Luxury Liner is a 1933 film starring George Brent, Zita Johann, Frank Morgan, Alice White, Vivienne Osborne, and C. Aubrey Smith.
A doctor, Thomas Bernard (Brent) boards an ocean liner and demands to travel on it, which is good news for the ship's doctor who hasn't had a chance to visit with his family.
Bernard is on the ship for one reason - to see his wife Sybil (Vivienne Osborne), who has left him for a wealthy man, Alex Stevenson (Morgan). Meanwhile, he is very helpful to the people on board ship who need him, and he has the help of a nurse (Johann), who seems to have a crush on him.
It all gets pretty messy when Stevenson meets an opera star (Veree Teasdale) he admires on board and wants to leave Sybil.
There are two other subplots, one involving Alice White as a gold- digger dying to get to first class, and C. Aubrey Smith as a former wealthy man stuck in third class.
Very dated and filled with a lot of old acting style - actors used to pause in the middle of a line for emphasis. "Does it make you feel...like a god?" That was done constantly, and the lines are somewhat weighty.
It is interesting nonetheless and the acting for the most part is okay. Alice White, whose story would have made a better movie, is quite funny, George Brent does a good job, and Zita Johann, who looks a little like Sylvia Sydney, is very good as the nurse.
I think it's always worth seeing these precodes, to see how the acting has changed, how the stories were different and emphasized wealthy people, and to see actors like Brent early on. And I liked reading about people I was less familiar with. Teasdale was married for 28 years to Adolphe Menjou, and the two had a popular radio show for some time. Zita Johann was married to John Houseman. And Alice - read her bio.
A doctor, Thomas Bernard (Brent) boards an ocean liner and demands to travel on it, which is good news for the ship's doctor who hasn't had a chance to visit with his family.
Bernard is on the ship for one reason - to see his wife Sybil (Vivienne Osborne), who has left him for a wealthy man, Alex Stevenson (Morgan). Meanwhile, he is very helpful to the people on board ship who need him, and he has the help of a nurse (Johann), who seems to have a crush on him.
It all gets pretty messy when Stevenson meets an opera star (Veree Teasdale) he admires on board and wants to leave Sybil.
There are two other subplots, one involving Alice White as a gold- digger dying to get to first class, and C. Aubrey Smith as a former wealthy man stuck in third class.
Very dated and filled with a lot of old acting style - actors used to pause in the middle of a line for emphasis. "Does it make you feel...like a god?" That was done constantly, and the lines are somewhat weighty.
It is interesting nonetheless and the acting for the most part is okay. Alice White, whose story would have made a better movie, is quite funny, George Brent does a good job, and Zita Johann, who looks a little like Sylvia Sydney, is very good as the nurse.
I think it's always worth seeing these precodes, to see how the acting has changed, how the stories were different and emphasized wealthy people, and to see actors like Brent early on. And I liked reading about people I was less familiar with. Teasdale was married for 28 years to Adolphe Menjou, and the two had a popular radio show for some time. Zita Johann was married to John Houseman. And Alice - read her bio.