User reviews

A well known doctor is indicted for his experiments toward curing the criminal mind. Needing to continue his work and hoping that success will clear him, he buys a boat, loads it with several high profile criminals hoping to escape the law and heads out to sea. At least that's the plan, but things start to go wrong and things are revealed to be not what they seemed at first.

This is an okay little thriller that seems more than a bit too talky, even as the action picks up and the crooks try to take over the ship and the captain and crew have to fight to take it back. Lest you think that reveals too much, you obviously haven't watched this, as things go left, right and every which way during its fleeting one hour running time.

The cast is a B-movie lovers dream that includes Lyle Talbot, Irving Pichel and group of character actors that seems to have been pulled from every movie made within five years of this one. Their interaction is what keeps this movie afloat even as the film begins to sink into low level nonsense.

If you're looking for a forgettable time killer or just like watching veteran actors making mountains out of mole hills then by all means give it a shot. Just don't expect high art and you won't be disappointed.

A screen adaptation of "A Thousand Deaths," the first story sold by iconic American writer Jack London in 1899, was the choice of producer Ben Judell to launch his newly-formed Producer's Releasing Corporation. London would go on to a prolific, albeit abbreviated, career before dying from a myriad of diseases at age 40, and his name lent prestige to the launching of the fledgling PRC studio. Although Judell shrewdly exploited the film's connection with London, it remains one of the least faithful film versions of the author's work.

This screen adaptation only superficially resembles its literary source, and the now retitled "Torture Ship" is a barely seaworthy vessel. However, its interesting cast keeps the ship afloat long enough to keep it from foundering. Influenced by MGM's Leo, Judell chose a tiger as the logo for the maiden voyage of his fledgling company, but looking at this film as well as the studio's other output during its brief history, a feral alley cat might have been more apropos.

Noted scientist Dr. Herbert Stanton is indicted by the authorities when he tries to prove his theory that psychopathic criminal behavior is a treatable disease that can be cured by endocrine injections. In order to prove his hypothesis and flee prosecution, the discredited doctor hires a yacht and fills it with career criminals and serial killers (with such colorful names as "Poison Mary" and "Harry the Carver") and sails into the Pacific's international waters to freely experiment on his boatload of guinea pigs.

Unfortunately for the doctor his sociopathic patients object and mutiny against the crew and his assistants (who wear sparkling white hospital coats instead of the more practical and waterproof sou'westers and pea jackets.) Both sides struggle for power inside PRC's cramped sets, and the bodies literally pile up on PRC's cramped sound stages until justice and true love ultimately triumph.

Along with Frank Norris, Stephen Crane, and others, Jack London is classified in the "Naturalistic" school of writing. They were influenced by such 19th Century figures as Freud, Darwin, and especially Emile Zola. Little of the original story and its intent remain. The Freudian implications of the doctor's son becoming a guinea pig is mitigated by changing the character to his nephew.

Although the setting may initially strike the casual observer as reminiscent of London's "The Sea Wolf," this 1899 work doesn't fit into the canon of the author's other short stories like "To Build a Fire," and "Love of Life." Its science fiction aspects more closely resemble H. G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau," and the character of the sincere but slightly demented Dr. Stander seems to presage the roles played by Boris Karloff in his Columbia 'B' films.

It is the ship's cast keep the the film interesting. Irving Pichel as Dr. Stanton adds an air of legitimacy to the proceedings and plays his mad doctor role in a straightforward manner as the type of dedicated but misguided scientist George Zucco would portray in later PRC releases. Pichel was an underused talent best known for his role in "Dracula's Daughter" and his sensitive voice-over narration in John Ford's "How Green Was My Valley." Pichel was also a workmanlike director as evidenced in "Destination Moon" in 1950, but unfortunately he was blacklisted during the HUAC period and, like Dr. Stanton, was forced to flee the country to avoid prison.

