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13 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Who's Looking To Blow Up The Panama Canal?, 2 October 2008
5/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

One of the very few Spencer Tracy Fox films that is available is Marie Galante. In it Spence plays an American agent working out of the Canal Zone in Panama and trying to stop a plot from blowing the canal up and incidentally trapping the American fleet as it is steaming through.

Complicating matters is Ketti Gallian playing the title role of the film. She's a French girl who gets picked up by a drunken sea captain and left ashore in Yucatan. She works her way down to the Panama Canal hoping to get a boat back to France, but she kind of blunders into the whole scheme of some master criminal to destroy the canal.

Of course her undocumented presence without passport in the Canal Zone arouses everyone's suspicions. Only Tracy has faith in her.

Marie Galante boasts the presence of Helen Morgan playing a variation on her Julie role from Show Boat. She's a drunken chanteuse and of course this too sadly reflected on her real life. She gets a couple of songs to do in her inimitable torch style, but nothing on the order of the hits Jerome Kern wrote for her.

The usual suspects in films like this are there, but this is not World War II yet and alliances have not been formed. Also the reason for blowing up the canal reflects a bit more on today's politics than in those of that era interestingly enough.

Marie Galante was an example of the kind of two fisted action parts that Spencer Tracy was doing over there with barely a stretch on his considerable talent. Still fans of Tracy will appreciate the film.

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Intereresting relic, 14 June 2009
6/10
Author: tarmcgator from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

MARIE GALANTE is an interesting relic of 1934 cinema on several counts:

(1) One of the few readily available films (on DVD, anyway) of Spencer Tracy's pre-MGM career.

(2) The first starring role for Ketti Gallian. This was her first major American film, and her only other significant role in Hollywood was as "Lady Denise Tarrington" in the classic Astaire/Rogers musical, SHALL WE DANCE, three years later. After that film, Ketti apparently returned to her native France and, aside from a handful of French productions, did no more movies (though apparently she was also active on stage). Lovely woman, and one wonders why she failed to make it in Hollywood.

(3) Interesting political context: As with many 1930s films involving espionage, the villains are not any identifiable countries but unnamed parties who "profit from war." This was the era in which the First World War was being blamed on munitions manufacturers, "merchants of death" who supposedly encouraged international instability and chaos in order to sell weapons.

(4) It's almost startling to see a Japanese naval officer turn out to be one of the "good guys" in a Hollywood film. Of course, MARIE GALANTE was released seven years before Pearl Harbor. And, of course, he's played by a Caucasian actor (Leslie Fenton).

(5) Other interesting casting: Helen Morgan has a minor role as a saloon singer (and does a couple of songs), Ned Sparks does his cantankerous act, and Sig Ruman plays a fairly straight role, rather than hamming it up.

(6) Henry King's direction and pacing are fascinating -- at times I thought I was watching something by Josef von Sternberg, with all those giant close-ups. Unusually brisk cutting between scenes, too, for a film of this vintage.

(7) Some nice stock footage of the Panama Canal and the U.S. Fleet.

No one should mistake MARIE GALANTE for a great film. Even by 1934 standards it was no more than casual entertainment. (Reportedly, the author of the original novel, Jacques Deval, was so disappointed in the film that he unsuccessfully tried to have his credit removed from it.) But if you're interested in 1930s movies, or if any of the factors listed above grab you, it's worth a rental.

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11 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Early Spencer Tracy in Panama spy thriller, 7 July 2008
7/10
Author: ksf-2 from southwest US

