Shipwrecked

"Shipwrecked" (1926) stars Seena Owen, Joseph Schildkraut, Matthew Betz, Clarence Burton, Laska Winter, Lionel Belmore, Erwin Connelly, and even Alice Howell (!) in a bit. This latest Kickstarter project from Ed Lorusso is genuinely great fun to watch - - - but - - - for most younger people who don't remember '50s Saturday afternoon television, you'll have to be in a certain mood. This is a meller's meller. It not only defines melodrama, it's on steroids. Joseph Schildkraut looks like he's having a ball making this film. Someone in the film makes a statement about Seena Owen, however, something to the effect that she never smiles. Well, she never does. Never once in the film, even at the end. She's the only shortcoming in the acting department. She does an OK job, but it doesn't get much better. She also offers - - - this in '26 - - - a couple of 1911 hand movements from old fashioned stage acting that detract. And the story, well...this is so contrived as to be laughable - - - but it isn't! The final ten minutes where Schildkraut goes on a wine bender, then beats the cr*p out of Betz, then goes and gets the girl (Owen) and kisses into the fade out THE END is a "What just happened???? Am I awake?" BUT: you'll stick around, you'll love what you're watching, you'll think this, though it's NOT a western, is just like watching "The Lone Ranger" on Saturday afternoons long ago when you suspended belief because you actually DID believe in the silver bullets and man behind the mask and Kemosabe was said by Jay Silverheels genuinely.

Matthew Betz was famous for playing bad guys. William K. Everson's The Bad Guys made the point nearly 70 years ago. He's such a lecher here we know he's in for it, as is Owen because of him. He's the captain of the ship Owen gets to as a stowaway after murdering a man who was trying to rape her. The ship has no one on it except men, men who are of the lowest insect order, with, of course, the exeception of Schildkraut and the cook. They're up in the range of monkees and have the potential to evolve like Darwin says y'all and us'ns did.

You get the drift. When they reach either an island or a mainland that's made up of the rejects of humanity - - - though most of them have some humanity - - - and where all speak English like it's the only language on earth - - - this, after the boat has had a storm rip it nearly to shreds - - - there's a semblance of peace for Owen and Schildkraut who've fallen in love. Will it be allowed to come to a true fruition?

Great fun! Thanks, Ed. Keep 'em coming. I could watch these till the cows come home. Huyoh, Silver, away!

Seena Owen stars as a San Francisco woman who tries to kill herself after she murders a man for attempted rape. But she is rescued from the bay by a ship's cook (Joseph Schildkraut) and with his help stows away on a sailing ship.

When she's discovered on board, the ship's captain (Matthew Betz) takes a lecherous interest in her but the ship is caught in a sea storm and is destroyed. The captain and crew escape the ship and leave Owen and Schildkraut on board.

Set adrift, the couple eventually lands at an island where they get a chance to start over again ... until the captain shows up.

Straightforward plot with a twist ending. Co-stars include Erwin Connelly, Lionel Belmore, Laska Winter, and Alice Howell.

Restored from a 16mm print held by the LIbrary of Congress.

Seena Owen puts a man in the hospital and the police are looking for her; they think he's a goner and that makes it murder. She takes refuge in an old sailing ship about to put to sea, where cook's assistant Joseph Schildkraut finds her. She says he tried to rape her. Schildkraut believes her, but captain Matthew Betz doesn't care. He installs her in the first mate's cabin, and makes it clear that she will have duties to perform. Before anything can happen, the ship is wrecked, and almost everyone dies or gets away. Miss Owen saves Schildkraut's life. As they drift, she and Schildkraut fall in wary love. Then they come upon one of those South Seas islands where Lionel Belmore is the trader and has things pretty much his way.

The copy I looked at was Ed Lorusso's 31st Kickstarter project, and it's good to add to the corpus of films with Miss Owen I have seen. She is lovely, and some early shots show that. Unfortunately, her performance isn't terribly interesting. She plays most of her part in a state of low-affect shock and depression, an acting choice that is accurate rather than interesting. The other performances are good, and there are some interesting players, including Alice Howell and Clarence Burton.

The print is clean and complete, even if the lighting often tends to be low contrast; that's a frequent complaint for many silent films which have not undergone extensive restoration from low-generation prints. Donald Drazin offers one of his usual solid scores.