Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

canuckteach I hardly knew what to expect when I played this offering from a nifty 4-disc set of Harlow films from Turner-Classic.In this one, Cable, a naval commander, has tired of his skullery-maid-like former consort (Harlow), discarding her for a high-class prospect (Ros Russell). Harlow doesn't like it, and teams up with a crooked officer, Wallace Beery, who has cut a deal with some villainous pirates. This role required Harlow to be a semi-trashy blond bombshell, which fits her platinum blond persona (but she could do characters of a higher class, when required -- see 'Wife and Secretary' with Gable and Myrna Loy)** Spoilers below **Remember, though: the Hayes production code was now being enforced, which meant that Beery and Harlow could not profit from their crime.So, the good guys win, in the end, but Gable says he will stick with his pretty former-consort Harlow--even marry her--but first she must face the justice system for her role in an attempted theft. I doubt the original story ended that way, but the Code demanded that villains NOT prosper from their nefarious deeds - so, Harlow will face prison for 3 to 5, I guess. If made in 1932, that film would have ended with Gable suppressing the role Harlow played, and marrying her the same day, in a local church!Contrast this to 'Dinner at 8' made only a few years earlier with Harlow and Wallace Beery. Two (at least) of the female major players are guilty of indiscretions, but escape unscathed.China seas was a pleasant surprise, and featured a brutal storm at sea, done with tons of water and wind machines (no FX in those days)..Recommended. 8/10

JohnHowardReid Associate producer: Albert Lewin. Producer: Irving Thalberg. Copyright 6 August 1935 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. New York opening at the Capitol: 9 August 1935. U.S. release: July 1935. Australian release: 25 December 1935. 9 reels. 89 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Captain Alan Gaskell, skipper of the "Kin Lung" on its way to Hong Kong with a valuable cargo aboard, is angered to find his mistress, China Doll, on board. To complicate matters, Alan's classy British fiancée, Sybil Barclay, has booked passage on the vessel. To console herself for Sybil's presence, China Doll involves herself in a drinking bout with Jamesy MacArdle, a scoundrelly China Seas trader. She manages to drink him under the table after winning a good deal of money from him. A torn fragment of a hundred pound note is among the bills and China Doll suspects that the Oriental writing on it could be important. Meanwhile, Gaskell has maneuvered the vessel through a typhoon and when he returns to his cabin he finds China Doll there. He misinterprets her presence.NOTES: Negative cost: $1 million. Initial domestic rentals gross: $1.5 million, placing it equal 4th at the U.S./Canadian box-office for 1935. Fortunately the movie also took big money in England and Australia.Carol Ann Beery is Wallace Beery's real-life adopted daughter. This was the fourth of the six films made by the screen team of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow.COMMENT: Grand entertainment from a grand cast. Every role is perfectly played, with Beery coming across most effectively as the Harlow- smitten pirate. (Hard to believe that he actually detested Harlow in real life. What a consummate actor!). Garnett's direction with its fluid camera movement and rapid pacing takes full advantage of the film's spacious sets and exotic production values. Great action, with Gable noticeably doing some of his own stunts. Benchley is amusing and there are enough agreeable sub-plots to keep interest really humming.For once, here is a cult favorite that all of us can all enjoy. Most expansively produced, superbly crafted entertainment, brilliantly directed by the then master of pace, verve and vigor, Tay Garnett, at the peak of his career. And it's available on a superb Warner DVD.

