Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

zardoz-13 An insane scientist, Dr. Herbert Stander (Irving Pichel), who has been indicted by the grand jury for his theories about curing criminal behavior with experiments on endocrine glands, charters a luxury yacht in "White Zombie" director Victor Halperin's "Torture Ship" and assembles a variety of hoodlums with promises that he can transform into law abiding citizens. Furthermore, Stander has arranged for his nephew, Annapolis graduate Lieutenant Bob Bennett (Lyle Talbot), who has just returned from a world cruise, to act as the captain of the yacht. Although it isn't a tenth as sinister as "White Zombie," "Torture Ship" plies audacious waters as our tragic protagonist ruminates about his unclear future. "If making a criminal mind is normal, then I will be indicted," Stander assures a group of reporters in the courthouse. When his medical assistant Dirk (Anthony Averill) urges the good doctor to contest the indictment, Stander observes with irony, "Fight ignorance? Prejudice? Hypocrisy? That won't do any good." Despite the dire risk of being imprisoned, Stander decides to carry on with his experiments. He has his assistant wire his nephew to join him. He wants Bob because Bob knows how to take orders. "I wanted you on this voyage because you are my nephew and you can take an order without question." Bob starts to notice some unusual things. A mate named Briggs (Stanley Blystone) who came with the yacht has a questionable past. "There's something I must tell you uncle," Bennett informs his relative, "Briggs was tried for killing an officer. He wasn't convicted but he lost his license." Stander dismisses Bennett's objection to Briggs serving as the mate. The scientist considers Briggs a "good man." "Everybody makes a mistake," he says in his defense of Briggs. Cutthroat Harry 'The Carver' Bogard (Russell Hopton), machine gun slayer Jesse Bixel (Skelton Knaggs), homicidal John Ritter (Wheeler Oakman), Blue-beard killer Ezra Matthews (Leander De Cordova) Poisoner Mary Slavish (Sheila Bromley) who dispatched nearly twenty victims to collect on their insurance, Mary's ignorant accomplice Joan Martel (Julie Bishop) who protests his innocence, and an anarchist who explodes bombs constitute the criminals brought aboard the yacht. During the process of recruiting these unsavory characters, Stander promises to reward them, "And in return for helping me with my experiments, I will give you safe passage to another country." Initially, Stander encounters a setback with his procedure and decides that he cannot pursue his original theory by testing on criminals. He explains that he must change his procedure. "As you know, I have obtained in this synthetically the active ingredients in the endocrine gland governing criminality." He complains about trying to duplicate nature's work in the test tube. Instead, he decides to experiment on his nephew. "I must let nature do the work for me in the body of a normal person. At one point when he is about to inject Bennett, Stander allows himself to be distracted and Bennett switches the portion in the hypodermic with distilled water and then behaves as if he were under the influence of the drug. Bennett falls in love with Joan. Swedish Stewart Ole Olson (Eddie Holden) provides primary comic relief with his crazy accent that mauls words for the sake of humor. "Torture Ship" qualifies as a good thriller, with atmospheric black & white cinematography that doesn't wear out its welcome. The cast is top-notch and believable.

JoeB131 Before there was direct to Video and Roger Corman and Ed Wood, there was "Poverty Row", a bunch of small studios who did cheap films for theaters to show as filler while waiting for the big releases to come to town.Thankfully, much of their output has been lost due to the tendency of celluloid to decompose. But a few examples survive and find their way into cheap Direct to Dumpster releases when someone buys the right to them at a garage sale.The plot is that a mad doctor thinks he can cure criminal behavior through injections, and recruits a boat load of killers who agree to be experimented on. Suffice to say, it doesn't go all that well.We also have the subplot between the Mad Doctor's nephew, the worst graduate Annapolis ever had, and the poisoner's sidekick, who wasn't really criminal after all.Not sure if there was more to say. There's a bunch of twists and turn to fill out the hour required.

Michael_Elliott Torture Ship (1939) ** (out of 4) A mad doctor puts criminals aboard his ship so that he can do strange experiments on them trying to figure out what's wrong. This film was directed by Victor Halperin who previously made White Zombie, Supernatural and Revolt of the Zombies. Overall the film isn't too bad but there's really not too much action or horror in the film's short 50-minute running time. Lyle Talbot plays the hero and he always brings some "B" movie charm to a film but that's about it. Mixing the horror, sci-fi and gangster genres together should have worked better. Based on a story by Jack London.

Dukey Flyswatter Recently got one of those Mill Creek 50 pack of horror and mystery PD movies (Tales Of Terror) because there were about 25 of these programmers I had not yet seen.I was already aware from experience that the quality on most of these is less than desirable but some can't be had anywhere else or were not worth paying ten bucks for alone.In this case I was taken royally as this print is missing the first 8 minutes or so leaving one to guess the rest. Fortunately the plot is simple and you can pick it up easily but you'll still be burning at the Faux Pas. Don't know if Alpha's print of this is the same way but in any case this is one to avoid.