In this shipboard mystery, a party of wealthy people are traveling when one of their number, Cosmo Kyrie Bellew goes missing. He is presumed dead, murdered and oddly enough, everyone agrees that his body is aboard the ship. No one seems to have any motive, despite Andre Beranger having bribed an officer to stow away. This is the first thing that displeased me. Were I to kill someone on board ship and it was night, that body would go overboard.
The other thing that annoyed me is the set design. Most of the mystery is set in a single room, with a library against a wall and likewise liquor. Even in modern ocean liners, huge affairs with excellent stabilizers, every piece of furniture is built with the assumption that the ship will rock. Everything has railing around it to prevent things from winding up on the deck. There's none of that in evidence. It looks like an ordinary room. Clearly no thought was given to making it look like a ship by art director Edward Jewell. Finally, there is endless talking. As the first sound feature by Pathe -- soon subsumed into RKO -- clearly the point was the talk. But it does go on endlessly.
1929 was a transition year for the movies, and the sheer, giddy pleasure of talk in the movies was a big selling point. Cinematographer Arthur Miller does what he can to keep things moving, but this movie doesn't move in either visuals or in plot.
This being early in the evolution of talkies, there are some peculiarities in casting. Lee Patrick gets an early leading role and does well. Ned Sparks plays the First mate, and while his gaunt build and nasal delivery are much in evidence, it's just another role. Other players of later note include Claude King, Russell Gleason, and Warner Richmond.
I would have liked to have thought more highly of this antediluvian talkie, but clearly they were still learning what would work in this new medium, and what would not.
