China Seas (film)
China Seas | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tay Garnett |
Written by | James Kevin McGuinness Jules Furthman |
Based on | China Seas 1931 novel by Crosbie Garstin |
Produced by | Irving Thalberg Albert Lewin |
Starring | Clark Gable Jean Harlow Wallace Beery Lewis Stone Rosalind Russell Robert Benchley Akim Tamiroff |
Cinematography | Ray June Clyde De Vinna (2nd unit) |
Edited by | William LeVanway |
Music by | Herbert Stothart |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 87 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.1 million[1][2] |
Box office | $2.8 million[1][2] |
China Seas is a 1935 American adventure film starring Clark Gable as a brave sea captain, Jean Harlow as his brassy paramour, and Wallace Beery as a suspect character. The oceangoing epic also features Rosalind Russell, Lewis Stone, Akim Tamiroff, and Hattie McDaniel, while humorist Robert Benchley memorably portrays a character reeling drunk from one end of the film to the other.
The lavish
Plot
Alan Gaskell (Clark Gable) is an abrasive, gambling, captain of a steamer, the Kin Lung, chugging between Singapore and Hong Kong. Tensions are high before the Kin Lung sails from Hong Kong because pirates are discovered disguised as women passengers while others try to smuggle weapons aboard.
Dolly Portland (
In calm seas, following a
Frustrated by the failed robbery McArdle commits suicide. When the Kin Lung docks in Singapore, Captain Gaskell, still limping due to his tortured foot, settles that his love for Sybil is superficial. Instead he recognises that Dolly gave him good warning and he loves her more. They decide to marry. He says farewell to Sybil. As the film closes Capt. Gaskell reveals the gold was safe all along, hidden inside the ship's cargo (the toolbox of a steamroller stowed on deck).
Cast
- Clark Gable as Captain Alan Gaskell
- Jean Harlow as Dolly 'China Doll' Portland
- Wallace Beery as Jamesy McArdle
- Lewis Stone as Tom Davids
- Rosalind Russell as Sybil Barclay
- Dudley Digges as Dawson
- C. Aubrey Smith as Sir Guy Wilmerding
- Robert Benchley as Charlie McCaleb
- Akim Tamiroff as Paul Romanoff
- William Henry as Rockwell
- Liev De Maigret as Mrs. Vollberg (credited as Live de Maigret)
- Lilian Bond as Mrs. Timmons (credited as Lillian Bond)
- Edward Brophy as Timmons
- Soo Yong as Yu-Lan
- Carol Ann Beery as Carol Ann
- Ivan Lebedeff as Ngah
- Hattie McDaniel as Isabel McCarthy, Dolly's Maid (uncredited)
- Donald Meek as Passenger playing chess (uncredited)
- Willie Fung as Cabin Boy Ah Sing (uncredited)
Production
Irving Thalberg had worked on the film since 1930 when he assigned three different writers to come up with three different treatments. By 1931 Thalberg had decided on the one storyline and spent the next four years working on a script with two dozen writers, half a dozen dir/and three supervisors.[2]
John Lee Mahin said he and Jim McGuiness were called in by Irving Thalberg to look at the script by Jules Furthman. Mahin said Faurthman "had stolen so much—practically word for word out of famous pieces. Things by Mark Twain and Somerset Maugham—and there was a well-known English novel of the time that he had taken a whole speech from. We discovered these, and we had to do quite a lot of rewriting. Granted, nothing’s new, but Jesus, you don’t just take whole lines of dialogue!"[4]
Gable had several temper tantrums on the set, which were tolerated by
China Seas was an early Hollywood formula adventure-movie loosely using the plot of Gable and Harlow's earlier film titled Red Dust (1932) featuring Mary Astor in Russell's role, which was subsequently remade with Gable, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly two decades later as Mogambo (1953).
Wallace Beery had worked with both Gable and Harlow in The Secret Six (1931), in which Gable and Harlow had smaller supporting roles and Beery played the lead. Beery and Gable also appeared together later the same year in the naval aviation film titled Hell Divers (1931), this time with Gable's part almost as large as top-billed star Beery's. The pairing of Gable and Harlow was so popular after Red Dust (1932) that they wound up making six films together, with the final one being finished posthumously after Harlow's untimely death.
Reception
The film was a big hit earning $1,710,000 in the US and Canada and $1,157,000 elsewhere resulting in profits of $653,000.[1][2]
References
- ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- ^ a b c d Scott Eyman, Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer, Robson, 2005 p. 155–156
- ^ "China Seas". AllMovie.
- ISBN 9780520056893.
- ISBN 0-440-22066-1.
External links
- China Seas at IMDb
- China Seas at AllMovie
- China Seas at the TCM Movie Database
- China Seas at the American Film Institute Catalog
- China Seas at Rotten Tomatoes
- China Seas at malayablackandwhite