Mystery Liner

On board this ritzy passenger liner, the ship's control room communicates with a roomful of scientists on shore using a cool two-way Etch-a-sketch style device: You scrawl out your message on a picture screen, and at the other end they see your handwritten message appear just as you wrote it. Pretty neat! Unfortunately, that's probably the most interesting thing about the whole movie.

This B suspense picture features a broad array of standard characters—embattled veteran captain with mysterious health issues (Noah Beery), all-business doctor, pretty blond nurse (Astrid Allwyn) who is being pursued by a rival pair of ship's officers, a firecracker of an old lady who wants to party, a tall and thin mystery traveler (Gustav von Seyffertitz), and a military man (Edwin Maxwell) who quickly appoints himself chief investigator when mysterious events kick in.

The mystery centers around a high tech invention called S-505, which is apparently a tube that will enable a ship to be steered and controlled remotely. The invention is ready to be tested—but look out! because a sinister foreign power is very interested in the device and may have spies aboard.

It all adds up to intrigue, deceit, and even murder….but alas, the actors and plot are sadly defeated by slow pacing, obvious dialog, and just a generally muddled presentation of the whole story. Too bad, because there is a nifty story buried in there somewhere.

Mystery Liner has to be one of the very few times that the senior Noah Beery ever headed a cast list. He had to go to Monogram Pictures to have this happen and the results are somewhat indifferent.

Edgar Wallace novels are usually sources of material for film, but in this case they didn't really get down to business until the final third of the film. Someone has invented a remote control steering device for ships and so while this is peacetime, it's decided to test it on a passenger liner. But a mysterious foreign power wants to get this device and the plan is to cut in with their own radio waves and steal the ship. They've fatally injured the inventor Ralph Lewis and a few more people will die before all is revealed.

Beery plays the ship's captain who is stripped of command due to a nervous breakdown and forced into a rest home. But he doesn't show up there and there are sitings of him on the voyage.

A collection of interesting character actors besides Beery make Mystery Liner somewhat enjoyable. Here's a hint though, don't be fooled by some of the obvious casting in deciding who are the good and the bad folks here.

This is the kind of low rent movie Monogram was justifiably famous for when they weren't making no budget westerns. Secret agents, secret passages, etc.

This one has to do with a government project to control ships at sea with a radio control device called S505. In order to test the device, the scientific team installs it in a cruise ship with the cooperation of the captain and his staff. This was 1934 and we didn't actually have an enemy, so Monogram created a "foreign power" as the antagonist, and installed a couple of agents aboard the ship to steal the main component of the device and sabotage the experiment. We spend the rest of the picture trying to figure out who is who - and there really are secret passages.

Monogram, as was their practice, cast this picture with fading stars and familiar character actors. This effort stars Noah Beery although he only shows up at the beginning and end of the show. The real "star" is Edwin Maxwell, supported by George Cleveland and Gustav Von Seyffertitz. You get the picture.

I won't go any further into the story. It is a pretty formulaic spy yarn you could find on any double bill in any cheap theater back in the old days. But there are those of us that really love them. In fact, although I live in New Mexico, I recently made a pilgrimage to Hollywood. Not for the usual reasons, but to track back the homes and locations of my favorite old time actors and the locations of all those Poverty Row studios of the day. I actually found the original office address of Monogram at the wrong end of Sunset Blvd. I'm afraid most devotees would be disappointed to find that the actual address is occupied by a take out chicken joint. The sound stages across the street are now occupied by what appears to be a television station. I didn't care. I was standing on hallowed ground. I could imagine "The Duke", (whose ranch location I also visited in Encino) driving through the gate in his Chrysler Phantom.

The movie has a predictable ending, but the trip there is still entertaining. I have a brother who probably wouldn't appreciate it because it doesn't have a message, it doesn't have a basso thematic orchestration with all the bells and gongs, and it doesn't excite the viewer with sweeping visual images. But for the rest of us peasants, it rounds out the weekend just like grilled bratwurst, potato salad and beer.

And that is saying something for these mysteries from the 30s that usually have plots that are so muddled that you are constantly having to rewind to figure out what is going on.

Though Mr. Beery is at the top of the cast list, his onscreen time is minimal - opening and closing scenes. The rest of the cast split the screen time about evenly.

A ship's Captain is relieved of duty for medical reasons. His first officer takes over as Captain while the ship carries out an experiment in remote control by use of special equipment previously installed. A remote land base will take over when in open waters.

Though it appears as if this ship is a passenger cruise liner with many people boarding and waving off with streamers as it leaves dock, it is depicted as a cargo ship as it exits the harbor. The story brings only a few passengers to our attention as it unravels. Mostly it's the Captain(s), crew, and an investigator - along with some short scenes of an unnamed enemy group attempting to sieze control of the ship by means of their own remote system.

There are no notable performances or personalities just an espionage/murder-mystery which reveals itself nicely leaving no loose ends.

The most interesting scenes were those of the experimental equipment. They made noises like those in Henry Frankenstein's laboratory - vaguely resembled them visually. Popping, crackling, buzzing. Also, the iPad-like message transmitter, by which you write your message in handwriting script using a stylus - it appears nearly instantly onscreen at the receiver's end.

MYSTERY LINER (1934)

* 1/2 (out of four)

The ship is sailing the ocean when bodies begin to pile up. Is it a stowaway? The captain? Another member? The biggest mystery is trying to figure a way to stay awake. Typical overly talkative Monogram film that tries to be mysterious but forgets to be interesting. Monogram was always smart by releasing films very short (usually under 65 minutes) but this film really doesn't have a thing going for it. By the time the movie is over it feels like a grade D film.

Available on DVD through various PD companies.