Sat 4 Feb 2017
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: MYSTERY SHIP (1941).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[7] Comments
MYSTERY SHIP. Columbia Pictures, 1941. Paul Kelly, Lola Lane, Larry Parks, Trevor Bardette, Cy Kendall, Roger Imhof, Byron Foulger, Dwight Frye. Director: Lew Landers.
Mystery Ship is a movie about two federal agents, Allan Harper (Paul Kelly) and Tommy Baker (Larry Parks) tasked with a secret mission of escorting a ship filled with criminals and political agitators back to Europe. It’s a strange little film. And I don’t mean that in the avant-garde or experimental sense. It’s strangeness lies in the fact that it is a bizarre amalgam of several film genres: the crime film, the spy film, the screwball comedy, and the silent film, at least in terms of how the fight sequences are directed.
Directed by B-movie king Lew Landers, the movie tries to blend action with suspense and suspense with romantic comedy in which Harper’s fiancée, Patricia Marshall (Lola Lane) manages to smuggle herself about the ship. Overall, the attempt is a failure not so much of direction as it is of imagination.
This could have been a gritty action film set on the high seas or it could have been a screwball comedy featuring a motley crew of criminals and political subversives. Instead, it is really neither. It remains a lightly entertaining, if completely forgettable movie that is neither particularly good nor particularly awful. Film fans might appreciate the unmistakable Cy Kendall as one of the thugs.
February 5th, 2017 at 2:17 am
Two comments:
1. This movie is as strange in exposition and content as Jon says it is. Two different movies in one. Paul Kelly is both a tough as nails cop and a stupid detective who can’t ever get to the church on time.
2. I am a big Cy Kendall fan.
February 5th, 2017 at 6:02 pm
Steve,
Did you know that Cy Kendall also did some work as a radio actor? I discovered that when I heard his distinctive voice as the main villain in a ’30s Tarzan radio serial I listened to a couple of years ago.
February 5th, 2017 at 6:43 pm
No, I hadn’t know that, but I’m not surprised. His deep distinctive voice would make him a natural for radio.
I went looking to see what other OTR programs he may have been on.
Here’s a partial list:
— played Judge Carter in the short-lived THE REMARKABLE MISS TUTTLE (NBC, 1942).
— was in the West coast only soap opera AUNT MARY (NBC 1942-1951).
— during the early NBC run of BIG TOWN (1937-1942), Kendall is listed as portraying “various political grafters”.
— played Captain Taffy the Pirate and the Indian Chief in THE CINNAMON BEAR (1937), a syndicated Christmas show.
— played Dr. Fred Thompson, the friend and romantic rival of Henry Barbour on ONE MAN’S FAMILY (NBC, 1932-1950).
— played Captain Tracy in the syndicated TARZAN OF THE APES radio chapterplay that ran in 1932 and starred Jim Pierce and his wife Joan Burroughs.
Here’s the link where I found this (his entry is below that of Morris Ankrum):
http://www.b-westerns.com/villan14.htm
February 5th, 2017 at 8:41 pm
Steve, thanks for the link. It’s always interesting finding out more career info on the old-time character actors. That partial OTR list for Kendall certainly indicates that radio work was more than an occasional sideline for him. And very interesting was the tidbit that he was one actor considered to replace Warner Oland as Charlie Chan. It is hard to imagine Kendall matching Sidney Toler’s affability as the character, though, along with Toler’s bemused tolerance for Sen Yung’s antics. I can see Kendall as a more authoritative, less polite Chan, closer in tone to the original novels.
February 5th, 2017 at 8:51 pm
While I am trying very hard, it is still hard to imagine!
February 5th, 2017 at 10:20 pm
Yeah, if Kendall made a screen test for Chan, I would love to see it!
February 6th, 2017 at 9:22 pm
A not bad, not good, forgettable, pretty entertaining, can’t quite decide what it is.