Welcome back to Horror Movie Monday!
Today’s film is 1939’s Torture Ship starring Lyle Talbot, Julie Bishop, and Irving Pichel. Directed by Victor Halperin, the film is rather short at just 64 minutes (and there are other cuts that are even shorter). The screenplay is “suggested” by the 1899 Jack London story “A Thousand Deaths.”
Please note: this review contains spoilers. It also contains a degree of snark too. You’ve been warned.
The Plot
The film opens to Dr. Herbert Stander (Irving Pinchel) being questioned by reporters about his medical experiments to cure the criminal mind. It seems that the good doctor is about to be indicted for unscrupulously using humans as test subjects. He believes that the root of all criminal behavior lays in the endocrine system, and vows to continue his work at all costs. Dr. Stander’s interns, Dirk (Anthony Averill) and Paul (Julian Madison) are taken with being able to work under him and agree.
After Dr. Stander is indeed indicted, he makes arrangements to gather a Batman-worthy rogues gallery of 1930s gangster stereotypes to continue with his tests. He breaks them out of jail in a good old fashioned newspaper montage. They include Harry the Carver (Russell Hopton), Ritter (Wheeler Oakman), Ezra (Leander de Cordova), Murano (Demetrius Alexis), bespectacled Jesse (Skelton Knaggs), and Mary Slavish (Sheila Bromley) and her secretary Joan (Julie Bishop). Of course, none of them know what the doctor has in mind.
Buying a yacht, Dr. Stander puts his nephew, Lt. Bob Bennett (Lyle Talbot), in command. Bob is a kind-hearted man who’s recently graduated from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. Dr. Stander chose him because A) he’s family and B) he can take orders blindly and without question. There’s no mention of how Bob is able to take time off from his military obligations for this excursion (maybe he’s in the Naval Reserve?).
Attended to by Swedish steward Ole Olson (Eddie Holden), the rogues gallery of criminals have lunch, and Dr. Stander informs them all of what he has planned for them. Unsurprisingly, they don’t take the news very well. Instead of holding each of them in a separate stateroom, the men are housed together and plot to take over the ship. Dr. Stander’s had the room bugged, overhears their plan, and strolls in to confront them. By himself. Without any weapons. Like a moron. He’s quickly overpowered until Dirk and Paul come in to help and are themselves saved after First Mate Briggs (Stanley Blystone) and some of the ship’s company storm in with handguns. Ezra is chosen as the first test subject and is dragged away to his eventual death.
Meanwhile, Joan and Bob talk on deck. She protests her innocence and declares that she had no idea what “Poison Mary” was up to. Bob believes her and goes to talk to his uncle about it. Of course, no one else believes her story. Bob put her in his cabin and tells her to not open up for anyone. Later, though, she opens up the door for Bob and they go for a stroll on deck.
With Ezra’s death, Murano is chosen as the next test subject. He breaks free of his bonds in classic B-movie fashion, kills a sailor and throws him overboard, and knocks Bob unconscious before being handily subdued. Dr. Stander tells his interns to put Bob in the ward to recover. After ruminating about what went wrong with Ezra, the doctor has a theory and decides to test it on his own nephew. What a monster!
Bob wakes up a changed man. He’s about to strangle Joan with his bare hands until the solution wears off and he collapses. Encouraged by these results, Dr. Stander takes his nephew back and is about to administer another solution until Joan interupts and holds the medical staff at gunpoint. She’s disarmed quickly and taken away. Meanwhile, Bob has stealthily grabbed his uncle’s syringe. He discharges the solution and instead fills it with distilled water. The procedure continues, and Bob pretends to walk around like a zombie afterwards. Then he learns that Joan is about to be operated on by Dr. Stander, after working on “Poison Mary.”
Meanwhile, the rogues gallery has again been plotting. After failing to get a wireless message out, Bob frees them and helps them to take over the ship. The ship that he’s the captain of. I guess that makes sense? Bob is double crossed (who could’ve seen that coming?). Dr. Stander is shot and mortally wounded. The criminals, led by Ritter, take over the yacht and drain it of its wine stores in celebration.
However, Bob goes on the PA system and disguises his voice to impersonate his dying uncle. He bluffs his way into getting the surviving criminals to think that they’re going to drop stone dead at any moment. Jesse accidentally drinks poisoned wine (which Ole fetched from Mary’s luggage) and drops dead on cue. The surviving rogues are lured back to the ward for a life sustaining injection but are quickly knocked out by Bob and Dirk (Peter was also shot and killed during the takeover).
Dr. Stander eventually succumbs to his wounds…but not before Mary comes out of anesthesia a changed woman. The endocrine experiments have worked, and she’s cured of her criminality. The doctor dies happy. The film ends with Bob and Joan about to share a kiss (did I mention they fell in love through this ordeal?) until interrupted by Ole about to jump overboard wearing a life preserver. They laugh and then kiss.
My Review
Well…this movie at least had a lot more going on than Death Ship. But that’s an admittedly low bar. But it kept my attention if nothing else. I don’t think I’d call this a horror movie, though. It’s very much a pulp movie…down to the mad scientist trope. It’s even got a nice little dash of film noir thrown in there too. It’s not high cinema by any means…but this movie is so bad it’s good (for the most part…there are times when it’s just plain bad).
While undoubtedly a low budget movie, Torture Ship has some shining spots. The rogues gallery was largely entertaining and enjoyable to watch. They chew the scenery and — despite being a collection of overacted stereotypes — get you to kind of feel bad for what’s going to happen to them. Until you’re reminded of how terrible they actually are. Then they get their comeuppance.
However, so much in this movie was forced and contrived. It’s heavy handed with its morality…but you’re not actually sure what the film is trying to say. Honestly, Torture Ship felt a bit like a high-quality Ed Wood movie in many ways. Dr. Stander is a misguided genius (but also an idiot), and the other characters sometimes do stupid things for little or no reason. This collective stupidity helps to move the plot along, but at what cost?
Oh, and remember how this movie was “suggested” by a Jack London story? It takes place on a ship and features a mad scientist. That’s about the end of the similarities. In “A Thousand Deaths,” the protagonist’s father kills and resurrects his son until the latter finds a way to vaporize the former. Yes…really. Call of the Wild and White Fang this isn’t. And there’s nothing about criminality or the endocrine system in the original story whatsoever. It’s remarkably shameless that the filmmakers tried to claim any connection between the two works. But I digress.
So, would I recommend Torture Ship? Actually yes…I think I would. It’s not a great movie by any means, but it’s also not the worst I’ve ever seen. Like I said, it kept my interest. If you have an hour to kill and like old school mad scientist movies, then you might enjoy Torture Ship. And you don’t even need to buy or rent it: there are several versions available for free on YouTube.