Un soir à Singapour

Ramon Novarro (as Joel) is the youngest of the seafaring Shore family. While older brother Ernest Torrence (as Mark) is off on a long voyage, Mr. Novarro falls for fetching Joan Crawford (as Pricilla). Upon returning, Mr. Torrence is revealed to have also fallen for the bewitching Ms. Crawford - and, eventually, the brothers become rivals. Crawford prefers Novarro, but her father "betrothes" her to Torrence. Before their wedded bliss begins, however, the Shore brothers must make a trip to Singapore; it's Novarro's first voyage with older brothers, after proving himself in a barroom brawl. While sailing "Across to Singapore", a fierce storm blasts the Shore brothers' "Nathan Ross" ship - with tragic results…

Actually, this is a version of "All the Brothers Were Valiant". Perhaps the title was changed because one brother clearly dominates (Novarro), and only one other figures prominently (Torrence). Although there are four Shore brothers, you won't see much of the others, valiant or otherwise. It's odd MGM re-made this story in 1928; it was seen relatively recently, in 1923, with Malcolm McGregor, Lon Chaney, and Billie Dove as Joel, Mark, and Pricilla. AND, there was no sound version until 1953, with Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, and Ann Blyth in the principal roles.

Novarro performs very well, especially enjoy his scene with Crawford, when she boards the ship to bid farewell, before his maiden voyage. It's also one of Crawford's best scenes, and the lower "Nathan Ross" set is beautifully detailed. Anna May Wong also performs very well; though uncredited, she is the best supporting player. Note Ms. May Wong's excellent introduction (during the first trip to Singapore) - she relates her dissatisfaction with her man, and her desire for Mark, with a few simple gestures. May Wong is superb, and should have been included in the film's credits. James Mason (not the later actor) is fine as the villain.

There are some problems with the story. The whole "betrothed" issue is confusing to me, and may be to others. I also don't understand why an experienced sailor like Mark Shore immediately goes below and gets drunk; perhaps, he saw little brother with Crawford earlier on? I wondered how Mark Shore could order a certain character killed, and, seconds later reverse said order. Though a fine actor, I had some trouble accepting Torrence in this role - I expected him to be the villain, due to his other indelible portrayals.

A big MGM production, with a lot of excitement, and a fine cast. The voyages of the "Nathan Ross" are particularly exciting… great storm, and great ending. This is a film that was "saved" in the nick of time, however, and some of the film is sadly deteriorated; happily, it is still enjoyable.

******** Across to Singapore (1928) William Nigh ~ Ramon Novarro, Joan Crawford, Ernest Torrence

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.

Buoyed by the strength of its cast, for the first 55 minutes or so this is a pretty decent silent film, featuring two brothers (Ramon Novarro and Ernest Torrence) in a love triangle with a young woman (Joan Crawford). Novarro is magnetic and was at the height of his stardom, Crawford a pretty young thing just about to hit it big (albeit in very different types of roles), and Torrance perfectly cast as the hulking seaman. The brothers sail off to Singapore and face misadventures along the way, including a storm while rounding Cape Horn, the special effects for which are well done for the era.

While I liked the performances from the principals, I confess what brought me to the film was Anna May Wong, who briefly appears (uncredited) as a Singaporean prostitute. The role is unfortunate but typical of those she was relegated to by Hollywood and I wish she had been getting the parts she deserved, but the sassy little flick of her hair while strutting away from a guy hitting on her at roughly 45:15 is one of my favorite moments in her filmography. In the biography he wrote of Wong, Graham Russell Gao Hodges says that preserved stills from the original footage reveal that passionate scenes between Wong and Novarro wound up on the cutting room floor, which is a damn shame (and somewhat surprising, since what we see has her ardor directed at Torrence's character ... it seems a machete was taken to the action out in Singapore, which may explain the film's narrative issues). Increasingly upset at these types of parts and unable to get a romantic type leading role because of the taboo against miscegenation, Wong left America the same year to make films in Europe for a few years.

Unfortunately, the film really fades in its final half hour, starting with an unexpected revelation when a repeat visit is made out to Singapore. Without spoiling it, I will just say it's an unfair turn of events because it defies what we've seen and been told before, and the characters then continue on without surprise or explanation. The film starts lagging and gets highly melodramatic in a fight sequence that's tiresome by the time we get around to it. It's a little unfortunate the script and storytelling didn't match the star power here, but it's worth taking a look.

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.

Odd silent romantic drama starring Ramon Novarro and Joan Crawford. Joel (Ramon) and Priscilla (Joan) have been in love since they were children. But before Ramon can tell her how he feels, his older (and I do mean OLDER) brother Mark (Ernest Torrence) declares his intention to marry Priscilla. Mark's set the whole thing up between his and Priscilla's fathers so Priscilla has no say in the matter and Joel, for whatever reason, won't speak up about it. From there, the whole thing gets weird as Mark and Joel ship off to sea and a series of things happen that I won't spoil, as they are the movie's primary sources of entertainment. Anyway, it's a melodramatic movie that I'm sure will appeal to Novarro fans. I'm not really one of those but I found the movie interesting, if not entirely entertaining. For Joan fans this isn't a strong role for her but completists will want to check it out.