kevin olzak 1937's "Slave Ship" looks today as gritty as it must have been shocking to audiences 80 years ago, a script concocted by several writers, including William Faulkner, who admitted that he merely doctored certain scenes that hadn't come off. George S. King's 1933 novel "The Last Slaver" was the basis for a story that remarkably pulled no punches in depicting the odyssey of the newly launched ship Wanderer, tasting blood on the runway as Lon Chaney delivers a stinging unbilled cameo as a doomed laborer unable to escape its path. Three years, and as many names later, the rechristened Albatross is now commanded by Jim Lovett (Warner Baxter) and first mate Jack Thompson (Wallace Beery), with cabin boy Swifty (Mickey Rooney) willing to fight anyone for what he believes in. The slave trade had fallen on hard times by 1860, officially a hanging offense, so after their most recent trip back from Africa, Lovett meets and marries young beauty Nancy Marlowe (Elizabeth Allan), deciding to start over with a new crew and sail to Jamaica in the business of trading goods instead of lives. This does not sit well with the crew, willing to continue their trafficking on human suffering despite the risks involved, forcibly taking control of the ship after a successful mutiny. Unable to prevent the six week voyage back to Africa, Lovett reveals all to his wife, who finds that she still loves him and is willing to forget about his past and work out their future. What they don't know is that Thompson plots to leave his captain behind while the fully loaded ship returns to America, only for the intended victim to turn the tables on his captors, producing a climax as rich in excitement as it is unpredictable. If not for the poorly done romantic scenes involving the little dog it might have been an enduring classic, but it's still a real find, quite unexpected for 1930s Hollywood. MGM's "Souls at Sea" may have earned all the accolades but Darryl Zanuck's pluck produced the better picture, under the assured guidance of director Tay Garnett, both John Ford and Howard Hawks proving unavailable. Beery actually plays the villain, George Sanders in support, Mickey Rooney the true standout.

greglehman My grandmother Gladys Lehman and her partner Sam Hellman were brought in to rework the script as WF was notoriously drunk and not getting it done- they finished their work and sent the script to Zanuck for final approval- the note they got back was " Can we make this movie without the Negroes?" DZGladys Lehman was born on January 24, 1892 in Gates, Oregon, USA as Gladys Collins. She was a writer, known for Meet Joe Black (1998), Death Takes a Holiday (1934) and Mexicali Rose (1929). She was married to Benjamin H. Lehman Jr. She died on April 7, 1993 in Newport Beach, California, USA.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** The horrors of Trans-Atlantic slave trade is fully exploited in the film "Slave Ship" in a way that most films at that time in the 1930's and even now would be too squeamish to show their audience.It's 1860 and slavery is just about outlawed in the western world with the penalty of death to anyone still involved in it. Jim Lovett, Warren Baxter,a lifetime slaver or slave trader who made his fortune in the business has second thought of sailing with his salve ship the "Albatross" to Africa and collecting from local slave trader Daneto, Joseph Schidkraut, his quota of slave to bring back to the states where slavery is still legal.Just married and planning to finally get out of the slave business Lovett want's to turn over a new leaf and go straight. Straight to Jamaica with his wife Nancy, Elizabeth Allan, and live on a plantation growing tobacco and sugar cane. It's when Lovett's crew headed by his first mate the beer swelling and hard drinking Jack Thompson, Wallace Beery, gets wind of his change of plans from Africa to Jamaica that they get so out of control that Lovett is forced to at gunpoint to have them leave the ship! This soon leads to an all out mutiny on he crews part. Commandeering the "Albatross" Thompson has it travel to Africa to pick up ,from Daneto, its cargo of African slaves with both Lovett and his wife Nancy held hostage. It's on the way back to America that Lovett makes his plans to retake the ship and sail it straight to the British controlled island of Saint Helena where he as well as his entire crew can very well end up hanged, for being slave traders, by the British!Shocking film about the slave trade that shows the abused and maltreatment, as well as being murdered, that the slaves were subjected to by their masters and jailers on the slave ship. Lovett who was just as guilty as anyone else in the film in the slave trade just got to the point,in having to live with what he did, where he just couldn't take it anymore. He was even willing, unlike his fellow slave traders, to admit his participation in it even if it meant he would be hanged for it. As for Thompson & Co. they seemed totally insensitive in the crimes that they were committing against their fellow human beings and were more then willing to risk their lives, by being executed if caught, in committing them. It was only the 15 year old cabin boy Swifty, Mickey Rooney, who realized what a horrible business he was involved in and came to both Lovett and his wife Nancy's aid when Thompson and Co. were about to overrun and murder them. **SPOILERS*** Only the films ending was a bit contrived with Lovett getting off while everyone else on board, with the exception of Swifty and Nancy, ending up paying for their crimes but it still didn't diminish what the impact of the film in showing the brutality of the slave trade to the point of drowning dozens of helpless slaves, with the ship's anchor tied around the necks, just to keep the British Authorities on the island of Saint Helena from both finding and rescuing them!

vitaleralphlouis WARNER BAXTER is a Yankee sea captain who goes to church on Sundays and shyly courts pretty Elizabeth Allen as time permits. His cargo happens to be slaves purchased in West Africa for sale in America. In this movie, slaves are purchased matter-of-factly from Black Africans, get some brutal treatment on board (but not much), and the crew is happy with their work and waay dirty too. None of the slaves are portrayed as brilliant or courageous. Trouble comes when throwing the "evidence" overboard becomes an issue between the captain and the crew. Since this film was made 60 years ago, it's blessedly free of the Political Correctness spin job which sunk "Amistead." It simply never occurred to Hollywood back then to re-write history to conform to wacky leftist viewpoints which distort facts. Obviously Hollywood today is in a tizzy over the "slavery issue" and thus dozens of films like this one and such as Walt Disney's wonderful "Song of the South" --- a film depicting only former slaves --- are kept out of sight. Hush!