RipDelight
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Linda3859
At the end of the journey in the 1932 movie, Powell and Francis seem to be discussing the Golden Gate Bridge, but according to Wikipedia, the bridge didn't open till 1937. Am I missing something?
mysterv
Recently saw this film, thanks to both TCM and my DVR. I am a big William Powell fan and was aware that Kay Francis was one of the big stars in that time period. I was not disappointed. First, the picture and sound were both very watchable, something that some early talkies cannot claim. The casting of the leads was perfect, as expected, while the supporting cast had important roles in the storyline. Unlike some early films this one had layers to the story that gave it more dramatic weight. My only negative comment is that while I like Frank McHugh in his other films, I did not especially like some of the corny comedy scenes that he had in this film. The comedy was a little too broad for a film like this. Not a reason to not watch but it is the only thing that keeps me from giving it an eleven star rating, if I could.
Fred_Rap
This delicate shipboard romance was a popular favorite in its time and it's not hard to see why. Robert Lord grabbed a well-earned Oscar for his original story, a fanciful but ingenious doomed lovers yarn that must have offered solace to Depression-era audiences whose miseries could only pale next to those of hard-luck leads William Powell and Kay Francis.The elegant pair fall in love on a Frisco-bound ocean liner, each harboring a terrible secret that curtails their future happiness -- he's a convicted murderer returning to the gallows, she has a heart ailment and is living on borrowed time. Never mind why a dying woman is aboard a cruise ship instead of being ensconced in a terminal ward. Or why the authorities would send thick-witted Warren Hymer of all cops to bring in Powell.This is irresistible hoke, and the director Tay Garnet invests it with wonderfully eccentric touches (like the burly lesbian among the trio of portly harmonizers in a Hong Kong bar) and innovative dream-like imagery (i.e., the startling camera zoom when Powell spots Francis at the ship's railing). He also manages the near-impossible feat of keeping Francis, the lisping clotheshorse, to a minimum of cloying eye-rolls, with no small help from Powell's wry and charmingly self-effacing performance.The heavy sentiment is deftly balanced by the sparkling deadpan humor of Aline MacMahon as the Russian Countess Barrelhaus (in actuality the Brooklyn con-artist, Barrel House Betty), who conspires with perpetual drunk Frank McHugh (his grating presence is the film's sole detriment) to assist the lovers.The coda, set in a Mexican bar on New Year's Eve, is unforgettable.
Maliejandra Kay
Two passengers aboard a ship sailing from Hong Kong to San Francisco are doomed. Joan (Kay Francis) is in delicate health and probably does not have long to live. Dan (William Powell) has been arrested for murder and is being brought to the states to be hanged. They meet in a casual way, unaware of the others problems, and fall in love. Leaving a trail of crossed stems and broken glass, they spend their passage enjoying their last moments on the earth.To be honest, I was more impressed with the secondary actors in their roles than Francis and Powell. Aline MacMahone is so regal and beautiful as the fake countess. She really knows how to put over a comedy line and she never seems overly tough. Frank McHugh has some great comic moments and provides an extra dimension to the film. Even Warren Hymer as the cop is rather good.This is a sweet romance with great photography and snappy direction, a wonderful example of early 1930s film making.
