Mystery Liner

Talky mystery that never really gels. Events concern an ocean liner being tested for remote control. Since a successful test will revolutionize warships and naval warfare, the test is being done in secret. Nonetheless, an unnamed foreign power gets wind of the experiment and gets an undercover agent aboard. But which of the many characters is it, and how many will be murdered before the end.

Cheapo Monogram is constrained to film inside cramped ship-board sets, though oddly we never see the supposed water below. And since there's little action or pacing, the narrative fails to crystallize plot potential. Events tend to meander rather than build. I suspect the problem lies with trying to cram too much of the Wallace novel onto the screen On the other hand, the reveal did surprise me, while showing a good twist on the usual. Too bad that imagination didn't extend to directing and lighting.

Though Beery headlines--probably for marquee reasons--he has little screen time. Instead, rotund Maxwell carries the plot as a self-appointed sleuth. I guess the aged Tilbury is supposed to be comedy relief, likely because lanky Jerry Stewart proves so inept. Too bad her over-acting hits more of a sour note than a funny bone.

Anyway, I didn't dislike the results as much as many others. Still, it's an easily forgettable entry among that decade's slew of cheap whodunnits.

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.

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.

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.

Professor Grimson invents a device which can power a liner by remote control. Obviously enemy spies would love to get ahold of the device and send an agent to mix among the various vacationers unnoticed while he or she sabotaged the ship. The inventor is strangled and the crew must wait until the steering experiment is proven a success before the saboteur strikes, and what has this all to do with the ship's captain, Holling taking ill right before the ship is to depart. Very shoddy script and direction send this one to Davy Jones locker. The first 45 minutes is describing parts of the mechanism, then introducing the passengers and watching them mingle with each other before anything remotely interesting happens at the end, which last about three minutes, and seems so out of place with the pace of the earlier footage. Not good, even by Monogram standards. Zeffie Tilbury is annoying as the old lady looking for romance. Only plus for this film for me, was that, as always, Astrid Allwyn looked cute as a button. Edwin Maxwell and Gustav Von Seyffertitz lend a sinister presence. Rating- 3.