The Captain Hates the Sea

Just away from Los Angeles, Akim Tamiroff as Salazaro misses his family, with new shipmates, John Gilbert as ex-reporter Steve, Victor McLaglen as gumshoe Schulte, who, while Helen Vinson introduces herself, predicts that their other pal, Danny (Fred Keating), his suspect in a big bond theft, will turn up, in The Captain Hates The Sea, 1934.

We discover here that Fred Keating (as thief Danny) is actually in league with Helen Vinson (posing as Janet, a librarian) over the stolen bonds, Victor McLaglen the friendly private eye Schulte, Alison Skipworth as Mrs Magruder, buying drinks for Wynne Gibson as reformed party girl “Goldie,” John Wray her indignant husband, John Gilbert her ex-pal Steve, Walter Catlett the barkeep Joe, in The Captain Hates The Sea, 1934.

Introducing Tala Birell as Gert, Inez Courtney as friend Flo, Raymond Turner the chauffeur but mainly John Gilbert as Steve, leaving LA by ship, with problems not unlike Gilbert’s own at the time, his first appearance in his last feature, in a role won for him by his friend, the director Lewis Milestone, in The Captain Hates The Sea, 1934.

Opening with extensive use of a real ocean liner, which director Lewis Milestone persuaded Columbia studio boss Harry Cohn to spring-for, we meet Walter Connolly in the title role, Frederic Howard and Fredric Santly his audience, Leon Errol the steward, in the all-star comic-melodrama, The Captain Hates The Sea, 1934, with Victor McLaglen and John Gilbert.