Gargoyle-like Skelton Knaggs, a poor man's Dwight Frye and arguably one of the screen's homeliest actors, drank himself to death in his early 40's as did author London. Knaggs contributes a welcome bizarre presence as Cockney career criminal Jesse Bixel, whose coke bottle glasses add a grotesque other-worldliness to the proceedings. "House of Dracula," "The Ghost Ship," and "Terror by Night," are among his most memorable credits.

Lyle Talbot, who plays the ship's chief officer and Stanton's nephew, started his career very promisingly at Warner Brothers in the early 30s but moved to B films and soldiered on for some five decades in lesser roles in low budget film and TV, reaching his cinematic nadir in Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from Outer Space."

Wheeler Oakman, the de facto leader of Dr. Stanton's criminals, was a villain's villain in hundreds of Hollywood films from 1912 to 1948 playing lowly henchmen as well as crime bosses in both big studio and Poverty Row productions. Despite Oakman's mustachioed, sinister appearance, he was once married to beautiful silent screen star Priscilla Dean.

Sheilah Bromley was a promising ingénue only a few years earlier, playing opposite a youthful John Wayne several times under the name Sheila Manners, but by 1939, her features had hardened, and here she was cast as "Poison" Mary Slavish.

Jacqueline Wells (later known as Julie Bishop) is one of the 30s most enduring minor stars, most noticeably as the female lead in 1934's "The Black Cat." She played opposite Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne in the 40s, and co-starred with Bob Cummings in the situation comedy "My Hero" in the 1950s.

"Torture Ship" was one of the last directorial voyages helmed by Victor Halperin. After making the highly successful low budget independent "White Zombie: in 1932, he was recruited by major studio Paramount for "Superatural" with Carole Lombard and Randolph Scott. Unfortunately the film didn't create a stir, and he went back to Poverty Row's Gower Gulch. Some of his disturbing extreme closeups of the drugged guinea pigs on "Torture Ship" are lifted from similarly effective shots that he used of the zombies in "White Zombie." Despite this self- plagiarism, "Torture Ship" never becomes a patch on the 1932 classic.

CAVEAT EMPTOR: The film is in public domain and copies have various run times ranging from 48 to 63 minutes. Many are severely truncated and begin "in medias res" with the criminals already aboard the ship and plotting revolt against Stander and the crew.

Irving Pichel has organized a cruise where he can experiment on people trying to synthesize the compound from the endocrine glands that makes people maniacs and inject them into non-volunteers because ..... well, he never explains why he does this. His subjects include his nephew, Lyle Talbot, Julie Bishop, Sheila Bromley and others, but not Eddie Holden. Holden is better remembered for playing a chipmunk in BAMBI, but here he's doing a fake Swedish accent and trying not to be as funny as El Brendel. He may even succeed. I do not urge you to see this in an effort to make your own call.

This is supposed to be based on the first story Jack London ever sold It's also the first production of Ben Judel's Producers Distributing Corporation, which became PRC. For that company, it's slightly below par.

Recently got one of those Mill Creek 50 pack of horror and mystery PD movies (Tales Of Terror) because there were about 25 of these programmers I had not yet seen.I was already aware from experience that the quality on most of these is less than desirable but some can't be had anywhere else or were not worth paying ten bucks for alone.In this case I was taken royally as this print is missing the first 8 minutes or so leaving one to guess the rest. Fortunately the plot is simple and you can pick it up easily but you'll still be burning at the Faux Pas. Don't know if Alpha's print of this is the same way but in any case this is one to avoid.

There are a lot of people on this boat. Many are criminals who are going to be experimented upon against their wills. There is a boring Swedish guy who is supposed to be comic relief but turns out to be simply insufferable. There are people taken, escaping, taking over, taking back, getting injected, and so on. All in the name of science, I guess. There are many punches thrown. At one point, as they hit each guy coming through a door, they land, stacked nicely on the floor. One girl is a criminal, then she isn't, but she's here. It goes on and on and it just doesn't matter. Apparently some of the thing is missing. This may actually be merciful. It never piqued my interest for one second. And I actually recognized some of the actors. It's talky and obtuse. Don't bother.