lugonian CHINA SEAS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1935), directed by Tay Garnett, is an adventure/drama featuring an all-star cast consisting of top-named performers as Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery and Lewis Stone, the same actors who had earlier worked together in THE SECRET SIX (MGM, 1931). For this reunion, a lot has happened during those four short years. While Beery and Stone starred in THE SECRET SIX, with Harlow and Gable in secondary supporting roles, Gable and Harlow now assume the leads in CHINA SEAS while Beery and Stone support them. Reminiscing the earlier SHANGHAI EXPRESS (Paramount, 1932) starring Marlene Dietrich, shifting from a train to a shipboard vessel, each allowing for love and adventure along with Chinese bandit attacks as its focal point of interest, CHINA SEAS also includes some doses of verbal comedy to move it along.Taken from the book by Crosbie Garstin, the story gets underway with plot development and character introduction prior to the sailing of the "Kin Lung" from the port of Hong Kong to its destination to Sinpapore. Passengers of the vessel include: Sir Guy Wilmerding (C. Aubrey Smith), the management director of the line; Alan Gaskell (Clark Gable), the ship's tough captain; Dolly Portland, better known as China Doll (Jean Harlow), Alan's former girlfriend who becomes jealous over his reunion with an old flame, Sybil Barclay (Rosalind Russell), a dignified British widow; Charles McCaleb (Robert Benchley), a drunken American novelist; Jamesy MacArdle (Wallace Beery), a China Seas trader; Dawson (Dudley Digges), a chief officer; Rockwell (William Henry), a young officer; and Tom Davids (Lewis Stone), a former sea captain now reduced to third officer due to his cowardice responsible for the lost of his crew, among others. During the voyage, the Kim Lung goes through a serious typhoon before being attacked by pirates out for a shipment of 350,000 pounds worth of gold hidden away on board the ship, whereabouts known only by Gaskell. It so happens that one of the trusted passengers happens to be the ring leader holding half of the 100 pound note. After pirates attack the vessel, putting both Davids and Gaskell through the Chinese boot torture, it is up to one of the passengers to save the day. Other members of the cast include Hattie McDaniel (Isabel McCarthy); Akim Tamiroff, Donald Meek, Edward Brophy, Willie Fung and Ivan Lebedeff.An exciting production not as better known as MGM's earlier all-star productions as GRAND HOTEL (1932) and DINNER AT EIGHT (1933), but a worthy offering with elements of surprises during its 89 minutes. He-man Gable and feisty Harlow make a grand pair. Wallace Beery garners enough attention through his usual Beery-method of acting, especially in tense scenes involving him and Harlow, though not as classic as their second pairing together in the popular classic DINNER AT EIGHT (1933). It's also interesting seeing a youthful Rosalind Russell, early in her career, in her Myrna Loy-ish type performance. Let's not overlook Lewis Stone playing a frightful mate hoping to break away from his cowardice stigma. With a cast and plotting such as this, it's totally impossible for any movie buff not to like CHINA SEAS.Available on video cassette dating back to the mid 1980s in clam shell covering, and decades later on DVD, CHINA SEAS, which was at one time a late show favorite years before becoming a regular fixture on Turner Classic Movies cable channel ever since 1994. (***1/2)

Noirdame79 This was the first film I saw that paired Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. I expected a lot from it and I was not disappointed. They were one of the finest screen teams of the 30s.In a way, the plot is like RED DUST on the high seas. Gable is again in charge of a location and the leader of men, including a crew of Asians. Harlow is again the woman of easy virtue with a heart of gold. Rosalind Russell, in an entertaining turn as Sybil, Gable's long ago love, is a comedic and decidedly more classy dame who captures Captain Gaskill's attention, and who incites China Doll's jealousy. Wallace Beery, who worked with both Harlow and Gable in "THE SECRET SIX" and with Harlow in the 1933 classic "DINNER AT EIGHT" is enjoyably slick and subtly shady as Jamesy. But it is the chemistry between Harlow and Gable that really holds this movie together. They obviously had great respect and liking for one another, and this only cemented their working relationship on-screen. My favorite lines, one spoken by China Doll: "When I want you to sound off, Golden Bells, I'll pull your rope!" The other by Gaskill, with that unmistakable Gable grin: "And as a man said when they were about to hang him, 'This will be a lesson to me.' " It's a gem, and don't pass it up.