A stockbroker plans to liven up his boring life by taking up piracy on the high seas.A stockbroker plans to liven up his boring life by taking up piracy on the high seas.A stockbroker plans to liven up his boring life by taking up piracy on the high seas.
Thelma Todd
- Alison Corning
- (as Alison Loyd)
Gay Seabrook
- Susie Grenoble
- (as Gay Seabrooke)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFinal film of director Roland West. He took a few years off from the industry and planned to return in the late 1930s, but in 1935 his girlfriend, Thelma Todd, was murdered in a restaurant/nightclub that she and West owned in Santa Monica, CA. He vowed never to return to Hollywood, and for the remainder of his life (he died in 1952) he never did.
- Quotes
Alison Corning: I'll smartin' him up - Stevie.
Stephen Corning: Will you please stop calling me Stevie! I'm your father.
Alison Corning: Well, don't blame me.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Poirot: The King of Clubs (1989)
Featured review
Gangsters on the High Seas
Ex-football player Chester Morris, egged on by rich girl Thelma Todd, tries bootlegging and piracy as a career. Will he continue to triumph over the villainous gangsters whose cargoes he hijacks, with friends Ned Sparks and Frank McHugh, or will Big John get his revenge on the crew of the CORSAIR?
This isn't a great work of art, and no new ground is broken. But once the plot gets rolling (it takes about a reel), this is a darn good action flick with a nice straightforward leading-man performance out of Morris, a surprisingly sympathetic turn out of Ned Sparks, and much of the fluid, frequently beautiful camera work and staging that is characteristic of director Roland West. Mayo Methot probably gets the best acting scene, and, in this case, is helped by her director, who has the sense to let the scene play out with simple lighting and staging. The director, indeed, helps himself by downplaying some of the camera showiness on films like Alibi and The Bat, and by improving, significantly, his direction of actors and his pacing of the story.
We do not have a perfect film here. Thelma Todd is around to look pretty, but she had not found her dramatic acting chops at the time this movie was shot. Also, the ending of the movie is utterly wrong and too drawn out. But in its middle reels, this movie is as spry and well-paced as a typical Warners movie, and suggests that Morris could have had a much better movie career with more films like this. Worth seeing -- particularly if you think 1931 movies are all people standing around and declaiming while the camera stays put.
This isn't a great work of art, and no new ground is broken. But once the plot gets rolling (it takes about a reel), this is a darn good action flick with a nice straightforward leading-man performance out of Morris, a surprisingly sympathetic turn out of Ned Sparks, and much of the fluid, frequently beautiful camera work and staging that is characteristic of director Roland West. Mayo Methot probably gets the best acting scene, and, in this case, is helped by her director, who has the sense to let the scene play out with simple lighting and staging. The director, indeed, helps himself by downplaying some of the camera showiness on films like Alibi and The Bat, and by improving, significantly, his direction of actors and his pacing of the story.
We do not have a perfect film here. Thelma Todd is around to look pretty, but she had not found her dramatic acting chops at the time this movie was shot. Also, the ending of the movie is utterly wrong and too drawn out. But in its middle reels, this movie is as spry and well-paced as a typical Warners movie, and suggests that Morris could have had a much better movie career with more films like this. Worth seeing -- particularly if you think 1931 movies are all people standing around and declaiming while the camera stays put.
helpful•102
- alonzoiii-1
- May 15, 2009
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Moderni gusar
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 15 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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