Main Cast: Gary Cooper, George Raft, Frances Dee, Henry Wilcoxon, Harry Carey
Release Year: 1937
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Paramount's answer to Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) also involved mutiny and romance on the high seas. Gary Cooper stars as Nuggin Taylor, first mate on a slave ship in 1842. Ironically, Nuggin is an abolitionist. When a mutiny overthrows the ship's skipper and leaves him in charge, he frees his cargo. Back in England, charges against Nuggin and his fellow shipmate Powdah (George Raft) are dropped. Nuggin is approached by British intelligence agents and asked to embark on a secret information-gathering mission that could end the slave trade. Nuggin agrees and Powdah accompanies him on a ship bound for America, where both men fall in love, Nuggin with Margaret (Frances Dee) and Powdah with Babsie (Olympa Bradna). However, their adventures are far from over. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Roland Anderson - Art Director, Hans Dreier - Art Director, Edith Head - Costume Designer, Henry Hathaway - Director, Ellsworth Hoagland - Editor, W. Franke Harling - Composer (Music Score), Bernhard Kaun - Composer (Music Score), Milan Roder - Composer (Music Score), John M. Leopold - Composer (Music Score), John Leipold - Composer (Music Score), Boris Morros - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ralph Rainger - Songwriter, Leo Robin - Songwriter, Charles B. Lang - Cinematographer, Henry Hathaway - Producer, Grover Jones - Producer, A.E. Freudeman - Set Designer, Gordon Jennings - Special Effects, John Cope - Sound/Sound Designer, Harry D. Mills - Sound/Sound Designer, Grover Jones - Screenwriter, Richard Talmadge - Screenwriter, Dale Van Every - Screenwriter, Ted Lesser - Short Story Author
The story is based on two distinct early 19th Century themes. It is about the attempts by abolitionists (here played by Cooper and Raft) to end the continuing slave trade. Although the U.S. Constitution ended the importation of slaves in 1808, slaves were still being brought into the country under foreign flags. The abolition of slavery by Great Britain helped reduce legal trade in slaves by putting the British navy into action against slave traders, but even Britain had its supporters of the trade (here represented by Wilcoxon, as a British naval officer acting for the slave interests). The collision between Cooper and Wilcoxon is complicated by Wilcoxon's sister (Dee) falling in love with Cooper.
The conflict will reach it's highpoint at the conclusion on board the ship William Brown. An actual ship involved in a sea traged of this period (the Jacksonian Age of the 1820s to 1840s), the "Brown" hit an iceberg in 1840, and sank with loss of life. Here it catches fire, due to a little girl, and the ship's captain (Carey) is injured. Cooper taking over has to limit the number of people in the only lifeboat, and as a result is put on trial for murder (and defended by Zucco). In real life a seaman, one Aleander Holmes, was tried and convicted of manslaughter, but given only a fine and six months imprisonment. A later film with Tyrone Power called Seven Waves Away or Abandon Ship! dealt with the issue of the limits of lifeboat space and life and death decisions of the first mate.
