A crooked lawyer trying to cheat a young girl out of her inheritance tries to convince a sea captain to help him. Greg Winters, a disgraced World War 1 naval officer, is the Captain of a salvage-ship in New Orleans in 1925. He crosses paths with Evelyn Inchcape, a man-hating owner of a cabaret and the heir to a fortune, and Karl Ludwig, a former German submarine commander, searching for salvation on the docks of New Orleans. Interesting.. on the opening title screen, this has "copyright 1939".. which must be the RE-release date. Was originally released in 1931 or so. I've never been let down by an Alan Hale film. He made over 200 films … probably the hardest working guy in show-biz. Could do anything. Even though it's rated pretty so-so on imdb, it's pretty good. Appears to be a mix of footage of a real ship sinking, combined with filmed studio shots. As we open, the Alatania is sunk, and Captain Winters (Hale) a witness is being tried for neglect of duty. Later… Winter is back on board a salvage ship to find the sunken ship and bring up anything of value. Winters tries to convince Evelyn, the daughter, (Laura LaPlante) that he will help her get back her inheritance. Trickery, guns, back-stabbing, conniving all around. Lots of brawling. Viewers will probably recognize Clarence Wilson as the scheming Mr. Sykes. Because of his appearance, he probably played the underhanded, evil guy much more often than he played a good guy. This creeps along at a snail's pace towards the center, but picks up again right near the end. It's not so bad. Entertaining enough. Directed by William Nigh. He had directed a whole bunch of the Mr. Wong films. Alan Hale (Father of the Skipper on Gilligan Island) stars as a Captain of a ship during WW1. When a sub sinks a passenger liner near him he pauses in his pursuit of the sub to check for survivors. A Naval board of inquiry finds he disobeyed orders and removes him from service. Years later as Captain of his own ship he is hired to recover a safe from the hold of the ship that was sunk and to allow the captain of the sub to be the man who dives. From there we have other complications involving a will, weaselly lawyers, fist fights and other nonsense. A very good very early sound film that makes one wonder why Hale never got more leading roles. A breezy and fast paced 62 minutes this movie is the sort of thing that Hollywood rarely made, especially after the production code was enforced (bare shoulders on a women, hints of lesbianism were among the no no's). I really liked this movie a great deal. Let me be honest its a not a great film, but it was perfect for a very cloudy Sunday afternoon when I was feeling under the weather. It was the perfect distraction from the world and my woes.
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370 weeks ago