The Sin Ship

Docked in San Francisco, craggy-faced captain Louis Wolheim (as Sam McVey) tells first mate Hugh Herbert (as Charlie) he's a fool for thinking about marriage. "I don't fall in love," Mr. Wolheim proclaims. But, when he sees pretty Mary Astor (as "Frisco" Kitty) standing in the breeze, Wolheim falls in love at first sight. When minister Ian Keith (as "Smiley" Marsden) requests passage on Wolheim's boat, for himself and Ms. Astor, the love-struck skipper quickly agrees. Wolheim gets drunk and tries to pull "the hairy ape" on Astor, but she rebuffs him. Wolheim doesn't realize Astor and Mr. Keith are running from the law…

His meeting with Astor causes Wolheim to straighten out his life. As he begins to change, Astor reevaluates her own life. This was Wolheim's initial, and last, effort as a director. Unfortunately, he died just after making "The Sin Ship". There is nothing extraordinary about the movie. It delivers the promise of a "Radio Picture" by including a lot of talking. But, there are many more long pauses than were heard (or not heard) on a radio drama back then. Usually appearing in top productions, Wolheim was a very dependable, capable, and popular supporting actor - his stock was then too high to be adversely affected by this.

**** The Sin Ship (4/18/31) Louis Wolheim ~ Louis Wolheim, Mary Astor, Ian Keith, Hugh Herbert

Creaky, Stodgy Early Talkie with Mary Astor and Louis Wolheim the Attractions in this Stiff Love Story that has as its Romantic Interest a Couple as Unlikely as King Kong and Fay Wray. The Actors fair pretty well but the Story is just too Contrived and the Lack of Action, or Movement for that Matter, is Excruciating.

The Dialog, and there is a lot of it, is not that Remarkable and the Film just Plods along to a very Dull Conclusion. Wolheim, a most Striking Character Actor, sits in the Director's Chair on this one. There isn't much to Recommend here except for the Two Leads but even They are not Enough to pull this off into anything more than a Mediocre and Dated Time Waster.

.Wolheim stars as Captain Sam McVey, a drunken, angry slob of a sea captain who agrees to provide transport on his ship to a supposedly moral and religious duo: Smiley Marsden (Ian Keith) and Frisco Kitty (Mary Astor). If the names haven't clued you in, the duo are actually crooks on the lam, but Kitty plays her pious ruse so well that Captain McVey decides to turn his own life around, quitting drinking and cleaning up his ship. What will happen when he learns the truth? Also featuring Hugh Herbert (who also scripted this), Russ Powell, and Alan Roscoe.

This was Wolheim's one and only directorial effort, and he stinks at it. The acting is either stiff or too florid, the camera set-ups dull and uninvolving, and the pace stagnant. Wolheim himself hated the process and swore never to repeat it, although he never had the chance, as he died before the film was released. TCM host Ben Mankiewicz was really amused by the character name Frisco Kitty.

The "Sin Ship" is crippled by production values and by technology of the period, as well as what audiences would accept or reject during that time. But the idea is a good one, kind of like "Taming of the Shrew" in reverse. A sea captain of the "rough-n-tumble" vintage, falls for a fair haired cutie based on sight alone. He comes to regret having judged this book by its cover in more ways than one. First...she is another guy's girl...and that guy happens to be a preacher. The old sea salt tries to go "cave-man" on the damsel, and gets the most sanctimonious dressing down he has ever received. It actually changes his perspective, and brings him down a notch or two. We begin to see that this hard-boiled-egg has a conscience, and enough self-respect to be ashamed of himself for having acted in such an abominable manner. He finds he has a case of love on his hands...maybe for the first time in his life...and he decides to shape up. But...little does he know that the Preacher is NO preacher...and the Lady is NO lady. The dumb cluck finds out the hard way, and beats up on himself for being such a sap...being preached to by a female who possesses even fewer morals than does he...and she's the woman of a wanted and hunted criminal. But, as we all know, love does strange things to the brain. Despite all this, the jerk realizes he is truly in love, despite all of the other BS that has started to become pervasive. He even starts to lose the respect of his crew, whose respect he has commanded by being a tough, no non-sense old buzzard. When the Buffalo chips finally hit the fan, there is a bit of a surprise ending which is played off well...and the survivors walk off into the sunset to live--we hope--happily ever after. It's entertaining, but it would be a hard watch for today's audiences. But it would have had some potential if it had been a little better acted and/or written. Not a new story by any imaginative stretch, and since it is a "pre-code" flick, they could have taken it a little further...but they did not. For Mary Astor, who plays the blond siren, it is practice for her later triumph in "The Maltese Falcon". Unfortunately for Louis Wolheim, this would be his "last hurrah"...such as it was. He would be dead by the time the film was released in 1931. It was a great cinematic loss...few character actors have been able to handle tough guy roles the way Wolheim did...knowing when to get tough and when to lay off. Plus...to look at him, you would never guess that he was something of a scholar in real life. He was fluent in at least five languages, had been well educated in Ivy League fashion and, prior to his acting career, had been a professor of mathematics and engineering at Cornell U. That's pretty amazing. ( A counterpart to Wolheim was Nat Pendleton, who played tough, dumb guys, but who had been educated at Columbia U, who spoke seven or eight languages fluently, and who won Silver at the Olympics in the 1920s for wrestling.) I have probably over-rated this film by giving it a seven...but I am looking past the old, noisy celluloid and thinking of the unrealized potential. Anyway, if you can stand it, it is slightly entertaining and engaging and worth at least one viewing.

I often wonder why a film that could have been very good turned out to be b-a-a-a-d. Is it the acting, directing or script? With this film, my premise is the direction....and, that holds for many films. The actors in 'Sin Ship' were adequate, especially Astor. When the captain lays a 'weak' punch on his first mate and later, a crew member, it is not poor special effects....it lies with the direction. The script is fine for an early 'talkie.' Could it be that directors had difficulty transitioning from silents to talkies? I don't see why. They were professionals, weren't they?

The TCM film was interesting for a dull, dreary early May day. It was not all that long a film so I had the opportunity to wash my Cadillac and garage it before the rains came and then prepare dinner while watching bits of other Astor films. Was Mary really that sensual, or is it sexual?