jacobs-greenwood
Directed and adapted by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the Dale Collins novel, with a screenplay by the director's wife Alma Reville and Val Valentine, this infinitely strange, below average romance drama meanders for 80+ minutes and includes countless, seemingly disconnected, visual experimentations by the director.The story is a simple one - a bored, 8 year married couple receives an inheritance (though this is never made clear) and decide to travel around the world by cruise ship. Though each has a shipboard romance with another passenger, which leads one to enlightenment and the other to disillusionment, eventually they come to their senses; a near death experience also helps to bring them back together.Henry Kendall plays Fred Hill, Joan Barry plays his blonde wife Emily. Accountant Fred is bored with his routine which includes a 35+ minute commute from the office to home, utilizing London's underground system. Hannah Jones (uncredited) plays the Hill's landlord, Mrs. Porter. The couple laments their staid urban life, but luck is with them on this day - they receive a letter telling them that they can pursue their dreams of traveling. They cross the English Channel to Paris during which Fred gets seasick.After seeing some shows and getting inebriated, the couple embarks on a cruise to the Far East aboard a luxury liner. The passengers include a busybody gossiping old maid (Elsie Randolph), an explorer named Commander Gordon (Percy Marmont), a "princess" (the lovely Betty Amann), and an unattached Colonel (Aubrey Dexter, uncredited).While Fred gets seasick again, the Commander keeps company with Emily; eventually, they kiss. The lonely old maid has given Emily something for her husband's seasickness, and soon he is feeling better. Shortly after coming on deck (for the first time?), Fred meets a beautiful woman that's introduced to him as "The Princess".Unlike his wife, Fred wastes no time in pursuing a liaison, with the princess. By the end of the cruise (Singapore), each is ready to ditch their spouse for their new lover. But while the Commander, who up until this point had held his tongue, tells Emily what a useless sham her husband is, he also lets slip the fact that the princess is just an adventurer who's only after Fred for his money. Emily decides she can't leave Fred and returns to expose this truth to her husband. Though he initially refuses to believe it, he learns that the "princess" has left and taken his 1,000 pounds with her.Fred and Emily, for want of anything else, stick together and book passage home on a steamer ship with the last of their money. However, during their voyage, the ship strikes something and begins to sink. Trapped in their cabin, the Hills believe they are about to die. But when they wake, they find themselves on a deserted (except for a black cat and a suicide victim), listless ship.A Chinese junk happens upon the now, thanks to Fred and Emily leaving their porthole open, sinking ship. Its passengers climb aboard to loot it while the Hills climb aboard the junk. They hungrily eat what they are fed until they learn that the cat was part of their meal. A baby is born to the junk's (only?) woman.In the next scene, the Hills are home and are amicably greeted by Mrs. Porter. Soon, though, they are back to the argumentative state of their marriage once again, as if nothing had happened.The movie's sound, on the DVD I received from Netflix, was atrocious for a film that was made in 1931. The director used music and silent film placards throughout, perhaps in an attempt to mask the abysmal sound quality.
Syl
If you love Sir Alfred Hitchcock's films, you might be surprised by this unusual film. There is no gore or mystery but its rich and strange in other ways. This film is about an attractive British couple in London, England who inherit some money from a relative. They board a ship and travel to the Far East. Aboard the ship, they meet a delightful funny spinster played by Elsie Randolph. Aboard ship is a German princess who is not what appears to be. The cast is first rate with mostly actors from the theater. Hitchcock was smart to cast experienced actors for his films in England. This film is more like an early romantic comedy and coming from Hitchcock that's strange indeed.
Vihren Mitev
Well, well, well! Very surprising. I suppose it is the first movie about Titanic. And indeed, rich and strange. Rich in enthusiasm, youth, dreaminess, naivety. Strange in realization.I skip the love tension and stop on the place. It shows the parallel between titanic power of the industry and the constant tempo of the family tradition and organized individuality, metal boat and wooden schooner, fast food and Chinese food. Curved space in which the parallel straight lines can cross each other and over Atlantic dream is not authentic and possible enough without eastern diligence.When I compare this movie with its newer variant which is so famous and watched I see that the plot is being changed. Sober from the distance of time some have decided to delete the honesty and their foresight and replace them with egocentric lordliness and mass commerce accompanied with a very good soundtrack.So, this movie is rich and strange, different. My rating is little increased but notice the year of the production!http://vihrenmitevmovies.blogspot.com/
