Transpacífico

A mediocre yarn about an outbreak of cholera on an ocean liner and the differing attitudes of the engine room's foreman (Victor McLaglen) and ship's doctor (Chester Morris) about how to handle it. There are a lot of sweaty men shoveling coal and then dropping dead on the spot, as if that's the way cholera even works. There's a love interest running around in the background that the men fight over, but it's hard to hear anything over McLaglen's constant shouting. This is a B programmer all the way, and the only hope of enjoying it is to know that going in and lean into it.

"Pacific Liner" does earn its small spot in film history books by virtue of being a.....wait for it.... Oscar nominee, if you can believe it. It was nominated for Best Original Score in the first year of that category's existence (1938, though awards for music had been handed out since 1934). Russell Bennett, who would go on to win an Oscar for "Oklahoma!" provided the score to this film, the first year that nominations for music scoring went to the actual composer(s) and not the head of the studio's music department. There were 11 nominees, since rules back then allowed studios to just pick movies for guaranteed nominations, but it still counts. And get this, Bennett lost to Erich Wolfgang Korngold for "The Adventures of Robin Hood." That's like Zach Efron competing in the same category as Laurence Olivier.

Grade: C.

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.

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.

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

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.