Ace Corbin (Cary Grant), recently acquitted for murder, is sick of being a gangster. He goes out west for a new life. Eleanor (Benita Hume) wants to get back to California to her gangster boyfriend. She and Corbin meet, deceive each other that they’re not outlaws, and fall in love.
Buy Gambling Ship from MovieZyngThat’s a decent premise, and Gambling Ship plays it out in a decent, if unremarkable way. They have chemistry on their train ride (though the courtship scenes are unexciting). But when Eleanor gets to L.A. she finds her boyfriend, Joe Burke is in dire straits. His gambling ship is going under. Eleanor won’t run out on him when he’s in a jam.
So, she leaves Ace in a lurch. But through a series of coincidences (Joe Burke’s main competitor is Ace’s old enemy), Ace ends up in charge of the boat. Gangster stuff happens; some romance stuff happens.
None of it is terribly remarkable. Cary Grant’s commanding screen presence was clear from his first film, This Is the Night. This one, a year into the career, shows him as the clear standout. Everyone else looks like a character actor. That’s not a problem, but it’s clear who the star is.
It’s just the material isn’t all there. Ace’s rivalry with this other gangster is half-baked. He and Eleanor deceiving each other about being gangsters is the hook. In the best pay-off in the film, while Ace works hard to stay out of gangster business, Eleanor inadvertently draws him back in. However, the romantic elements take the edge of the gangster bits. Whenever the movie threatens to get a bit darker and more interesting, it pulls back.
There’s plenty of fun for the audience. Ace running the gambling ship like a boss is neat. There’s a great fire-bombing on the ship. And the climax has some pretty good on-the-seas action for a movie shot nearly 100 years ago.
There’s humor, but most of it is too broad to be worth it. There’s action, and it’s okay. But Gambling Ship is unfortunately not some lost classic. It’s a decent time at the theater in 1933. The main characters aren’t as simplistic as the surrounding cast, but their conflict is more sound than fury.
The Blu-ray release looks very good for an old film. The print is scratched, as one might expect, but not distractingly so. The big action sequences, one with fire and the other with sloshing water, look terrific. And it’s fun to see early Cary Grant, but Gambling Ship is a film for completionists, not a hidden gem.
Buy Gambling Ship from AmazonGambling Ship has been released on Blu-ray by Universal. There are no extras on the disc.