M. G. opens in a restaurant somewhere in France, with the sound of people singing. Then Marie Galante (K Gallian) on a bicycle rushing off somewhere.... Lots of people speaking French, and the ship captain gets a telegram in English, with lots of orders. The movie has been playing for two minutes and i'm already lost, although it might be my own fault for forgetting so much of my high school francais. It turns out the ship cast off while she was still aboard. More francais spoken. Then we're somewhere in central America, according to the title card, and we meet Dr. Crawbett (Spencer Tracy), Plosser the nightclub owner played by the great but sarcastic Ned Sparks (ya GOTTA see him in The Bride Walks Out 1936 - Hilarious!), spies, and various other suspicious people. According to Marie, (Ketti Gallian), she just wants to get back to her homeland. Crawbett and someone who MUST be a spy are sorting out the people in the nightclub, and that is the beginning of the story. Galante ends up going in search of a Frenchman who may or may not be able to help her get home. The screenplay and acting are quite competent, but the lighting is spotty and poor at times. When the camera pans around Marie Galante's room, it zooms past posters and things that would be helpful and interesting to be able to see. It appears Gallian's film career fizzled, while Tracy's bloomed and took off. Sharp viewers will also spot Sig Ruman, who plays Brogard. He had made A Day at the Races and A Night at the Opera with the Marx Brothers. The spy plot and "foreign" locations (including the Panama Canal, whether or not we are really there...) make this an interesting, exotic story, while we try to figure out who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys.

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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Really good espionage film, 29 January 2009
7/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

French telegram delivery girl is kidnapped and ends up in South America,. There she works her way to the Panama Canal zone where she hopes to find some one to help her get back to France. She finds work in a saloon singing. She also begins to make the acquaintance of various parties from around the world, all of whom seem to have hidden motives for everything they are doing. And some one's motive includes blowing up the canal with the American fleet in it. Very good espionage thriller will probably keep you guessing for a chunk of its running time as to who is good and who is bad. Its a compact little film that spins out its tale in nicely constructed bits. It took me a little bit to get hooked, but once Marie got to Panama I was hooked and allowed it to lead me around where ever it wanted to go. Surprisingly good, it made me regret not having pulled it from my pile sooner. Grab some popcorn and soda and make a night of it.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
"Un peu beaucoup", 22 June 2011
6/10
Author: Steffi_P from Ruritania

In the early 1930s Fox Studios went from extreme commercial and critical success with hits like State Fair and Best Picture winner Cavalcade, to being among the most heavily indebted production companies, and was one of the first to go into receivership. The release of Marie Galante in 1934 came from a studio in a state of panic, and is one of many curious little pieces from the era.

Marie Galante was directed by Henry King, one of the longest-serving and most respected men at Fox. This picture finds him at his most baroque and artistically European in style. During the opening scenes the camera tracks along following Ketti Gallian through a number of settings, but she is back amid the clutter of the sets. This draws our attention to the star, but gives us the feeling of voyeurs stood outside the action. Later, in the office where we first meet Spencer Tracy and the other secret service people, a huge whirring fan and its shadow dominate every shot. It's not only a reminder of the oppressive heat, but touches like this give the environment a character of its own. The only time we are totally focused on the actors it is via gritty close-ups. There were only a handful of directors in Hollywood during this era who were giving such prominence to the sets, but they were mostly Germans like Fritz Lang and Josef von Sternberg.

Appropriately enough for this European flavouring, the star of Marie Galante is a French woman. Ketti Gallian's looks and some extent her mannerisms make her appear as another Marlene Dietrich, and this is probably why the studio snapped her up. Compared to the German siren though she is a somewhat bland, and makes a rather weak and forgettable heroine. Spencer Tracey, his star on the ascendant, provides a steady and realistic performance, but he seems just a little constrained by this rather stolid role. Amid all the stark sets and quirky angles, resolutely American character players Ned Sparks and Stepin Fetchit seem strangely out of place, although sensibly their roles have not been emphasised too much, and they at least give the picture its only flashes of warmth and humour.

Marie Galante is a strange little picture and the way it is made is even stranger. The plot points don't seem directed towards the audience. Instead, understanding it is like watching a group of people across a restaurant and trying to piece together their relationships. It's not that it's difficult to follow, just that doing so is a slightly cold and alienating experience. It does look incredibly neat and stylish, and is vaguely interesting simply for the oddity that it is, but the sense of vitality and connection that 30s Hollywood usually offered is sadly missing.

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Interesting for the Time, Characters Needed More Depth, 27 March 2011
6/10
Author: Jay Raskin from Orlando, United States

I must admit to being a bit disappointed. This film seems to bring forth a lot of talented actors, but loses their interaction in the plot. Beautiful Frenchwoman, Ketti Gillian, starts off at as the star, and she acts well. I like that she has several realistic scenes speaking French where there are no subtitles. English speakers need not freak out. She isn't saying anything important in these scenes. However, she practically gets lost after the first 15 minutes.

