Writers: Robert Hardy Andrews, William Jacobs, W. Somerset Maughm
Composer: Howard Jackson
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods, E.E. Clive, Paul Graetz, Gordon Hart, George Regas, Sidney Bracey, Tetsu Komai, Miki Morita, Houseley Stevenson, Frank Lackteen, George Piltz
More info: IMDb
Plot: In the South Seas, Val Stevens and Lucille Gordon are getting married when a ship goes down offshore. Val rescues Captain Deever and passenger Eric Blacke. Later Eric saves Val from an octopus. Unknown as their friendship develops is the fact that Val is a fugitive and Eric is the detective sent to arrest him.
My rating: 6/10
Will I watch it again? No.
This is one of the few pre-famous Bogart films from the 1930s I've seen where he's not a stock bad guy. He's actually doing some acting here and this is the Bogart that resembles what he was later to become. Those other thug roles are interchangeable and bland. This island adventure has him newlywed and in danger of losing her to the new dude in town that washed up on the shore. There's a lot more to it but that's the main focus. Bogart's got some problems at work that he alone has to solve. The neat thing is he's a good man but his new bride is sweet on this other fella. She's got good reasons for it and so does the new guy. It's more complicated than the normal love triangle stuff. Everyone's a good person so that makes it difficult for who to root for. And then a big piece of information is dropped at the end that changes everything, something that's been hidden from the audience. Sneaky bastards. It's not a very good film but it's also far from bad and it's a reasonable hour long B-picture from the future star that's not a bad way to kill an hour.
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