User Reviews

I have seen this film a few times. I keep thinking "was it as bad as I remember" and the answer is yes!!! Based on an Edgar Wallace novel "The Ghost of John Holling" the novelty in this film is seeing actors play against type. Noah Beery who was one of the silent cinema's great villains, plays the gruff but kindly Captain Holling and Gustav Von Seyffertitz, who usually played leering foreign villains, was the "red herring" in "Mystery Liner".

As the film starts Captain Holling (Noah Beery) falls strangely ill and is replaced in command by First Mate Downey (Boothe Howard). The ship is also carrying the S 505, an invention created by Grimson (Ralph Lewis) to control ocean liners from a land base. Grimson is found strangled by a rope tied in a similar knot to the one Downey had just shown the waiter (George Nash). Second Officer Cliff Rogers (Cornelius Keefe) is jealous of the attention that Downey is paying Lila (beautiful Astrid Allwyn, billed as Allyn in this film).

Among the passengers are Granny (Zeffie Tilbury) an elderly lady on the voyage for her health, who just wants a bit of fun, her wet blanket nephew, Edgar (Jerry Stewart, in his only role of any merit), the mysterious Von Kessling (Gustav Von Seyffertitz) and the pompous Major Pope (Edwin Maxwell). News travels around the ship that the waiter has seen Captain Holling on board. Downey gets agitated and tries to send a message but is killed in the same way as Grimson before he can finish it. Rogers is found beside the body and things don't look too good for him. Everyone is under suspicion, Lila is accused of planting a book in his cabin to incriminate Downey, von Kessling wants to leave the cabin urgently - the "spy" who is seen in silhouette relaying messages, has the same upturned moustache as von Kessling.

The invention is put to the test as the ship is put on automatic control. Suddenly the lights go out, Holling is discovered, the ship goes out of control and foreign accents are heard as the S 505 signals are scrambled.

Astrid Allwyn was quite a versatile actress. She mainly played chilly "other woman" roles, even turning up as a femme fatale in a Shirley Temple movie "Dimples" (1936) but here she was the menaced heroine. George "Gabby" Hayes played a ship's watchman here, before he went out West.

Here's a curious little programmer from Monogram Pictures, probably the best known of the Poverty Row studios of the 1930's. The basis of the story has to do with the testing of a newly invented device in the form of a glass tube operated by radio that was designed to control a passenger ship. The gizmo is classified as 'S-505' and if successful, might have significant application during wartime. This all leads to murder and mayhem as a band of enemy agents in a remote location attempts to wrest control of the device. The odd thing is that the affiliation of the enemy agents is never identified, even with one of their own men on board. The other thing that had me scratching my head was why the ship's original Captain Holling (Noah Beery) was pronounced dead after being relieved of command, only to turn up later skulking along the ship's rooms and corridors in dark glasses, scarf and hat. It was stated that he was poisoned, and there was some mention made of an exotic West Indies toxin that might have been responsible, but that went nowhere.

There's not a lot to recommend this one, even if you're a fan of unknown flicks from the turn of the talkie era. Though Noah Beery is top billed, he has very little screen time, and even though I saw George Hayes' name in the opening credits, I was hard pressed to identify him sans beard and that trademark Western film voice. She tried, but Zeffie Tilbury was a bit tedious as lovelorn Granny Plimpton. So what I think you'll find to be the picture's most redeeming quality is the presence of pretty Astrid Allwyn as ship's nurse Lila Kane.

It's too bad, because the picture had the makings of a neat little mystery, but it got all jumbled up in the delivery. Monogram might have done better to put a Chinese detective in charge, like 20th Century Fox did for 1937's "Charlie Chan at the Olympics". That one took place aboard ship for a good portion of it's story, and also had to do with a newly developed radio control device for aircraft. If nothing else, Chan could have explained everything that happened in the story in a way that would have made some sense.

