Outward Bound (1930)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Robert Milton

Writers:

J. Grubb Alexander (writer)
Sutton Vane (play)

Release Date:

29 November 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

A disparate group of passengers, finding themselves aboard a darkened, fog-enshrouded crewless boat...

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Examiner | Immortality | Allegory | Socialite

Cast

Leslie Howard	...	Tom Prior
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.	...	Henry
Beryl Mercer	...	Mrs. Midget
Dudley Digges	...	Thompson, the Examiner (as Dudley Diggs)
Helen Chandler	...	Ann
Alec B. Francis	...	Scrubby
Montagu Love	...	Mr. Lingley
Lyonel Watts	...	Rev. William Duke
Alison Skipworth	...	Mrs. Cliveden-Banks

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Vitaphone

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Vitaphone Corporation, The

Trivia:

The play opened in New York on 7 January 1924 and in London on 17 September 1925.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Between Two Worlds (1944)

Another film from the '30s that was later turned into a much finer remake...

OUTWARD BOUND suffers from stage-itis (if there IS such a word), and from early sound techniques which permitted no background music except for the opening and closing titles. Furthermore, all of the actors have been directed in what can only be called melodramatic stage technique, so that every line uttered sounds like a stage line.

Even the great LESLIE HOWARD is given to overacting of the worst kind. DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR., too, has obviously been directed to play his role in earnest but over-the-top silent screen technique as the young man who dearly loves his mate and wants desperately to have her come back to him when he's given the chance to return to life. HELEN CHANDLER is sincere and just as earnest, but she too is unable to overcome the trite lines that have her repeating her husband's name so frequently for the final scenes that it becomes a distracting bore.

Missing, of course, is the polished script and the brilliant music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold that made the 1944 version (BETWEEN TWO WORLDS) so dramatically effective. Sorely missed is Sydney Greenstreet as The Examiner and John Garfield, Paul Henried and Eleanor Parker doing fine work in unusual roles.

Summing up: For a more intelligent and moving version, you can't afford to miss BETWEEN TWO WORLDS.