DeeJsBabe

This is the second of four Alan O'Connor movies made in hopes of having a Boston Blackie type of success. This is not my favorite of the four, but Nagel looks more comfortable here than in his others. He dreadfully out-acts everyone else, and I don't mean overacts. His talent and natural voice would be smooth in this type of role, or even a more mysterious Lone Wolf (William Warren) role, although his facial structure lends him more to the Bob Hope type. Why am I going through all of this? Because, at this time in his career, Nagel was trying to re-find himself or re-launch his career -- without the help of the studios.

Dressed to the Nines, he makes his partner, Eleanor Hunt, look like a wilted flower pot. I mean, Torchy Blane is not that hot, and Torchy Blane, even she is not.

The story is OK. Some sailor gets kidnapped for his secret papers. Nagel and Bobbie run them down each using their talents in their own way. This actually is something other serial detectives lack -- sharing the case with someone else, on an almost equal level.

I've been waiting to see this installment, as it is the last of the four to be made available. It's available on Amazon as a DVD and a Video on Demand. Many of the Sinister Cinema movies are going to VOD, and there are plenty neat little early thirties Brit thrillers, so if it were not for Nagel, this would be much further down my list. The other three Alan O'Connors are available for free download at many archive places.

I first tried to tape this on the old SPN cable channel that also offered gems like "Port of Missing Girls". It is almost a light version of this movie. Girl gets in trouble with the law; she stows away on William Boyd's ship. Crewmember Edward Gargan is there with nice comic relief, as well as Harold Huber, who must have needed a few bucks when this was being filmed. Though everyone seems to be in trouble here, they have no problem avoiding the law until they want to be confronted by them.

All of that said, it is an enjoyable little cruise with no harm no foul. The ship interior shots are really neat, and for a brief moment in time you get that Arrrrrrrrh, me bucko feel.

Though by any standards, this film doesn't even attain average, I enjoyed it and will look at it again and again, maybe as the first billing in a double feature with "Port of Missing Girls" or "Woman Who Came Back" as the main feature. Definitely much better at two in the morning. That and your deck of "51" will get you through to dawn.

To look at a movie from 1931 and say that it has over-the-top acting would be similar to some uncomplicated creature from the past looking at a modern movie and proclaiming too much sex and/or confusing action sequences. I'll place myself among the creatures of the past. Gilbert Parker's "The Right of Way" was performed on stage seven years before any of the movie releases. It comes off a little stagy, but didn't most of the early talkies?

The movie took the usual liberties with a novel, changing a few things here and there - then squeezing it into sixty-five minutes. However, the feel of the book is intact. Nagel's handsome looks and seemingly over-the-top acting personify "Beauty" Steele.

Though I cannot claim someone could have done this better, some of Nagel's best moments kept me riveted to the screen.

Loretta Young played her part well, but I was more impressed with Fred Kohler's performance, next to Conrad Nagel's. I think that had it been a longer movie it would have been very fitting to dwell more on the friendship of this former snob and this lowly, almost hermit-like man (Jo in the movie). There were a few sub-plots that came together very nicely, and I would have liked to have seen a little more of the aftermath that the book explains nicely.

There is much in here that is relevant to our modern society, as well as our very soul. There is much more in the book as well. The book is available freely online, but watch out for typos. I thought enough of the movie to buy a copy of the book, so that speaks for something.

It's easy to see why people feel the acting is a little much, but hey! I like Calamity Jane.

One nice thing about old movies is that you don't have scripts that play to the actors. Were a Tom Cruise (God forbid!) to be in this movie, I could imagine all sorts of personal asides and thinly veiled messages.

Lastly, this movie made me a fan of Nagel, though most of the rest of his serious work was already behind him.

Try to see a little more deeply into the monocle of Charles "Beauty" Steele and check out a wonderful romance book!