George Raft was a lot more effective when teamed with another tough guy actor – Bogie in They Drive By Night, Robinson in Manpower, Gary Copper in this. Indeed, he actually outshines Cooper here – this was a judgment of Raft biographer Stone Wallace and I was surprised to read it, but having actually seen the film, he’s dead right. Of course, he has the better role: Cooper is just his tight lipped honourable self (there’s even a scene where he sulks out of principle in a court room and won’t give evidence to get himself acquitted of a criminal charge, just like in Mr Deeds), whereas Raft gets to where an earring, be a scoundrel with a heart of gold, be unable to hack hanging by his thumbs, has a girlfriend who dies, etc.
The plot, if I get this right, has Cooper as a slaver who is anti slavery so he actually lets slaves go whenever he can. This is notice by British secret agent George Zucco, who gets Cooper to go undercover. Raft is Cooper’s mate. At times this seems a bit hacked-about-with, especially to start off with (the whole Cooper-as-amateur-anti-slaver thing – they should have stared with him as an agent). The story could have been stronger – would have been better Cooper undercover on an actual slave vessel, where the threat of exposure had greater stakes, instead of just on a transatlantic voyage, with the final fire due to slave stuff rather than an accident; maybe also better with a stronger villain than Henry Wilcoxon (his performance is fine, just the character could have been more evil).
But it’s enjoyable, the period setting is fun, there is a spectacular storm and fire sequence on the boat, Henry Hathaway directs in a robust, brisk fashion, and it’s great to see Raft really holding his own in something. Also, the climax of this is ethically fascinating: Cooper throws a bunch of people off a lifeboat so the boat won’t overload; I mean, he’s got an arguable case (the boat would likely sink), but he punches some of these guys out and shoots others… it’s odd behaviour for a Hollywood hero. Not surprisingly, he later goes on trial for this, which opens and ends the film – but it only ends with him getting a re-trial. He could still be hung. Bob Cummings has an early role as one of the people on the boat; Alan Ladd is supposed to be in it too, as a sailor.
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