Roland Young is best known today as a droll character actor and supporting player in films of the 1930s and '40s. The London-born Young graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, began his career on the British stage, and later alternated between London and New York stage work. He made his film debut in 1922, playing Dr. Watson to John Barrymore's Sherlock Holmes, and thanks to his stage training became one of the busiest actors in Hollywood with the arrival of sound films.

A surprisingly modern and inventive pre-code comedy, 1933's Pleasure Cruise gives Young one of the showcase starring roles of his career. Young plays Andrew, a husband whose wife Shirley (Genevieve Tobin) is the wage earner in the family. That allows Andrew to stay home and work on a novel he's trying to write, but it doesn't keep him from being consumed by jealousy of the men with whom his wife works. Fed up with Andrew's suspicions, Shirley goes solo on a cruise, and Andrew goes incognito as a barber on the ship to keep to keep an eye on her. Complications ensue, including a romantic rendezvous in the dark that leaves Andrew convinced that Shirley is being unfaithful. Veteran character actors Una O'Connor and Herbert Mundin add excellent comic support, and Ralph Forbes is a suave rival for Shirley's affections.

New York Times critic Mordaunt Hall found the lightweight farce amusing, thanks to the talents of its stars, calling them "shining lights," and comparing the film to playwright Ferenc Molnar's sophisticated comedy of marital infidelity, The Guardsman. "Even though it lacks the hoped-for subtle shading, it is quite a diverting production and both Mr. Young and Miss Tobin atone for its shortcomings by their excellent acting."

As was common in that early sound era, Fox concurrently made a Spanish-language version of Pleasure Cruise with a different cast, starring Brazilian singer/actor Raul Roulien (best known for singing "Orchids in the Moonlight" to Dolores del Rio in the Astaire-Rogers film Flying Down to Rio (1933), Rosita Moreno and Mona Maris.

Roland Young's film career, already quite successful, reached new heights a few years later when he played the befuddled Cosmo Topper, haunted by a couple of glamorous ghosts in Topper (1937). The performance earned him his sole Oscar® nomination as Best Supporting Actor, and the film did so well that it was followed by two sequels.

Director: Frank Tuttle
Screenplay: Guy Bolton based on the play by Austen Allen
Cinematography: Ernest Palmer
Editor: Alex Troffey
Costume Design: William Lambert
Art Direction: Gordon Wiles
Principal Cast: Roland Young (Andrew Poole), Genevieve Tobin (Shirley Poole), Ralph Forbes (Richard Taversham), Una O'Connor (Mrs. Signus), Herbert Mundin (Henry), Minna Gombell (Judy), Theodore von Eltz (Murchison)
72 minutes

by Margarita Landazuri