Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Ketti Gallian, Ned Sparks, Helen Morgan
Release Year: 1934
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
Plot
Movie newcomer Ketti Gallian plays Marie Gallante, who is abducted by a most ungallant drunken sea captain. He leaves her stranded in Yucatan, where she gets a job as a cafe singer in hopes of paying her way to the Panama Canal zone. While en route, she meets the two-fisted Crawbett (Spencer Tracy), who unlike most of the other men she's encountered believes the kidnapping story. Crawbett, a secret agent, comes to Marie's rescue when she gets inadvertently mixed up in a plot to sabotage the Canal. His job done, Crawbett decides to stick around in Panama for a while when he falls in love with Marie. Based on a novel by Jacques Devel, Marie Gallante was intended to make a star out of Ketti Gallian, but it was the reliable Spencer Tracy who attracted the crowds and earned the critical plaudits. Elements of the film's plotline would later resurface in the 1940 programmer Charlie Chan in Panama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Marie Galante is a pleasing, if ultimately minor, spy film which never quite fulfills its promise. The basic setup is solid, if overly melodramatic and sentimental, but this helps get the film over a number of rough spots, not the least of which is the "star making" performance by Ketti Gallian in the title role. Gallian isn't bad, and in many ways she's quite good. She has a certain beauty (a bit odd from some angles but intriguing) and, of course, she understands the specifically Gallic aspects of the role and the story. She lacks, however, the particular allure that the part calls for, a natural fiery vulnerability that cannot be learned but must instead be a part of the actress. Gallian tries very hard, and she does more than go through the motions, but that essential "something" is missing -- it doesn't help her that co-star Spencer Tracy has his own "something."When paired with another strong performer, Tracy's charisma can enhance his co-star's performance. Here, it doesn't have enough to bounce off of, and so he tends to steal focus, even when the screenplay tells us that a scene or sequence is really about Gallian. Even with this problem, Marie Galante is still an entertaining film, enhanced by Henry King's solid direction and some atmospheric John F. Seitz photography. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Henry King - Director, Art Lange - Musical Direction/Supervision, John F. Seitz - Cinematographer, Winfield R. Sheehan - Producer, Reginald Berkeley - Screenwriter, Jacques Deval - Book Author