At that point, we are introduced to the real hero, Spencer Tracy. He is a nicely laid back rather intelligent hero. The movie quickly becomes a rather standard mystery-spy tale with the audience and hero trying to guess the identity of the rogue agent who is plotting to blow up the Panama Canal. The other supporting actors deliver nice performances, Ned Sparks, Helen Morgan, Sig Ruman, and Leslie Fenton are all effective. Unfortunately, they each get a few scenes, about ten minutes and their characters don't develop, but just tend to disappear. The feel is very much like a Charlie Chan or Mr. Moto or other slightly above-average clever mystery movie of the 1930's.

It is just disappointing that it wasn't more ambitious. With some more work, it could have been much closer to "Casablanca." Instead, it feels like two reels of an "A" picture and then six reels of a "B."

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Fair Spy Thriller that is of Its Time, 12 March 2011
5/10
Author: loza-1

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This film was originally going to be called "That Girl", and the part of Marie Galante was a French girl who betrays her own country. The part was originally offered to Lili Damita, who turned it down because she could not stomach playing the part of a French traitress.

A couple of years down the line, and we have a new title, a new French actress, a new script and a new country to betray. Marie Galante is a French post office employee who gets shanghaied delivering a telegram to an arms smuggler. She eventually finishes up officially accused of being a stowaway, and singing in a bar in Panama.

But Panama City is a hotbed of spies and counter espionage. The counter spies are looking for an unsavoury character who turns up in trouble spots all over the world - only no one knows what he looks like. Naturally, we try to guess who the person is, only to find that the film makers have cheated by making him a character that doesn't appear until at least halfway though the film. Just for a change, the Japanese is one of the good guys. Spencer Tracy is an expert on tropical diseases, although we have guessed early on that he is not what he says he is. Marie Galante is tricked into spying against the USA rather than France.

Probably because of the rewritten screenplay, the denouement is a bit of a mess; but the film has a happy albeit uncertain ending when the girl gets not only Spencer Tracy at the end, but the Japanese as well! Ketti Gallian, who plays the title role, plays a stereotypical French girl. Her hair photographs badly. She is meant to be blonde, but looks more like an albina. There is nothing particularly wrong with her acting, except that it lacks the personality of a star.

The film is perfectly watchable, although it lacks the tension of a really good thriller.

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3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Meh...., 14 February 2010
4/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

The film begins with a French girl (Ketti Gallian) being accidentally taken aboard a ship and dropped in Central America. She is trying desperately to find her way back home and has only made it as far the Panama Canal when she falls into a plot to possibly blow up the canal. Officials think a man named "Reiner" is behind it but no one knows who this man is--and much of the film the viewer is left guessing.

Despite Spencer Tracy starring in this film, it is not a particularly distinguished film. Part of this is because it was made before Tracy went to MGM--when Twentieth-Century Fox was regularly putting him in very ordinary films. This one, despite a few good supporting character actors, sure looks like a B-movie--with an okay script and nothing to particularly distinguish it. As for Gallian's performance, it was not particularly good and after just a few more Hollywood films, her career would be over in the USA.

Note the Japanese agent in the film. He looked and sounded about as Japanese as Clark Gable!! Also, in another move towards creating an especially sensitive film(!), Steppin Fetchit has a small role as well.

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0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Tiresome Marie, 22 November 2010
5/10
Author: qatmom from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Marie Galante is an interesting relic, and can be watched purely as an example of what was acceptable to audiences in 1934 (Stepin Fetchit, an Asian played by a Caucasian, etc.), the most interesting being the witlessness of Marie Galante.

Poor Marie. Despite being dragged off to sea and held prisoner, she never seems to develop much of a sense of caution towards strangers. One can only conclude that she is not very bright; there is little in the movie to make one think otherwise.

Had Marie had some sense, the story would have been more engaging, instead of watching other people maneuvering around her with craft and purpose, Marie oblivious and eternally innocent. Marie could have had a growing sense of dread as events closed in about her, but no, she's chirps all along and doesn't stay serious for more than a few moments.

