annoyed me is the set design. Most of the mystery is set in a single room, with a library against a wall and likewise liquor. Even in modern ocean liners, huge affairs with excellent stabilizers, every piece of furniture is built with the assumption that the ship will rock. Everything has railing around it to prevent things from winding up on the deck. There's none of that in evidence. It looks like an ordinary room. Clearly no thought was given to making it look like a ship by art director Edward Jewell. Finally, there is endless talking. As the first sound feature by Pathe -- soon subsumed into RKO -- clearly the point was the talk. But it does go on endlessly.

1929 was a transition year for the movies, and the sheer, giddy pleasure of talk in the movies was a big selling point. Cinematographer Arthur Miller does what he can to keep things moving, but this movie doesn't move in either visuals or in plot.

This being early in the evolution of talkies, there are some peculiarities in casting. Lee Patrick gets an early leading role and does well. Ned Sparks plays the First mate, and while his gaunt build and nasal delivery are much in evidence, it's just another role. Other players of later note include Claude King, Russell Gleason, and Warner Richmond.

I would have liked to have thought more highly of this antediluvian talkie, but clearly they were still learning what would work in this new medium, and what would not.

... and when you couple that with the fact that this is an early talkie, this is quite an interesting little mystery film. The setting is the yacht of Sir Richard Barclay who has a large party on board. He is recently divorced and is making unwanted advances towards Diana. Richard is quite the "Snidely Whiplash" archetypal villain here, and when the bland Bruce comes to her aid as Richard gets too up close and personal for Diana, Richard shows no shame. Also, Richard keeps asking the ship doctor if he's ever heard of a doctor wanted for a criminal charge in England. The doctor keeps answering no, but it's clear the question is making him uncomfortable. There's also a mysterious stowaway on board being helped by a member of the crew. Did I mention that Richard beat it out of India with a bunch of purloined sacred Hindu artifacts which he proudly displays on his yacht?

In the midst of all of this intrigue are strange electrical occurrences that some are attributing to psychic phenomenon. The lights flicker, then go out, a woman screams, and when the lights come back on Richard is gone, with a dagger in the carpet where he was standing.

The captain proceeds to investigate formally by interviewing each passenger one by one while young passenger Hungerford rummages around the ship looking for Richard - or his body - reasoning that there was not time for him to be thrown overboard, and no exit from the room in which he could not be noticed in case he was planning his disappearing act and simply left.

Meanwhile one of the most humorous scenes is guest Mrs. Townsend taking the yacht's first mate (Ned Sparks) up to the crow's nest for a séance. This is one of Ned's first talking picture appearances and one of the few films you'll see him where he is not dishing out wise cracks left and right. Instead he is quite timid throughout the film, thoroughly afraid of ghosts, and very much afraid in this particular scene.

I'd never heard of this film until I recently saw a pretty good copy of it, and if you can forgive the common problems with early talkies - not much motion and some over-emoting, this one is quite good. The mystery is engaging, there are no static overly talkative scenes as was common with the films of 1929, and if this had been made by MGM and not Pathe I'm sure it would show up from time to time on Turner Classic Movies and be better known. One thing that has not helped keep it alive in film history is its near anonymous cast. Outside of Ned Sparks and Lee Patrick as Diana, who is almost physically unrecognizable as the scrappy blonde girl Friday to Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon some twelve years later, I had never heard of any of the members of the cast before.

I'd recommend this one to anybody who likes a good and unusual mystery and can look past some of the common technical problems of early sound films.

First off, this film has no connection to the more famous 1940 film of the same name starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. Second, this is not a lost film.

Nasty Sir Richard (Cosmo Kyrle Bellew) has put together a yachting party so he can pursue young Diana (Lee Patrick). While forcing his attentions on her, in walks Bruce (George Barraud) who threatens Richard if he bothers Diana again. While this is going on, we're told the yacht is experience weird problems with its electrical systems because of some freakish weather. Others in the party feel it's a psychic phenomenon.

While everyone is gathered in the saloon, the nights suddenly go out. There is a scream, and Mrs. Townsend (Josephine Brown) swears she feels the cold chill of death brush by her face. When the lights comes back on, Richard is missing, but the very knife Bruce threatened him with is stuck in the floor. There is blood.

The yacht's captain (Claude King) decides to interview the members of the party to discover who killed Richard. During the investigation it's shown that the ship's doctor (Frank Reicher) is actually an escaped killer (in disguise) who was stalking Richard for some reason.

But everyone has an alibi for the moment Richard disappeared. Or have they? Things grow more frantic when Bruce disappears.

There's an extended and very strange scene in which Mrs. Townsend and the first mate (Ned Sparks) ascend to the crow's nest. They talk about mysticism and hold a seance. They keep hearing rapping noises. They discover that Bruce is in a box in the crow's nest.

Meanwhile Richard's sister (June Nash) is a wreck, and her boyfriend (Russell Gleason) is searching the ship for secret panels. When he finds a secret passageway between the saloon and the doctor's office, a great surprise is found.

A truly strange film with many of the sins of early talkies such as static camera work and muffed lines. But it has its own fascination simply by being such an odd story.