China Seas

Captain Alan Gaskell runs a passenger ship through the dangerous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore. On this crossing there is a secret cargo in the hold: a large consignment of British gold. Two other passengers complicate things, since his former lover and his new fiancée are aboard at the same time. The voyage is battered by a typhoon, after which pirates come over the side after the gold, and it becomes clear that someone on board has been feeding them information. It is one of the exotic adventures MGM turned out in series through the thirties, but the cast sets it apart: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery on the same boat. Harlow's character, unlike most supporting women of the period, makes her own decisions, and she is the liveliest thing in the picture. The typhoon was staged entirely on a soundstage and remains the sequence people remember. It is also one of Rosalind Russell's early parts.