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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you like old movies where people talk in very loud, theatrical voices because they haven't figured out microphones yet, then maybe. You'll probably enjoy this if you like watching people make terrible life choices in tropical uniforms. 🌴
Most people will probably hate it because it moves like molasses and the plot is basically just a soap opera with more guns. It's not exactly a thriller, even though there's a murder.
The movie starts in Haiti, or at least a version of Haiti that exists entirely inside a 1930s movie studio. It's supposed to be hot and oppressive, and you can see the actors really trying to look like they are sweating through their shirts.
Grant Withers plays Captain Clive Branch. He is the kind of guy who thinks he is way more charming than he actually is.
He's having affairs with two different women at the same time. Both of them are married to other Captains on the base.
It's messy. It's the kind of drama that feels like it belongs in a tabloid from ninety years ago. 📰
Brenda Ritchie, played by Aileen Pringle, is one of the wives. She has this look in her eyes like she knows exactly how bad this is going to end, but she doesn't care.
Then there's Helen Arnold. I kept getting the two women mixed up for the first twenty minutes because the hair styles were so similar back then.
The whole thing feels a bit like The Silent Command, but with less interesting boats and more awkward silences.
There is a scene where they are all sitting around and the tension is so thick you could cut it with a bayonet. But then someone speaks and the dialogue is just... stiff.
Early sound films have this weird quality where no one knows when to stop talking. They just keep going until the scene finally, mercifully ends.
One husband gets murdered, and then the movie tries to be a mystery. But it’s not a very good mystery because you’re mostly just waiting for someone to trip over their own guilt.
Clive is a terrible person, honestly. I don't know why these women are fighting over him, other than the fact that there are only like five people on this base.
The pacing is all over the place. One minute they are staring at each other for ten seconds too long, and the next, a major plot point is rushed through in a single sentence.
It reminds me a little bit of the awkwardness in The Burning Question. It has that same 'we are making a movie with sound and we are very serious about it' energy.
I noticed a weird thing in the background of the office scene. There is a fan that doesn't seem to be moving any air at all, yet everyone is acting like they are in a furnace.
Also, the uniforms are uncomfortably tight. I don't know how they breathed, let alone marched in that heat.
The movie doesn't really have a big 'wow' moment. It just sort of happens and then it's over.
If you've seen Captain January, you know how these old studio films can feel very small and contained. This one is no different.
It's definitely a pre-code movie, though. You can tell because they are way more casual about the cheating than they would be a few years later.
There's a specific moment where Brenda is just lounging on a chair, and you can tell the director thought this was the pinnacle of scandal.
The script is credited to three different writers, which usually means they were all fighting over what the ending should be. It kind of shows.
I found myself wondering what the actual Marines in 1930 thought of this. They probably laughed their heads off at the way the base was run.
It’s not a total waste of time, but it’s definitely one of those movies you watch when there’s nothing else on and you’ve already seen all the good stuff.
The acting from the supporting cast is... well, it's there. Some of the guys in the background look like they were just pulled off the street and told to stand still.
I wish there was more of an actual Haiti vibe, but it’s mostly just rooms with shutters. 🏠
Maybe I'm being too hard on it. It’s nearly a hundred years old.
But compared to other stuff from that era, it’s just sort of mid, as the kids say now.
Actually, let's look at the ending. It feels like they ran out of film and just decided to stop.
The resolution is so fast you might miss it if you blink.
I didn't hate it, but I probably won't remember most of it by next Tuesday.
It's a weird little artifact of a time when Hollywood was still trying to figure out how to make people talk on screen without sounding like robots. 🤖
If you're a completionist for early 30s drama, give it a go. Otherwise, you're not missing much.
IMDb —
1922
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