Torture Ship (1939)

** (out of 4)

A mad doctor puts criminals aboard his ship so that he can do strange experiments on them trying to figure out what's wrong. This film was directed by Victor Halperin who previously made White Zombie, Supernatural and Revolt of the Zombies. Overall the film isn't too bad but there's really not too much action or horror in the film's short 50-minute running time. Lyle Talbot plays the hero and he always brings some "B" movie charm to a film but that's about it. Mixing the horror, sci-fi and gangster genres together should have worked better. Based on a story by Jack London.

Scientist Irving Pichel has figured out that he can do his nefarious experiments on a ship beyond the three mile limit where the authorities. Pichel is also conducting his experiments on some notorious criminal types so who would really care?

Somehow he gets his Navy nephew Lyle Talbot to skipper his boat while he and his fellow scientists do their thing. Which Talbot objects to when it comes to Julie Bishop who with Sheila Bromley was part of a poisoning for insurance money racket.

That Torture Ship could have come from a Jack London novel is no tribute to Jack. Poverty row PRC studios really botched this one with a dull and lifeless adaption.

When I see the phrase "great cast", I think GONE WITH THE WIND or TWELVE ANGRY MEN, not a film whose lead is Lyle Talbot (the same guy who starred in a few decent films in the 30s but also PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and a lot of other turkeys). So, while I liked reading the other reviews, I was perplexed by the great cast comments. This was not a great cast--just a bunch of no-names from a Poverty Row studio.

As many point out, the first 10 minutes or so of the film is missing. This is true of the public domain copies and 50 pack copies from Mill Creek Entertainment. Additionally, since this is its pedigree, captioning and a high quality print are also absent.

The film begins in the middle of a discussion a group of crooks are having about trying to escape from the boat. It's obvious something is missing here, but it's easy enough to discern that a bunch of crooks were somehow lured aboard a mad doctor's boat and he's doing diabolical experiments on them! While this certainly isn't nice, at least he had the decency to pick some people who weren't particularly pillars of society! As for the film, it's really hard to judge the quality of it with a chunk missing. I can say that the ending and Talbot's scheme to get the bad guys to surrender was pretty clever, though. So overall, it's probably one to skip since even with the missing chunk in place (which it isn't), it's still not a great movie by any stretch.

Jack London's short story "A Thousand Deaths" is virtually unrecognizable in this sluggish cinematic translation. For "Torture Ship", the self-described protagonist becomes Lyle Talbot (as Bob Bennett). The original's father is now uncle Irving Pichel (as Herbert Stander). A mad doctor, Mr. Pichel has isolated what he calls, "The active ingredient of the endocrine glands governing criminality." Pichel takes Mr. Talbot, some aides, and some crooks on a cruise to experimentation. Talbot is "free from criminal taint," but becomes temporarily mean. Additional nastiness ensues...

** Torture Ship (10/28/39) Victor Halperin ~ Lyle Talbot, Irving Pichel, Julie Bishop

The Alpha Video release seems to be fairly complete with the entire story intact (except for some splicy sections in what was probably a 16mm television print: The story does make sense in this version which has the entire explanation of why the criminals are on the ship in the first place and what the doctor's motivations are.

It is mysterious that the film runs about 63 minutes when the main IMDb description has it released at 57 minutes. That's probably incorrect and doesn't represent the original theatrical release, but rather some random individual's timing from a DVD or VHS tape that wasn't complete in the first place.

Well, I don't know why I would have expected anything different. I previously watched Victor Halperin's most famous film, 'White zombie,' and thought it was extremely overrated; 1936's 'Revolt of the zombies' is a tiresome slog. Even his 'Supernatural,' quite enjoyable and the best of his horror films, lacked enough vitality to really make itself be felt. Even if we generously suppose that the soft steps that characterize 'Torture ship' were a result of the Hays Code, and that this movie as we see it was the best it could have been under those circumstances, that doesn't speak well to the end product. And the simple fact of the matter is that while this 1939 flick does at least carry intermittent flits of energy, at large it's so weakly crafted that the moments of greater vigor almost serve to accentuate the contrivance as much as anything else. It's not entirely rotten, but there's just too little value to the feature as we see it to particularly hold up.