Stepin Fetchit must be sense to be believed.

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10 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
Sub-titles in at least three languages would have helped., 24 October 2007
Author: Leslie Howard Adams (longhorn1939@suddenlink.net) from Texas

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

And with a title of "Marie Galante" one might suppose that this was another film about the doings at the castle under one of those Looie (Roman Number) kings, and Marie was one of the ladies-in-waiting working to spring the Scarlet Pimpernel or the man in the iron mask out of the dungeon. One would be wrong. This one is 1934 at the Panama Canal and the American Commissioner at Cristoforo, General Phillips, is getting briefed by Ratcliff of Scotland Yard about a mystery man who may be plotting to blow up the power house and put the whole Pacific Fleet in dry-dock. His m.o. is that he always works through a woman, who appears...and disappears...and sometimes her body is found. The nationality of the man is unknown to Scotland Yard but they have pictures of him when, in 1914, he was member of the House of Commons and had a key position at the War Department and important secret files disappeared; in 1916, under another name, he was the master mind in the Central European Spy Organization in Paris and two of his confederates---both women---were caught and shot; next, he was a Llama in Tibet who put himself as head of affairs in China and things went badly for all Western Powers; He turned up later as chief engineer of the Potosi Munition Works and they were blown up; and, when last seen and heard of, he was the man behind the scenes of a big Communist uprising in Germany. Ratcliff of Scotland Yard had six photos of the man but no name. About this time, Dr. Crawbett, from the University of Wisconsin, pops in to give a report on how well his study of tropical insects, mosquitoes and diseases is going. (This alone makes this a watershed moment in movies, as the only other mention of the University of Wisconsin in film-history came in 1953 when Republic made "Crazy Legs" starring Elroy "Crazy-Legs" Hirsch...himself.) Ratcliff and Crawbett go out for a night on the town at the Pacific Gardens where Helen Morgan (as Miss Tapia or something) sings a torch song. They also meet a Japanese poet/curio shop owner named Gennosaki Tenoki, but he has only been a poet since 1933, and, prior to that, he was a Lieutenant Commander in the Japanese Imperial Navy and, in fact, had just returned to Panana yesterday from a visit to Japan. They converse a bit and then the master-of-ceremonies announces that he he now happy to introduce "a singer that can sing without leaning all over the piano" and Miss Helen Morgan seems to take offense at his rude inclusion of her in the introduction of...Marie Galante. She sings a song half in French and half in her own brand of English, and then Miss Tapia sends her over to pump information out of Ratcliff (of Scotland Yard) and Crawbett (U. of W.), while working as a B-girl sipping small glasses of diluted orange juice. Marie mostly tells them about how put out she is by being in Panama where nobody speaks French. Crawbett suggests that Brogard, sitting across the room eyeballing them, perhaps does since he owns the Paris Bazaar and Botique. But Brogard, with a furtive nod to Miss Tapia, departs the premises. So she then tells them of how to come it is she is in Panama against her wishes---something to do with delivering a Postes Telegraphies at San Briac to a ship and the ship sailed with her still aboard. Crawbett then makes the mistake of asking her about her home in San Braic and she says...." Oh, m'sieure, it is so beautiful" There is the old church where I am confirmed---the homes of my friends---the flowers---the fields beyond town! Everybody tell me---Bon jour, Marie! 'Ello, Marie! The gooses go quack, quack, quack-'ello, Marie! The sheep and the cowses-they call Baa-Baa, Marie - moo-moo Marie." Marie is indeed enchanting and even inspires Tenoki, the retired Japanese Naval Commander turned poet, to send her an example of his work dedicated to her: "Blonde girl resting is like flower in sunshine. But when she moves in affairs of men she may be like cat in mischief. Why not be happy to remain a flower." It doesn't quite scan and sounds like a threat, but Marie liked it. Later, Teniko's clerk who delivered the poem turns up quite dead what with having been shot with a two-eight-three automatic and stabbed with a long, thin knife with a Japanese mark on the handle. Tenoki smilingly says of the clerk..."he has contrived to get himself murdered in the canal zone."

I forget what else happens but I'm sure I can watch a Charlie Chan or Mr. Moto panama-canal film and find out from the stock-footage.

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