Pacific Liner

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.

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.

A dead cholera victim is thrown into a ship's furnace in a makeshift funeral ceremony. Chester Morris has to turn ship's doctor to try check the cholera outbreak in the ship's engine room. He quarantines the men working below. Chief Engineer Victor McLaglen has to goad his depleted crew of stokers to keep the ship moving. He removes his shirt and gets stuck-in to get stoking himself. Morale in the engine room drops lower after the men hear that McLagen has become very sick. There is a threat of mutiny in the air. This was intended as a filler, but after positive reviews this movie was promoted to top of the bill feature. The acting is good particularly from the blustery McLaglen. He has a very lyrical line in anecdotes and sea shanties and verbal abuse. I like the way his bird called Chicken gets it's own back on McLaglen at the end.

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.

With that bucket load of stars, it's a shame this one wasn't better. It WAS made five years after the Hayes code came whooshing in, so I wonder if it wouldn't have been a little more interesting if it had been made a couple years earlier... LOVE the scene where Alan Hale and another engine room worker are dancing together to the music coming from the upper decks. Alan Hale Sr. was the real life father of the Skipper on Gilligan's Island. He was the jolly, laughing character actor in about half the films made in the 1930/1940s. Viewers will recognize "Britches"...Barry Fitzgerald is the shorter Irish gentleman from The Quiet Man & Going My Way. Chester Morris (was sleuth "Boston Blackie") is the ship's doctor, who must deal with cholera outbreak. A stow-away has brought the deadly disease on board, and the captain (Halliwell Hobbes) must come up with a plan as it threatens to spread through the ship. Victor McLaglen is the burly, tough Chief Engineer, and had been a boxer in real life, which came in handy, since he needs to keep firm control of the men here. McLaglen would also work with Fitzgerald in "Quiet Man". Bombshell star of the 1940's Wendy Barrie is the ship's nurse. The film is OK, but it just kind of ends, without any drama or big climactic scene. Directed by Lew Landers. Worth watching on Turner Classics, but I sure wouldn't buy this one...