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12 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
A Great Cast Makes This Watchable, 24 April 2004
4/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

A well known doctor is indicted for his experiments toward curing the criminal mind. Needing to continue his work and hoping that success will clear him, he buys a boat, loads it with several high profile criminals hoping to escape the law and heads out to sea. At least that's the plan, but things start to go wrong and things are revealed to be not what they seemed at first.

This is an okay little thriller that seems more than a bit too talky, even as the action picks up and the crooks try to take over the ship and the captain and crew have to fight to take it back. Lest you think that reveals too much, you obviously haven't watched this, as things go left, right and every which way during its fleeting one hour running time.

The cast is a B-movie lovers dream that includes Lyle Talbot, Irving Pichel and group of character actors that seems to have been pulled from every movie made within five years of this one. Their interaction is what keeps this movie afloat even as the film begins to sink into low level nonsense.

If you're looking for a forgettable time killer or just like watching veteran actors making mountains out of mole hills then by all means give it a shot. Just don't expect high art and you won't be disappointed.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A pretty watchable thriller (even with 10 minutes missing!!!!), 29 November 2008
5/10
Author: kidboots from Australia

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Dr. Herbert Stander (Irving Pichel) is working on some experiments to cure the criminal mind. He buys a boat and on the premise of a cruise (that's what it seemed liked to me!!!) takes a variety of criminals on board to conduct his experiments.

One of the criminals, Poison Mary (Sheila Bromley), fights with her secretary, Joan Martel (Jacqueline Welles) and manages to convince the ship's crew that Joan is just as much of a criminal as all the rest. Bob Bennett (Lyle Talbot) believes in her innocence. After one of the criminals goes out of his mind and creates mayhem on the boat Dr. Stander decides to experiment on people free from criminal taint. Bob, who was knocked out in the scuffle is the first victim. Bob awakes a changed man - he tries to attack Joan but his uncle, Dr. Stander, subdues him. When the drug wears off, Bob fills the syringe with distilled water and "fakes" his sickness, while trying to send messages to the mainland. He then gathers the rest of the criminals together and takes over the ship. The criminals have other ideas - they want to kill off all the doctors, starting with Dr. Stander. Bob then organizes the doctors and together they overthrow the criminal mutineers by an ingenious method. Poison Mary has also been injected with serum but she has been a success - she asks Joan's forgiveness and says she feels like a new person!!!

With a plot based on a Jack London story, this film was always going to appeal to me. It was considerably shorter than 57 minutes . My copy started with the criminals on the ship planning to take over and then the fight between Mary and Joan. You can pick up the story though. A good cast makes the film work. Lyle Talbot, still looking good, plays kindly Bob. Irving Pichel, who was a top notch villain and also a reasonable director ("The Most Dangerous Game" (1932)) plays Dr. Stander. Jacqueline Welles, before she changed her name to Julie Bishop plays Joan Martell. Sheila Bromley, who also went by the name Sheila Mannors and appeared in a few westerns was Poison Mary. She was probably the most exciting and lively person in the whole film. Russell Hopton appeared as Harry the Carver.

Recommended.

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7 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Caveat Emptor! A great cast and a great mistake, 14 July 2006
1/10
Author: Dukey Flyswatter from United States

Recently got one of those Mill Creek 50 pack of horror and mystery PD movies (Tales Of Terror) because there were about 25 of these programmers I had not yet seen.I was already aware from experience that the quality on most of these is less than desirable but some can't be had anywhere else or were not worth paying ten bucks for alone.In this case I was taken royally as this print is missing the first 8 minutes or so leaving one to guess the rest. Fortunately the plot is simple and you can pick it up easily but you'll still be burning at the Faux Pas. Don't know if Alpha's print of this is the same way but in any case this is one to avoid.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Rather uninteresting, 3 December 2008
3/10
Author: TheFiendsThatPlagueThee from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I gather from some of the other comments I've read that the copy I have (on one of those Mill Creek 50 Movie Packs) is missing the first several minutes of the movie. And while it is still easy enough to get the gist of the plot, the background in those minutes would have been nice. That said, I doubt that those extra minutes would have saved this movie. A prominent but discredited doctor tricks a group of criminals onto a ship to continue his experiments on healing the criminal mind, but the criminals have other ideas when they decide to take over the ship. But the doctor also chooses to experiment on the normal person and a lady he presumes is guilty but is actually quite innocent. Things get out of control and go in various directions from here.