There are actually some terrific ideas at play here, with the sci-fi horror core of dangerous, unsanctioned human experimentation and revolt being adjoined by flavors of drama and light comedy. Yet George Sayre and Harvey Huntley's screenplay is bad about conveying plot in the first place, or identifying characters; it seems to me that so much information of this nature is treated so casually that it just gets lost in the mix. In a way that's not too dissimilar, a bigger issue is that Halperin's direction takes all the different flavors herein and mostly renders them with the same flat, even-keeled tone. As a result, with scant exception, the drama, the comedy, a small romantic element, and the principal sci-fi horror all feel exactly the same in terms of the viewing experience. What can one make of a title whose component parts are so uniform and bland?

I see what this could have been. However, while it's true that the film-making standards and sensibilities of the late 30s do the whole no favors, Halperin and the writers work most of the damage themselves. I think the cast give admirable performances, and the crew turned in fine work. There was definitely potential with this, if modest. Sadly, as we see it 'Torture ship' is rather meagerly made in some fundamental ways, and it doesn't bear enough of a spark to help save it. There are worse things you could watch, but unless you're especially curious there's just not much reason to check this out. Oh well.

Mad scientist (Irving Pichel) charters a ship in order to conduct illegal experiments on a ship full of crooks:"The Carver", a notorious knife murderer (Russell Hopton), Poison Mary Slavish (Sheila Bromley), in insurance fraud, and various and sundry, It also just so happens that the bad doctor's brother (Lyle Talbot) is the first Mate, and so pure of heart that his evil sibling wants to use him as a control in his ghastly project.

Good character players, particularly Hopton as the fiendish Carver. Fast 44 minutes keeps your attention to keep up with the quick succession of events in the original and outlandish plot.

Thanks much to RETRO TV and their Horror Hotel Saturday night program for resurrecting this reel camp favorite. Best shown late at night!

Another macabre gem produced and directed by Victor Halperin, famous for WHITE ZOMBIE, starring Bela Lugosi. Halperin and his brother, Edward, brought some of the most bizarro tales to the screen in the 30s although this film was partly based on a short story by Jack London, called "A Thousand Deaths."

The uniqueness about this thriller is its set on a yacht, far out to sea, where distinguished, yet insane surgeon Irving Pichel seeks to cure criminal minds via a gland operation. It's obvious from the start the procedure will not be a success, however the creepy atmosphere behind it all is terrific, especially for a poverty row film. It has that camp feel.

Pichel, both a well known director and actor, is at his peak, playing eerie, stone-faced characters for years, famous for DRACULAS DAUGHTER. Two fisted Lyle Talbot plays the hero, also co-starring pretty Jacqueline Wells, known for the BLACK CAT. Wells later changed her name to Julie Bishop. Popular western and B film star Sheila Bromley plays one of Pichel's patients, known as "Poison Mary!" Look for craggy faced Skelton Knaggs aboard the torture ship, popular in Universal's FRANKENSTEIN films. The perfect passenger!

About as good as it gets for a film produced by Producers Releasing Corporations (PRC), known for westerns and low budget horrors. I agree with the last reviewer, Irving Pichel is playing a role George Zucco would likely be cast, and making the most of it.

One of the shortest running chillers, appox 56 minutes.

Originally on vhs since the beginning, later remastered on dvd, and in box sets with other select B thrillers.

I know that the thirties was the decade of mad scientists of all kinds: ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, THE MAD GENIUS, DOCTOR X and of course this one, made by a horror specialist of this period; Victor Halperin, already "guilty" of WHITE ZOMBIE, REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES and SUPERNATURAL. But the overall feeling about this plot, this scheme, is that reminds me Erle C kenton's ISLAND OF LOST SOULS. OK, we can prefer Kenton's film to this one, but that's a matter of taste. No really, for horror fans, vintage horror I mean, this movie is absolutely underrated and deserves to be seen at all costs. You won't regret it.