JohnHowardReid Director: VICTOR HALPERIN. Screenplay: George Wallace Sayre, Harvey Huntley. Suggested by the 1899 short story, "A Thousand Deaths", by Jack London. Photography: Jack Greenhalgh. Film editor: Holbrook N. Todd. Art director: Fred Preble. Music director: David Chudnow. Sound recording: Hans Weeren. Producers: Sigmund Neufeld, Ben Judell. A Sigmund Neufeld Production.Not copyright by Producers Distributing Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 28 October 1939. 57 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A mad doctor experiments on a ship full of criminals.COMMENT: Even in its truncated 48-minutes version (the opening scenes have been deleted), this little movie is bound to disappoint Halperin admirers who thrilled to his highly imaginative direction of White Zombie and Supernatural. Mind you, it's competent enough, but so ordinary that for all intents and purposes producer Neufeld might well have achieved the same results by using their services of his brother, good old Sam Newfield, instead. Best thing about the film is the skillful performance of Irving Pichel as the mad doctor. Worst thing is the unattractively wan appearance of the normally lovely Julie Bishop who looks positively anorexic here, thanks to Greenhalgh's unflattering lighting and photography. Her costumes and make-up don't help either. Yet another sore point is the continued presence of Eddie Holden as a comic steward. A little Eddie goes a long way-- far too long in this case. If broadcasters thought the movie was too long at 57 minutes to keep the attention of restless night owls, surely the scissors would have been better employed removing Holden's part. Instead a lot of necessary exposition has been jettisoned, making the plot difficult to follow and the characters just barely possible to place.

zardoz-13 An insane scientist, Dr. Herbert Stander (Irving Pichel), who has been indicted by the grand jury for his theories about curing criminal behavior with experiments on endocrine glands, charters a luxury yacht in "White Zombie" director Victor Halperin's "Torture Ship" and assembles a variety of hoodlums with promises that he can transform into law abiding citizens. Furthermore, Stander has arranged for his nephew, Annapolis graduate Lieutenant Bob Bennett (Lyle Talbot), who has just returned from a world cruise, to act as the captain of the yacht. Although it isn't a tenth as sinister as "White Zombie," "Torture Ship" plies audacious waters as our tragic protagonist ruminates about his unclear future. "If making a criminal mind is normal, then I will be indicted," Stander assures a group of reporters in the courthouse. When his medical assistant Dirk (Anthony Averill) urges the good doctor to contest the indictment, Stander observes with irony, "Fight ignorance? Prejudice? Hypocrisy? That won't do any good." Despite the dire risk of being imprisoned, Stander decides to carry on with his experiments. He has his assistant wire his nephew to join him. He wants Bob because Bob knows how to take orders. "I wanted you on this voyage because you are my nephew and you can take an order without question." Bob starts to notice some unusual things. A mate named Briggs (Stanley Blystone) who came with the yacht has a questionable past. "There's something I must tell you uncle," Bennett informs his relative, "Briggs was tried for killing an officer. He wasn't convicted but he lost his license." Stander dismisses Bennett's objection to Briggs serving as the mate. The scientist considers Briggs a "good man." "Everybody makes a mistake," he says in his defense of Briggs. Cutthroat Harry 'The Carver' Bogard (Russell Hopton), machine gun slayer Jesse Bixel (Skelton Knaggs), homicidal John Ritter (Wheeler Oakman), Blue-beard killer Ezra Matthews (Leander De Cordova) Poisoner Mary Slavish (Sheila Bromley) who dispatched nearly twenty victims to collect on their insurance, Mary's ignorant accomplice Joan Martel (Julie Bishop) who protests his innocence, and an anarchist who explodes bombs constitute the criminals brought aboard the yacht. During the process of recruiting these unsavory characters, Stander promises to reward them, "And in return for helping me with my experiments, I will give you safe passage to another country." Initially, Stander encounters a setback with his procedure and decides that he cannot pursue his original theory by testing on criminals. He explains that he must change his procedure. "As you know, I have obtained in this synthetically the active ingredients in the endocrine gland governing criminality." He complains about trying to duplicate nature's work in the test tube. Instead, he decides to experiment on his nephew. "I must let nature do the work for me in the body of a normal person. At one point when he is about to inject Bennett, Stander allows himself to be distracted and Bennett switches the portion in the hypodermic with distilled water and then behaves as if he were under the influence of the drug. Bennett falls in love with Joan. Swedish Stewart Ole Olson (Eddie Holden) provides primary comic relief with his crazy accent that mauls words for the sake of humor. "Torture Ship" qualifies as a good thriller, with atmospheric black & white cinematography that doesn't wear out its welcome. The cast is top-notch and believable.