There isn't much going for this movie. It's not the worst I've seen, but relatively little happens and there is much more talk than seems fitting for the kind of action/horror movie this seems to want to be. An attempt at comic relief fails, also.

I don't consider the time I spent watching this a total waste of time, but it is the best use of an hour I've spent either.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Decent, 29 February 2008
Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY

Torture Ship (1939)

** (out of 4)

A mad doctor puts criminals aboard his ship so that he can do strange experiments on them trying to figure out what's wrong. This film was directed by Victor Halperin who previously made White Zombie, Supernatural and Revolt of the Zombies. Overall the film isn't too bad but there's really not too much action or horror in the film's short 50-minute running time. Lyle Talbot plays the hero and he always brings some "B" movie charm to a film but that's about it. Mixing the horror, sci-fi and gangster genres together should have worked better. Based on a story by Jack London.

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Alpha Video is 63 minutes long, 20 March 2010
4/10
Author: MovieResearch from United States

The Alpha Video release seems to be fairly complete with the entire story intact (except for some splicy sections in what was probably a 16mm television print: The story does make sense in this version which has the entire explanation of why the criminals are on the ship in the first place and what the doctor's motivations are.

It is mysterious that the film runs about 63 minutes when the main IMDb description has it released at 57 minutes. That's probably incorrect and doesn't represent the original theatrical release, but rather some random individual's timing from a DVD or VHS tape that wasn't complete in the first place.

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0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Sheer Torture, 1 March 2009
2/10
Author: wes-connors from Earth

Jack London's short story "A Thousand Deaths" is virtually unrecognizable in this sluggish cinematic translation. For "Torture Ship", the self-described protagonist becomes Lyle Talbot (as Bob Bennett). The original's father is now uncle Irving Pichel (as Herbert Stander). A mad doctor, Mr. Pichel has isolated what he calls, "The active ingredient of the endocrine glands governing criminality." Pichel takes Mr. Talbot, some aides, and some crooks on a cruise to experimentation. Talbot is "free from criminal taint," but becomes temporarily mean. Additional nastiness ensues...

** Torture Ship (10/28/39) Victor Halperin ~ Lyle Talbot, Irving Pichel, Julie Bishop

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2 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Why do people say this film has a "great cast"?, 28 July 2009
3/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

When I see the phrase "great cast", I think GONE WITH THE WIND or TWELVE ANGRY MEN, not a film whose lead is Lyle Talbot (the same guy who starred in a few decent films in the 30s but also PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and a lot of other turkeys). So, while I liked reading the other reviews, I was perplexed by the great cast comments. This was not a great cast--just a bunch of no-names from a Poverty Row studio.

As many point out, the first 10 minutes or so of the film is missing. This is true of the public domain copies and 50 pack copies from Mill Creek Entertainment. Additionally, since this is its pedigree, captioning and a high quality print are also absent.

The film begins in the middle of a discussion a group of crooks are having about trying to escape from the boat. It's obvious something is missing here, but it's easy enough to discern that a bunch of crooks were somehow lured aboard a mad doctor's boat and he's doing diabolical experiments on them! While this certainly isn't nice, at least he had the decency to pick some people who weren't particularly pillars of society! As for the film, it's really hard to judge the quality of it with a chunk missing. I can say that the ending and Talbot's scheme to get the bad guys to surrender was pretty clever, though. So overall, it's probably one to skip since even with the missing chunk in place (which it isn't), it's still not a great movie by any stretch.

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4 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Lots of Punches, 26 February 2007
2/10
Author: Hitchcoc from United States

There are a lot of people on this boat. Many are criminals who are going to be experimented upon against their wills. There is a boring Swedish guy who is supposed to be comic relief but turns out to be simply insufferable. There are people taken, escaping, taking over, taking back, getting injected, and so on. All in the name of science, I guess. There are many punches thrown. At one point, as they hit each guy coming through a door, they land, stacked nicely on the floor. One girl is a criminal, then she isn't, but she's here. It goes on and on and it just doesn't matter. Apparently some of the thing is missing. This may actually be merciful. It never piqued my interest for one second. And I actually recognized some of the actors. It's talky and obtuse. Don't bother.

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