Sea Tiger

Small Monogram B-movie directed by Frank McDonald (Yellow Fin) and shot in California for a kind of exoticism, from Charles Yerkow's novelette Island Freighter published in the magazine Short Stories of June 25th 1948 (available on Archive).

The Sea Tiger is an American freighter ship seized by the Japanese during World War 2 and then abandoned in a remote part on the coast of the Australian Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Jim (Sam Flint, Yukon Gold) and the daughter of his deceased associate Jenine (Marguerite Chapman, Counter-Attack) are the owners of the boat they have finally retrieved. Jim hires for captain Ben (John Archer, A Yank in Indo-China), a man whom reputation has been severely tarnished through false accusations of complicity with the Japanese, and who happens also to have been a lover of Jenine. But when Ben and Jim inspect the boat, Jim is shot to death.

Ben has no choice but to find the truth, in order not to be hold guilty of the murder by the suspicious district officer Hennick (John Mylong, Lost City of the Jungle). Arrives an assurance investigator from Sydney, Williams (Lyle Talbot, African Treasure), who claims that an important set of jewels had been hidden aboard by a passenger before the Japanese seizure. But the ship could even conceal a much more important treasure.

A bunch of dubious and picturesque characters begin to swarm all around the promise boat and its loot: the pub owner Harry (Ralph Sanford, Danger Zone), his strange bartender of uncertain origin Quick-Boy (Marvin Press, Dragon's Gold), the lazy beachcomber Bendy (Paul McGuire, Mara Maru), who lingers alongside the hotel keeper Alola (Mara Corday, Playgirl), and above all the first mate appointed by Jim, Jon (Harry Lauter, Trader Tom of the China Seas), whom past seems pretty doubtful.

Will Ben manage to find the treasure hidden on his boat? Will he be able to get rid of the crooks who want to steal the booty? Shall he be able to clear his reputation and prove his innocence? And shall he succeed to win back Jenine's love? The small plot goes ahead around the treasure until its expected resolution.

Five years ago, John Archer faced trial for smuggling Japanese war criminals out of the East Indies. He was acquitted, but no one wanted to hire him. Now he's got a ship, one that had been seized by the Japanese during the war, and is now needs to be refitted. The co-owner explains this to him, and is about to explain something else, when he is shot. Archer is knocked out. When he wakes, he figures he's being fitted for a frame. So he flies to Port Moresby, where the ship is. He discovers the ship's co-owner in ex-lover Marguerite Chapman An insurance man shows up; apparently there were jewels hidden on the ship before the Japanese seized it. His company paid for the loss, and now they want the gems. Apparently so do other people, and all the fingers are pointing at Archer as the bad guy. But is there something else hidden the ship?

It's a nicely tangled little tale ably directed by jack-of-all-trades Frank MacDonald. It's certainly not a classic, nor is there anything here that breaks new cinematic ground. Even so, it's always good to see a well written story told competently on the screen, and this one satisfies. With Harry Lauter and Lyle Talbot.

"The Sea Tiger" is the name of a broken-down bucket of an old freighter, abandoned by the Japanese at the end of WW II, lying in anchor in a New Guiena cove. Co-owners Jenine Duval (Marguerite Chapman) and Jim Klavier (Sam Flint) have hired Ben McGrun (John Archer) as its skipper and Joe Edmun (Harry Lauter) as First Mate.

Everone has designs on a none-too-secret secret safe which holds a fortune in diamonds, while a another group is after a cache of gold ingots, which the Japanese had hidden and left behind.

Klavier is murdered and McGrun is accused and turns private eye---(which ensures somebody will declare this to be incorrectly another noir)to clear himself. The usual suspects include Ralph Sanford, as Fat Harry the Bartender, and portly Lyle Talbot (Williams) as a seedy insurance investigator from Sidney who may or may not be all that honest. Mara Corday's "Lola" doesn't hurt the film any, either.

Archer, as usual, better suits being a Jaycee or Chamber-of-Commerce president than a tough man of the islands.

Well a rare Frank McDonald's film from the fifties, a grade B movie, is always worth the watch for any movie buff for this decade. It's lousy, chain directed and produced, no ambition here, no talent, only a film to watch in order to waste empty hours at home. The director McDonald was a very bland and wooden film maker, whose the best movie was, for me, THE PURPLE GANG. Forget the rest. The McDonald's filmography is very prolific and totally uninteresting for a classic, normal moviegoer. Each time, I have the opportinity to see one of McDonald's film, I don't miss it. So that's all I have to say about this feature, meaning not much. There is nothing to comment more.