Dalbert Pringle Corsair (from 1931) is a real moldie-oldie, that, in spite of its obvious age and creakiness, still manages to be fairly entertaining, in the long run.This 83-year-old Comedy/Romance/Adventure story tells the roundabout tale of how dashing, college, football hero, Johnny Hawkes, meets cheeky, spoilt, heiress, Alison Corning.Before long Hawkes finds himself captain of the Corsair (a sleek, high-speed gunboat).Imminent danger lurks everywhere once Hawkes and his crew begin dealing with ruthless, modern-day pirates involved in big-time liquor smuggling.With its story set mainly in the West Indies, Corsair (at 72 minutes) certainly had its fair share of high-seas action, violence and double-crosses.This fast-paced story starred blond beauty, Thelma Todd (murdered at 29) and early-talkies heart-throb, Chester Morris (suicide at 69).

mark.waltz That's how the villain in this film describes his gang of cut-throats, and 80 years later, there's even more modern methods to piracy, so that analyzation is quite a coincidence. Here is the story of a college football hero (Chester Morris) who is so angered by his greedily powerful boss that he plots revenge on him and lands a twist on the powerful Wall Street broker (Emmett Corrigan) that might have you howling in delight, especially considering that 80 years later, the same things are still happening on Wall Street with even more diabolical results.Morris can't help but be attracted to the Wall Street broker's spoiled ninny of a daughter (Thelma Todd, billed as as Alison Loyd), a selfish sort who, like Carmen, gets more intrigued by the man every time he rejects her or treats her worse. She's engaged to an effeminate dapper dan, and at one point, even asks him if he's really her fiancée or just experimenting. So of course, this is pre-code, and has some genuinely delicious pre-code references as it deals with the piracy of bootlegging. The Walter Matthau of the 1930's, Ned Sparks, is on hand as Morris's grouchy sidekick, with Mayo Methot as his moll whom Sparks orders to make love to a rather ugly pirate nicknamed "Fish Face" (Frank Rice). The future Mrs. Bogart has a truly amazing moment when she follows her lover's orders with shocking results.Then there's Frank McHugh, on loan from Warner Brothers and giving his signature "ha ha ha" laugh, as Morris's classmate who sticks by him until the end. The film is interesting because it takes the bootlegging angle away from street gangsters, replacing them with pirates. There is an ocean-set battle between the two different gangs of bootleggers which provides much excitement and gives a modern twist on the old pirate tradition of walking the plank.

csteidler The early moments of Corsair offer a big buildup for our first look at Alison Loyd: we can hear her conversation with dance partner Frank McHugh, but our only view is of the back of her head. A moment later she is introduced to football hero Chester Morris, and again, she speaks unseen….until finally, in close up, her big smile flashes onto the screen. –Of course, it's Thelma Todd's smile. This big introduction apparently aims at establishing Todd as a mysterious and glamorous figure; presumably, this is why Todd is billed as "Alison Loyd" for the first and (I think) only time—to differentiate her "new" persona from the light comic actress Thelma Todd had been (and would continue to be, thank heavens!).Unfortunately, the plot and dialog of Corsair offer Todd/Loyd little else to do besides smile and act alternately spoiled and silly. Her character is a major motivator to the actions of other characters—but she really does little and develops less herself. Which is too bad! Director Roland West didn't do Thelma justice by setting her up as a dangerous female and then giving her practically no depth, surprises or even decent lines to speak.Chester Morris comes off better as a football hero turned banker turned pirate. Fired from his broker job for being unwilling to steal a little old lady's savings, he sets out to prove the boss banker wrong in his assertion that Morris doesn't have the nerve to be successful. Nerve? Morris sets up a booze pirating operation that is daring, dangerous and profitable…and sells the banker liquor by the boatload. The middle section of the movie builds tension around Morris's organization and the danger he faces as his victims—a gang of smugglers themselves—eventually catch on to his operation and hatch plans to capture and wipe him out. Indeed, it turns into a pretty good adventure movie once it gets rolling.Frank McHugh adds liveliness in his role as Morris's right hand man. Fred Kohler is appropriately menacing as "Big John" the smuggler. Morris, a solid lead, gives an excellent performance as a man who chooses and sticks to his own unique code of conduct.The scenes between Morris and Todd ought to be the highlights of a film like this….but it's just the opposite. They speak so slowly…how do you make Chester Morris and Thelma Todd into slow talkers? –It's not just a function of the movie being an early talkie, either; there's a deliberateness to these scenes apparently meant to be serious and dramatic—and instead, all it does is drag. As an adventure, it's not bad. But darn, in the "dramatic" sections, this is a movie in bad need of some zippy dialog.

boblipton Pretty good adventure flick as Wayne Morris, fed up with the petty piracy of Wall Street, goes into business for himself, highjacking rumrunners' ships bound to Prohibition America. Some pretty good sequences featuring Fred Kohler as a sadistic gangster, although Thelma Todd is pretty well wasted as a role that calls for her to play an idiot.