China Seas (1935)

When earthy Dolly Portland is rejected by Captain Gaskell in favor of a socialite, she aids Jamesy McCardle, in league with Malay pirates, in his plot to seize his ship.

Director:

Tay Garnett

Writers:

Jules Furthman (screen play), James Kevin McGuinness (screen play),

Stars:

Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clark Gable	...	Alan Gaskell
Jean Harlow	...	China Doll
Wallace Beery	...	Jamesy MacArdle
Lewis Stone	...	Davids
Rosalind Russell	...	Sybil
Dudley Digges	...	Dawson
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Sir Guy
Robert Benchley	...	McCaleb
William Henry	...	Rockwell
Liev De Maigret	...	Mrs. Vollberg (as Live de Maigret)
Lilian Bond	...	Mrs. Timmons (as Lillian Bond)
Edward Brophy	...	Timmons
Soo Yong	...	Yu-Lan
Carol Ann Beery	...	Carol Ann
Akim Tamiroff	...	Romanoff

Storyline

Dynamic Alan Gaskell captains a ship bound from Hong Kong to Singapore. Gaskell tries to turn over a new leaf from his hard-drinking lifestyle after becoming attached to a refined high class English lady, Sybil Barclay. His former girlfriend Dolly is extremely jealous of the budding relationship and tries hard to get the Captain back. He is apparently unimpressed with her loud, obnoxious, and uncivilized manners, even though she is extremely beautiful. After a temporary take over of the ship by gold-seeking Asian pirates, Captain Gaskell must deal with the fact that Dolly and her drinking pal, Jamesey MacArdle, are implicated in the crime.

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Plot Keywords:

captain | ship | pirate | socialite | english | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Adventure | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 August 1935 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mares de China

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was banned in Malaya and Singapore.

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Quotes

Jamesy MacArdle: [to an unconcious Gaskell] There can't be any gold. You would have talked. Nobody can be that tough.

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Connections

Referenced in Enseñar a un sinvergüenza (1970)

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Soundtracks

"Chopsticks"
(1877) (uncredited)
Music by Euphemia Allen
Played on piano by Robert Benchley

User Reviews

A solid, well-crafted film of MGM's Heyday

It is a relief to see a vibrantly entertaining film that is well-crafted as a finely made chair. Like most chairs, this film is no classic like "Citizen Kane" or "Gone With The Wind" but it's exciting with charismatic leads like Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. The chemistry between the two is gripping, even if a lot of their encounters in this movie are rather repetitious of the "I love you but I shouldn't" variety. One can see why Gable and Harlow were cast together at every opportunity MGM had from "Red Dust" onward. The other supporting actors are quite good especially Wallace Beery as a slippery villain. While Robert Benchley is quite amusing, his drunk act starts getting really old after a while. Also, it's quite sobering to realize that Benchley would die in 1945 from the effects of long-term alcoholism. In sum, despite some unhappy reminders of Hollywood's racism of times past, this is a fine film that probably served as one source of inspiration for Spielberg's Indiana Jones series of films in the 1980s.