As the title suggests, this adventure is set on an ocean liner and manages to package three or four stories together until its conclusion 64 minutes later. The main story, however, is not the one in which Noah Beery appears. Indeed, despite his star billing, his role is very small. He disappears for over 50 minutes. Zeffie Tilbury has by far the largest role, closely followed by radiantly lovely Astrid Allwyn (not Astrid Allyn, as the poster proclaims) and Gustav von Seyffertitz (who cleverly subdues his usual vocal and body language so that his revelation of his identity at the climax comes as an agreeable surprise). Cornelius Keefe is appropriately surly as the second officer. Oddly, he receives third billing after Beery and "Allyn" on Monogram's poster, even though his role is small and relatively unimportant. But that's nothing compared to the billing given Ralph Lewis. He's fourth in line on the poster, but in lettering larger than anyone else's (including Beery's). Lewis plays a character called Grimson and frankly I don't remember him at all! However, Gustav von Seyffertitz, who collars the fifth position on the poster, has a large role which he cleverly plays at half his usual volume so that his climactic revelation of his identity has a fair amount of impact. Indeed the revelation of the true villain came as a genuine surprise. And it's always a pleasure to see radiant Astrid Allwyn and bombastic Edwin Maxwell in major roles. Also in the cast, Gabby Hayes has a small, straight bit as a watchman, whilst George Cleveland almost walks away with the film as a suspicious steward. Production values, including Hickson's sets and props, plus Archie Stout's atmospheric camera-work, also impress. Available on an excellent Grapevine DVD on a double bill with Night Alarm.

**SPOILERS** Pretty good whodunit about murder and intrigue on the high seas involving the luxury passenger cruse ship Guthrie. As things turned out The Guthrie was to be tested with this new gizmo called S-505 that would have it travel through the wide and stormy Atlantic Ocean without the use of a captain & crew. This all would be done by a strong radio frequency directed at the ship from a land base radio transmitter. This would also do wonders for the US Navy in a future war with it having its war ships controlled by radio waves, instead of sailors, who are immune to enemy naval gunfire and air strikes!

The first thing that goes wrong with this whole S-505 operation is that the ship's Captain John Holling, Noah Beery, goes batty losing his mind and with that the command of the Guthrie! Sent to a local sanitarium to chill out it's later found out that Capt. Holling was slipped this strong drug when he was in the Orient that caused hallucinations and paralyzed his brain; Much like LSD would have done if it were around back then in 1934. When Holling is replaced by 1st Mate Downey, Boothe Howard, as captain things get even worse when the inventor of S-505 Prof. Grimson, Ralph Lewis, ends up with his neck broken, by having a hang rope tied around it, by an unknown assailant leaving him on life support and unable to conduct his S-505 experiment.

Still determined to go on with it, the S-505 experiment, Prof. Grimson decides to conduct the S-505 experiment from his hospital bed even if it ends up killing him! It's then that someone on board, the Guthrie, pops up and murders the ship's Capt. Downey who's suspected to be the deranged and escaped, from the sanitarium, former ship's Captain Holling. With private criminal investigate Major Pope, Edwin Maxwell, on the case it becomes evident that Holling is taking out his frustration in being dumped as the ship's captain on everyone aboard the Guthrie! Even if they had nothing to do with him being sacked.

***SPOILERS*** The truth of the matter is that Holling is on to who really is behind all these events to sabotage the S-505 experiment and is also on to who the person, or persons, are working for. A foreign government, probably Germany, who want's the S-505 remote control gizmo all for itself to use against a future, very probably the USA, enemy if another world war is to break out! It's now up to Holling to stop them from carrying out their sinister plan! Even at the cost of his own life!

Interesting to see what passed for high-tech in 1934. Lots of sparks flying and big vacuum tubes. Even a sort-of TV for sending messages. The model ships used suggest that this was a low budget outfit. At first, I thought that Noah Beery Jr was in the cast, but this was Noah Beery himself. Unfortunately, he didn't have much of a role. There are also some amusing insights into shipboard travel in the 1930s. What I do find odd is that the owners of this ship are trying out for the first time a radio-controlled system and pick a ship with real passengers, not volunteers. It is also not entirely clear who the 'bad guys' are supposed to be. Considering that this was 1934, they appear to be generic Europeans, up to no good. Maybe their plan was to kidnap the ship and turn it into a floating casino?

"Mystery Liner" was originally released back in 1934.

Anyway - As the story goes - Captain Holling is stripped of his command after a nervous breakdown. When Captain Downey assumes command, he discovers that the ship will be navigated by a remote-control device invented by Professor Grimson. A gang of villains has figured out how to intercept signals from the device and assume control of the ship. Murder, mayhem and suspicion ensue.