Stephanie (August 2005)

 Rating: (of five)

Just three films away from making her big splash in the ultra-modern Our Dancing Daughters, also released in 1928, Joan here plays an 1800s lass caught in the middle of some weird psychological drama between two seafaring brothers. As "Priscilla Crowninshield," Joan gets to glow, grin, weep, and shoot a guy down from a top-mast, and she accomplishes every sometimes ludicrous task with a professional ease that shows she was up for anything the studio handed her.

Ramon Novarro, the brother Priscilla loves, is "Joel," the playful kid of the sea-dog family, looked down upon fondly by his older, brawling, tough-guy brothers. (Joan and Novarro look absolutely stunning together, two glowing, vital examples of beauty and onscreen charisma. Their opening scenes on the beach and at dinner in the brothers' home--when Novarro in particular gets to show off his looks and charm--are lighthearted and fun; the two seem natural and comfortable together.)

Plot complications arise when Joel's oldest brother Mark (the rough-hewn, towering Ernest Torrence) decides he loves Priscilla and their fathers promptly announce in church, without Joel or Priscilla's knowledge, that Mark and Priscilla will be wed after the brothers return from their upcoming voyage to Singapore. Joel and Priscilla's exchanged looks of dismay during the announcement are subtly expressive, as is their farewell scene aboard ship the next day, where Priscilla sensually nuzzles the now-reluctant Joel, who feels compelled to remain loyal to his brother.

So far so good in this first third of the film. After this, however, things seem to go a little awry. Brother Mark has noted Priscilla's shipboard reluctance to kiss him goodbye and he soon begins to brood over her (even hallucinating her ghostly presence in a ship doorway. Later, funnily, her face even pops up in the bottom of his glass!). Once the brothers dock in Singapore, Mark starts boozing it up in a brothel, to the shock of the innocent Joel: "You've got to remember Priscilla!" Joel chides, pulling a harlot from Mark's lap. Mark quite rightly orders Joel back to the ship, then stumbles into the night with his newfound Asian floozie, only to get jumped by a combination of local toughs and mutinous sailors from his own ship. He disappears and is assumed dead by all except Joel. His ship sails for home without him.

Did I say things seemed to go "a little awry" earlier? Well, at this point the plot ventures beyond "awry" into the "haywire" territory. In short: Once back home, Joel, who's suddenly evolved into a stubble-bearded tough guy himself, now kidnaps Priscilla and forces her to sail back to Singapore with him and the once-mutinous crew. Since she has driven his brother mad, only she can rescue him. Cut to a hilarious title: "Six months in Singapore has made Mark a drink-crazed, half-mad, gibbering derelict." Sure enough, there he is, drinking and gibbering, driving his now live-in Asian floozie mad with his incessant sea chanties. The derelict Mark somehow, though, manages to spot his ship in the harbor and is reunited with brother, Priscilla, et al.

The rest of the film is a blur of dumb brawling: Mark with Joel, Joel with mutinous sailor, Mark with mutinous sailor, good sailors vs. bad sailors. And...why, there's Priscilla in the middle of it all, shooting off a gun she found somewhere! Whew! (I won't try to spoil anything by revealing which brother conveniently gets harpooned in the back during all this brawling...)

In spite of the haphazard latter part of the film, Across to Singapore is partially redeemed by the first third, where Joan and Novarro get to be their charming, attractive selves. It's a pleasure just being able to watch the two of them, despite the ensuing bizarre plot convolutions.

(Side-note: Ben Ames Williams, who wrote the novel upon which this movie was based, also later wrote the novel Leave Her to Heaven, which was made into a psychologically disturbing--and excellent--film starring Gene Tierney in 1945.)