Un soir à Singapour

During the first half of this film, I was very impressed. I thought that I might end up rating it very high. The story in the last half ended up being disappointingly silly though. Too bad.

From the outset, I loved the characters and varied scenes. There was Crawford and Novarro in youthful play, a great reunion of brothers and family, and some fun bar room fighting.

Novarro was almost Buster Keaton-like at times. For instance after the bar room brawl when he drapes a passed-out sailor over his shoulder, then punches him aside to show his 3 brothers how tough he is. They were impressed!

Torrence is great as the oldest brother who still owns his young sibling Novarro enough to put him off to bed after dinner by unceremoniously carrying him upstairs to the bedroom.

Even though it is an early Crawford film, she shows some excellent facial expression to reveal her underlying emotion. This was essential in silents. She could be disarmingly flirty when surprising Novarro with a kiss, but then flip to moderate disdain when approached in a clinch by Torrence. His facial expression is equally appropriate by looking quizzical at Crawford's response to his advance. Just what the heck is she thinking????

I was very impressed with the sea storm scenes onboard the ship Nathan Ross. The danger of a violent storm was impressively displayed and more realistic than many films of that time(or even some later).

Once the ship arrives in Singapore, another well-acted performance hits the screen. In a local bar, Anna May Wong quickly dumps her guy and latches on to oldest brother Torrence. I can't believe she didn't make the screen credits.

After this, the story gets more contrived and silly. Torrence hams up his perpetual drunken stupor over Crawford. Novarro somehow wants to dish off the love of his life in deference to his older brother. After returning home in irons for deserting his brother in a fight he can't convince his father that it is his accuser who has lied. It gets more ridiculous at the very end but the credibility is not there as it is at the beginning of the film.

I won't spoil it. Watch it for yourself.

Overall I still found this film very fun to watch. I loved the acting. I liked all the early scenes. Too bad the last parts didn't carry it at the end.

"Taste the iron, you crummy lubbers!" as the final ship board fight begins This film moves along plot wise, They, director and production team, really worked on this one, with tons of scene set-ups and good close ups with great smooth editing throughout, that add to feeling of story line rather than being so accurate to the master shot. Check out the ship, rigging and attire: 19th century 3 master and rope laden, so real all the way throughout the film. Great ship at sea storm sequences is great action, making it one for a highlite reel of 20's great movie sequences of action. I was getting seasick. Yes other reviews posted here are quite accurate: acting comments & story from book, plot holes (funny comment sinking & not leaving port) , terrible print (TCM Aug/31 showing) yes a bit like watching thru a porthole in storm, but only adds authenticity to date of making for me, etc. Piano scoring intelligent but a bit relentless. But if you enjoy this sort of realness, this movie is a gem.

A rare chance to watch Joan Crawford just before her breakthrough in silent pictures the same year, when she starred in `Our Dancing Daughters' as the epitome of the '20s flapper. In this movie she plays the lady-in-between (and the cause of sibling rivalry) seamen brothers Ramon Novarro (Joel Shore) and Ernest Torrence (Captain Mark Shore).

Crawford does a fine job playing the ingénue, and boy! does she look different from the trademark image she adopted from the 1930s onwards: in this picture her features look much softer, she has `smaller' lips, etc. (sort of the '20s look).

But, I must have to note that this is Novarro's film all the way, playing devil-may-care Joel Shore, the youngest of four seaman brothers, who becomes a full-fledged, grown-up man, the hard way.

Novarro's flair for comedy, playing and foolin' around, making practical jokes and having lots of fun, is at full display in the first half of the picture (these scenes are heartfelt and very believable), before he has to confront life and his much admired eldest brother (Torrence), because of their love for the same woman. A very entertaining film, you almost forget it's silent.

The same story had been filmed before by Metro pictures in 1923, using the original story's title "All the Brothers were Valiant", starring Malcolm McGregor, Lon Chaney and Billie Dove. Then again, it was remade by MGM in 1953 as "All the brothers were valiant" with Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger and Ann Blyth.

This is a good silent film, with high MGM production values, good acting, story and direction – to me the 84 minutes running time flew by.

Ramon Navarro and Joan Crawford are young lovers Joel and Priscilla who are unexpectedly and unintentionally thwarted by his chunky big brother Cap'n Mark played by Ernest Torrence suddenly being publicly announced as being betrothed to her. From the playful opening scenes at the shipwreck, jolly dinner party and rites of passage (for Joel) bar-room brawl it gets serious, coinciding with a pivotal voyage to Singapore on the Nathan Ross. The other two brothers are summarily dismissed from the plot by Noah getting washed overboard in a storm and Matthew lost with the Sea Robin. The only bit I didn't like was Mark crazy with drink in Singapore – presumably not still moping about Priscilla because Joel had smoothed it over on board the ship, but the implication it was caused by guilt over his six month relationship with Anna May Wong who was meant to be seen as a lesser mortal by the highly moral white audience. Favourite bits: the juvenile scenes by Joel at the dinner party; the storm scenes; the very realistic climactic fight scene; the main players' conflicting emotions as the plot unravels. The print saved is generally good but can be a bit dodgy - only just pre-combustion in places, but bearable if you get into the story.

Well worth watching for all sorts of reasons – if nothing else for Novarro and Crawford and MGM being young and full of life and promise.

Across To Singapore is the second of three films that MGM did from the novel All The Brothers Were Valiant. As I did not think all that much of the sound version that Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger did in the 50s, so to I feel this one was up to snuff. I still cannot understand why a sea captain takes his bride on a voyage, the inevitable has to happen people being human.

The protagonist brothers Shore in this version are Ramon Novarro as the youngest and good looking one and the oldest is Ernest Torrence. There are two middle brothers here and they favor more Torrence than Novarro.

The girl the brothers are rivals over is played by Joan Crawford and for flinty New England Yankee types these two brothers get all hot and bothered over Crawford. All the basic plot elements from the novel are there with the rivalry and mutiny at sea. Still this one deviates quite a bit from the story in the first and third versions. The first silent film had Lon Chaney and Billie Dove starring and it's considered lost.

The overall story concept I'm still not crazy about, but the players do fine.