The Sea Bat (1930)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Writers:

Dorothy Yost (story)
Bess Meredyth (dramatisation) ...

Release Date:

5 July 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

THE MOST STIRRING ROMANCE ADVENTURE YOU'VE EVER GASPED AT! (original poster - all caps)

Plot:

The West Indies island of Portuga exists mainly for sponge diving. But the best area of collection is frequented by a very large manta ray...

Plot Keywords:

Island | Convict | Sponge | Fight | Reward

Cast

Raquel Torres	...	Nina
Charles Bickford	...	Reverend Sims
Nils Asther	...	Carl
George F. Marion	...	Antone
John Miljan	...	Juan
Boris Karloff	...	Corsican
Gibson Gowland	...	Limey
Edmund Breese	...	Maddocks
Mathilde Comont	...	Mimba
Mack Swain	...	Dutchy

Runtime:

USA:68 min (Turner library print) | 73 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Soundtrack:

Lo-Lo

It would have made a great silent film.

I suppose people turned out to see an early talkie which not only had lots of outdoor footage but also underwater photography. THE SEA BAT is a good film but I think it would have been better had they made it about 5 years earlier as a silent as the characterisations and plot complications come directly from the silent days. The giant manta ray (a Sea Bat) is making life rough for the sponge divers on the island of Portuga (where everyone claims to be of Spanish descent but talks with French accents). This would have been enough for a plot but throw in a minister (Charles Bickford) who won't preach any sermons and stumbles through a funeral service picking passages from the Bible at random. It is not revealing too much to say that this fellow is an eccaped convict who stole a ministers outfit to get off Devil's Island. Now about this being a silent style film? Well the idea that a former pirate who broke jail and is hiding behind a ministers collar reforming just because he reads a few verses from the Old Testament is something you'd expect from D.W. Griffith, circa 1920, yet that is just what happens. Also the scene where the latest victim of the Manta (Nils Asther, best remembered from OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS, 1928) is brought back to port is staged exactly as if this were a silent film. The cast is a joy to see. Watch for Gibson Gowland (GREED) as a Cockney seaman, former Charlie Chaplin comic foil Mack Swain as a bartender, and look fast for a still-unknown Boris Karloff in 3 scenes as a sailor referred to as "The Corsican". The damsel in distress is Raquel Torres, best remembered from F.W. Murnau's docu-drama WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS (1928). The scenes of the giant manta are well done and convincing.