Tanya Borodoff (Kay Francis) is the mistress of gun runner Tony Evans (Ricardo Cortez) in southeast Asia. She trusts him completely, and he betrays that trust by selling her to Nick (Warner Oland) to settle a debt and in return for guns he needs to sell so that he can keep his yacht and lifestyle. Tony feels badly about this, but still money and luxury win out over Tanya. At first Tanya goes on a hunger strike, but "The Countess", the older woman Tanya, is supposed to replace as "hostess" at Nick's place gives Tanya the same advice given to Barbara Stanwyck in "Baby Face" - "Use men to get the things that you want."
So Tanya takes the advice and gets enough on a local magistrate that, when he tries to deport her, she gets to pick the boat, the destination, and leaves Rangoon with a good bit of his money. On that boat she meets a young alcoholic doctor., Greg Burton (Lyle Talbot), and the two start to care for one another when Tony shows up on the boat. He thinks that he can just smooth talk his way out of his betrayal and back into Tanya's heart, but she is done with this guy. Being sold into prostitution does that to a person I guess.
And then a mystery, Tony disappears. The boat's captain and officers investigate and find a screen missing from Tony's cabin, and two glasses on the table. One has the remnants of poison mixed with whiskey in the glass. The other glass has lip rouge on it. The ship's officers want to turn Tanya over to the police at the next port for murder. But what murder? What body? And though it could have been suicide, they rule that out even though they find a message in Tony's cabin indicating that he knew he was about to be arrested. Did Frank Drebbin of Police Squad have a grandfather who was part of this investigation? Watch and find out what happened. But one thing you won't find out is where all of those outfits Kay is wearing came from, since she boarded the boat to Mandalay empty handed except for her purse.
Michael Curtiz directed this atmospheric entry and shows some of what made him so good at directing Casablanca. Even though the boat scenes were filmed in Stockton, California on the San Joaquin River, I had the overwhelming sensation that I was watching a tropical locale. The light white cotton clothing, the endless pitchers of ice, the electric fans, the mosquito nets, and the passengers fanning themselves all give the illusion of heat and humidity. In fact, the cast was almost freezing to death in their light tropical clothing.
I'd definitely recommend this one as it is an odd combination of classic WB precode with shadows of noir.
So Tanya takes the advice and gets enough on a local magistrate that, when he tries to deport her, she gets to pick the boat, the destination, and leaves Rangoon with a good bit of his money. On that boat she meets a young alcoholic doctor., Greg Burton (Lyle Talbot), and the two start to care for one another when Tony shows up on the boat. He thinks that he can just smooth talk his way out of his betrayal and back into Tanya's heart, but she is done with this guy. Being sold into prostitution does that to a person I guess.
And then a mystery, Tony disappears. The boat's captain and officers investigate and find a screen missing from Tony's cabin, and two glasses on the table. One has the remnants of poison mixed with whiskey in the glass. The other glass has lip rouge on it. The ship's officers want to turn Tanya over to the police at the next port for murder. But what murder? What body? And though it could have been suicide, they rule that out even though they find a message in Tony's cabin indicating that he knew he was about to be arrested. Did Frank Drebbin of Police Squad have a grandfather who was part of this investigation? Watch and find out what happened. But one thing you won't find out is where all of those outfits Kay is wearing came from, since she boarded the boat to Mandalay empty handed except for her purse.
Michael Curtiz directed this atmospheric entry and shows some of what made him so good at directing Casablanca. Even though the boat scenes were filmed in Stockton, California on the San Joaquin River, I had the overwhelming sensation that I was watching a tropical locale. The light white cotton clothing, the endless pitchers of ice, the electric fans, the mosquito nets, and the passengers fanning themselves all give the illusion of heat and humidity. In fact, the cast was almost freezing to death in their light tropical clothing.
I'd definitely recommend this one as it is an odd combination of classic WB precode with shadows of noir.