John Payne starred in several films for the Pine-Thomas B production unit at Paramount and one of the best of them is Captain China. That's a nickname Payne has received as a play on his real name Chinough and the fact that plys his trade as a freighter captain in the Asian seas.
But he's a beached skipper because he lost one ship after he came on drunk and it piled up on a reef. His first mate Jeffrey Lynn testified against him at a hearing where Payne was presumed lost at sea.
As fates would have it Payne becomes one of a select group of passengers on a ship now commanded by his former mate Lynn. The other passengers include husband and wife missionaries Edgar Bergen and Ilka Gruning, spinster mystery novelist Ellen Corby, and the beautiful Gail Russell heading home. The first three provide comedy relief and Russell is a romantic bone of contention between Payne and Lynn.
There's a lot of Payne's old crew on the freighter that include Robert Armstrong and Lon Chaney, Jr. and John Qualen, the latter two have it in for Payne. When a crisis hits though, it's Payne that comes through.
There's one more interesting role, that of Michael O'Shea as a drunken ship's officer who gets a chance for redemption under Payne's guidance.
Pine-Thomas did a good one here with some most realistic storm scenes, done at night, the better to disguise the fact that it's all done in a studio tank with a model ship. Still the storm sequences are very well done by all the cast.
One of John Payne's better films as he slid into the B picture non-singing roles period of his career.
But he's a beached skipper because he lost one ship after he came on drunk and it piled up on a reef. His first mate Jeffrey Lynn testified against him at a hearing where Payne was presumed lost at sea.
As fates would have it Payne becomes one of a select group of passengers on a ship now commanded by his former mate Lynn. The other passengers include husband and wife missionaries Edgar Bergen and Ilka Gruning, spinster mystery novelist Ellen Corby, and the beautiful Gail Russell heading home. The first three provide comedy relief and Russell is a romantic bone of contention between Payne and Lynn.
There's a lot of Payne's old crew on the freighter that include Robert Armstrong and Lon Chaney, Jr. and John Qualen, the latter two have it in for Payne. When a crisis hits though, it's Payne that comes through.
There's one more interesting role, that of Michael O'Shea as a drunken ship's officer who gets a chance for redemption under Payne's guidance.
Pine-Thomas did a good one here with some most realistic storm scenes, done at night, the better to disguise the fact that it's all done in a studio tank with a model ship. Still the storm sequences are very well done by all the cast.
One of John Payne's better films as he slid into the B picture non-singing roles period of his career.