Transpacífico

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.

If one is thinking that Victor McLaglen and Chester Morris are doing yet another version of Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt in Pacific Liner that is most definitely not the case. There are some hijinks to be sure, but for the most part this is involved with fighting the serious business of a cholera epidemic.

McLaglen is the chief stoker and Morris the ship's doctor on board the passenger liner The Arcturus. Cholera breaks out among the crew and those still on their feet try to keep it all from the blithely unconcerned passengers.

These two are also in competition for Wendy Barrie the ship's nurse. She has some history with both guys.

Newsreel footage of ship's operations are blended nicely into the story. Like you would see in an O'Neill play, these sailors do live in a world of their own away from the passengers. The sailors are a lot of familiar character players headed by Barry Fitzgerald and Alan Hale.

Pacific Liner holds up very well after 80+ years.

Pacific Liner (1939)

** (out of 4)

Disappointing RKO picture about a ship going from Shanghai to San Francisco and the crew coming down with cholera. The Captain (Victor McLaglen) tries to keep the men calm but soon they're threatening mutiny while the ship's doctor (Chester Morris) tries to find a way to keep the epidemic from spreading. Being a fan of McLaglen and especially Morris, I found this film to be pretty disappointing and it was made even worse when I noticed Landers was the man behind the camera as I usually enjoy his "B" pictures. What didn't work for me was the fact that the film seemed to forget what type of story it was trying to tell. The screenplay is all over the place as we're sometimes looking at the feud between the Captain and the doctor but then we'll jump to stories involving the crew members and then jump again to the outbreak on the ship. The movie just keeps jumping all over the place and at times I started to wonder if it had completely forgotten the stuff dealing with the outbreak, which seemed to be the main story for most of the running time. McLaglen gives his usual tough performance as he was born to play this type of role. Morris really doesn't get to do too much and I must admit that he left me a bit disappointed in terms of his performance. Not only is the character laid back too much but it seemed like Morris just wasn't all that interested in anything that was going on. The supporting cast includes Alan Hale, Barry Fitzgerald and Wendy Barrie. The film runs 76-minutes but it feels much longer due to the slow pacing and the lack of any real energy or thread of danger. Landers lackluster direction really doesn't help matters but I guess it's worth noting that RKO would use this ship again in Val Lewton's THE GHOST SHIP. It's also worth noting that the music score got an Oscar nomination even though you hardly hear it here.

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 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.