Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

arthur_tafero Charles Laughton was a short, fat, and ugly man. He was the complete anthesis of what you would expect a lead actor to be. However, despite these considerable handicaps, his tremendous acting ability and amazing range of emotions catapulted him to the top of the acting chain in the 1930s. His wife, Elsa Lancaster, was also a very fine actress, as evidenced by her superior work in The Bride of Frankenstein, an underrated film. Add these two giants to the unparalleled writing talent of Somerset Maugham, and you have an unbeatable combination for a classic comedy in The Beachcomber. No one ever did colonials better than Maugham. His incisive writing captured the true essence of missionary work and its irritating side-effects on native cultures. All of his characters have great depth. This is the best of all beachcomber films. It is not to be missed. Also billed as The Vessel of Wrath.

greenbanzanas I don't recall exactly when I became a fan, although Witness for the Prosecution must have had something to do with it, so now I catch whatever I can of this wonderful, towering actor.And, I was not disappointed with the Beachcombers, although the plot let me down, and I did not watch it all the way through.That being said, Charles Laughton is riveting as usual and dead-on as a stumble bum. I always wonder if modern-day actors can emulate the truly greats, and my answer is essentially no they cannot because, first, there aren't the scripts today, which greatly enhance an actor's performance and, second, it doesn't matter because, perhaps with the exception of Leonardo, D. Washington, D. Hoffman, and perhaps a few others, no actors today can tie on the bootstraps of the actors of yesteryear. Not considering the greats of the silent age (I'm thinking C. Chaplin, B. Keaton and H. Lloyd, all exceptional, and the many, fantastic character actors throughout cinema who added inestimable richness to many a movie, my personal favorites, and I know it's subjective, and I'm speaking of film presence including Charles Laughton, are: William Powell, Spencer Tracy, and Jack Lemmon. Heck, I'm not allowing myself to include Steve McQueen, one of my favorites because he is a notch below the above-mentioned, in my overly haughty assessment.P.S. I'm sure I'm leaving someone of the list, and, by the way, I notice the inherent sexism of my comments, but I chalk most of it up to contemporary society where woman are not afforded the stardom or roles of men. Again, an overly presumptuous statement.

dmmiller23 I downloaded this movie free from the internet the other night, and was just charmed by it. I'd read somewhere that Laughton's performance was particularly notable in it, and yes, he delivers on the difficult job of playing a lovable scoundrel. In what could have been a one-note portrayal, he adds layers of nuance to a what is also a rather physical role. His drunken muttering is as revealing as it is spot-on.Elsa Lanchester (Laughton's real-life wife) also shines, rolling her R's throughout as a prim missionary teaching Indonesians how to recite "Here we go gathering nuts in May." The only other role of hers that I (and everyone else) is familiar with is as the Bride of Frankenstein, but here you could see she has a subtle knack for comedy. Actually, I couldn't get that film (and Laughton in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame") out of my mind while watching this one, except here it is Laughton who plays a sort of monster!

theowinthrop Charles Laughton was usually a forceful figure of power in one way or another: Javert the police agent in LES MISERABLES, Captain William Bligh of H.M.S. Bounty, Earl Janoth in THE BIG CLOCK, King Henry VIII, King Herod. But occasionally he is a struggling figure, like the would be composer/conductor in TALES OF MANHATTAN.Here he is "Ginger Ted" Wilson, a hard-drinking drifter in the south seas. Currently he is residing (it is the 1930s) in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Life is not too bad - he cadges money and never pays it back. He also is a close drinking pal of the local magistrate (Robert Newton, in a relatively quiet - but early - role). However, Ginger Ted has made two enemies. Like Sadie Thompson in RAIN (also a story of Somerset Maugham - the author here), Ted angers the local missionary, Dr. Jones (Tyrone Guthrie) and his spinster sister Martha (Elsa Lanchester) by corrupting one of their female charges. When the local constable (an elderly man) is injured, the missionaries force Newton to reluctantly punish Ted.Ted is exiled to a small island, supposedly at hard labor. Then Martha ends up on the island too, and she begins to take an interest in Ted - with a view of reforming him. Ted discovers he likes the spinster, but he is uncertain about a permanent relationship. They return to the main island again, only to find that there is an epidemic in the hinterland. The magistrate asks Ted to try to convince the natives to use medicine the missionaries have. Ted and Martha go, and face the dangers of a hostile and deadly native population together. And ironically they find a curious connection in their family histories that make their romantic connection permanent as well.VESSEL OF WRATH (also known as THE BEACHCOMBER) is a nice little film comedy, and the first time (after the "Anne of Cleves" scenes of HENRY VIII and the love scenes in REMBRANT) that Laughton and Lanchester got together. They balance nicely in their scenes, playing off each other like...well like a married couple (like they were). The film is also interesting as one of the few where Sir Tyrone Guthrie (better remembered as a British drama director and producer) had an acting role. He has a comic moment too, when hearing that his sister has been stuck with the "lascivious" Ted on a desert island, he all but collapses in fear for her virtue. Newton is under tight control in his role, angry at his friend Ted for giving him so many headaches in the local community, but still missing Ted for the fun they have together (and also regretting the fact that he's left with the boring Guthrie as the only other intelligent westerner around!). The four leads do very nicely here - and Laughton has an opportunity to do a run through for his later similar beachcomber role (though a family man) in THE TUTTLES OF TAHITI.Newton would return to the story later on. In the early 1950s he and Glynis Johns played Ted and Martha in a remake of VESSEL OF WRATH.