Atlantic Adventure

The very interesting cast makes this otherwise fairly ordinary ace-reporter-cum-detective story worth watching. Lloyd Nolan is serviceable in the role of reporter Dan Miller, but I found myself thinking how Clark Gable or Lee Tracy would have handled it. Nancy Carroll is at the beginning of the end of her career in this picture, but was still bright and lovely as Helen Murdock, Miller's love interest. Silent comedy giant Harry Langdon plays the dim, amiable and always hungry photographer/sidekick Snapper McGillicuddy. Dwight Frye, best remembered for his role as the bug-eating Renfield in Dracula (1931) is along for the ride as one of the crooks. E.E. Clive, known for his many turns as Bulldog Drummond's butler Tenny Tennison, brightens up the film as one of the ship's officers who doesn't quite grasp the American sense of humor. The plot is about what you would expect from a newspaper mystery/comedy of the period. Miller, Murdock and Snapper track the D.A.'s murderer on board the SS Gigantic and somehow forget to get off before she sails. In addition to the murderer, rival gangs of jewel thieves are aboard, and general comic mayhem ensues. It's not Gone With the Wind, it's not even The Front Page, but it is a pleasant way to spend 68 minutes, especially if you like the actors in the cast.