duke1029 A screen adaptation of "A Thousand Deaths," the first story sold by iconic American writer Jack London in 1899, was the choice of producer Ben Judell to launch his newly-formed Producer's Releasing Corporation. London would go on to a prolific, albeit abbreviated, career before dying from a myriad of diseases at age 40, and his name lent prestige to the launching of the fledgling PRC studio. Although Judell shrewdly exploited the film's connection with London, it remains one of the least faithful film versions of the author's work.This screen adaptation only superficially resembles its literary source, and the now retitled "Torture Ship" is a barely seaworthy vessel. However, its interesting cast keeps the ship afloat long enough to keep it from foundering. Influenced by MGM's Leo, Judell chose a tiger as the logo for the maiden voyage of his fledgling company, but looking at this film as well as the studio's other output during its brief history, a feral alley cat might have been more apropos.Noted scientist Dr. Herbert Stanton is indicted by the authorities when he tries to prove his theory that psychopathic criminal behavior is a treatable disease that can be cured by endocrine injections. In order to prove his hypothesis and flee prosecution, the discredited doctor hires a yacht and fills it with career criminals and serial killers (with such colorful names as "Poison Mary" and "Harry the Carver") and sails into the Pacific's international waters to freely experiment on his boatload of guinea pigs. Unfortunately for the doctor his sociopathic patients object and mutiny against the crew and his assistants (who wear sparkling white hospital coats instead of the more practical and waterproof sou'westers and pea jackets.) Both sides struggle for power inside PRC's cramped sets, and the bodies literally pile up on PRC's cramped sound stages until justice and true love ultimately triumph.Along with Frank Norris, Stephen Crane, and others, Jack London is classified in the "Naturalistic" school of writing. They were influenced by such 19th Century figures as Freud, Darwin, and especially Emile Zola. Little of the original story and its intent remain. The Freudian implications of the doctor's son becoming a guinea pig is mitigated by changing the character to his nephew. Although the setting may initially strike the casual observer as reminiscent of London's "The Sea Wolf," this 1899 work doesn't fit into the canon of the author's other short stories like "To Build a Fire," and "Love of Life." Its science fiction aspects more closely resemble H. G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau," and the character of the sincere but slightly demented Dr. Stander seems to presage the roles played by Boris Karloff in his Columbia 'B' films.It is the ship's cast keep the the film interesting. Irving Pichel as Dr. Stanton adds an air of legitimacy to the proceedings and plays his mad doctor role in a straightforward manner as the type of dedicated but misguided scientist George Zucco would portray in later PRC releases. Pichel was an underused talent best known for his role in "Dracula's Daughter" and his sensitive voice-over narration in John Ford's "How Green Was My Valley." Pichel was also a workmanlike director as evidenced in "Destination Moon" in 1950, but unfortunately he was blacklisted during the HUAC period and, like Dr. Stanton, was forced to flee the country to avoid prison.Gargoyle-like Skelton Knaggs, a poor man's Dwight Frye and arguably one of the screen's homeliest actors, drank himself to death in his early 40's as did author London. Knaggs contributes a welcome bizarre presence as Cockney career criminal Jesse Bixel, whose coke bottle glasses add a grotesque other-worldliness to the proceedings. "House of Dracula," "The Ghost Ship," and "Terror by Night," are among his most memorable credits. Lyle Talbot, who plays the ship's chief officer and Stanton's nephew, started his career very promisingly at Warner Brothers in the early 30s but moved to B films and soldiered on for some five decades in lesser roles in low budget film and TV, reaching his cinematic nadir in Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from Outer Space."Wheeler Oakman, the de facto leader of Dr. Stanton's criminals, was a villain's villain in hundreds of Hollywood films from 1912 to 1948 playing lowly henchmen as well as crime bosses in both big studio and Poverty Row productions. Despite Oakman's mustachioed, sinister appearance, he was once married to beautiful silent screen star Priscilla Dean.Sheilah Bromley was a promising ingénue only a few years earlier, playing opposite a youthful John Wayne several times under the name Sheila Manners, but by 1939, her features had hardened, and here she was cast as "Poison" Mary Slavish.Jacqueline Wells (later known as Julie Bishop) is one of the 30s most enduring minor stars, most noticeably as the female lead in 1934's "The Black Cat." She played opposite Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne in the 40s, and co-starred with Bob Cummings in the situation comedy "My Hero" in the 1950s."Torture Ship" was one of the last directorial voyages helmed by Victor Halperin. After making the highly successful low budget independent "White Zombie: in 1932, he was recruited by major studio Paramount for "Superatural" with Carole Lombard and Randolph Scott. Unfortunately the film didn't create a stir, and he went back to Poverty Row's Gower Gulch. Some of his disturbing extreme closeups of the drugged guinea pigs on "Torture Ship" are lifted from similarly effective shots that he used of the zombies in "White Zombie." Despite this self- plagiarism, "Torture Ship" never becomes a patch on the 1932 classic.CAVEAT EMPTOR: The film is in public domain and copies have various run times ranging from 48 to 63 minutes. Many are severely truncated and begin "in medias res" with the criminals already aboard the ship and plotting revolt against Stander and the crew.

Michael_Elliott Torture Ship (1939) ** (out of 4) A mad doctor puts criminals aboard his ship so that he can do strange experiments on them trying to figure out what's wrong. This film was directed by Victor Halperin who previously made White Zombie, Supernatural and Revolt of the Zombies. Overall the film isn't too bad but there's really not too much action or horror in the film's short 50-minute running time. Lyle Talbot plays the hero and he always brings some "B" movie charm to a film but that's about it. Mixing the horror, sci-fi and gangster genres together should have worked better. Based on a story by Jack London.