One Way Passage

In a classic demonstration that good things come in small packages, this film (clocking in at just under 70 minutes) has a terrific cast enacting a wildly romantic, yet fun and stylish story. Powell plays a slick, somewhat shady type who has committed a murder, though the victim was apparently someone who deeply deserved to get it. He is picked up in Hong Kong by Hymer, who vows to take him to San Francisco (namely to San Quentin) to be hanged for his crime. Boarding a cruise liner, Powell attempts to escape and nearly drowns Hymer in the process. When he saves Hymer's life, Hymer allows him to roam the ship freely once they've set out. Powell runs into glamorous and charming socialite Francis and the two strike up a tentative romance. They enjoy a memorable, if messy, penchant for smashing their glasses after each drink and crossing the stems on the bar. Unfortunately, she's in very poor health and isn't supposed to experience any shocks or touch any alcohol. Her verve where Powell is concerned, however, causes her to cast away any safeguards and live her remaining life to its fullest. Also on board are McHugh as a con man who's always got an angle and MacMahon as a con woman who's posing as a wealthy countess in order to bilk a fellow passenger out of some dough. These two play a part in aiding the romance of Powell and Francis when Hymer begins to tighten Powell's leash. Eventually, the ship docks in San Francisco and the lovers discover each other's secret, while not realizing that the other one knows it. Thus, a classic tear-jerking set-up is achieved, topped off by an epilogue that suggests that perhaps even death can't truly separate these two. Powell is solid and assured in his role, veering comfortably between humor and pathos as needed. Francis, a major star of the 30's who is all but forgotten today, is as vigorous and fashionable as she is romantic and tender. They make a memorable couple. Hymer, so often a thick-headed lug as he basically is in this film as well, gives an enjoyably grumpy performance. MacMahon is striking, showing a gift for characterization and an attractive look that may startle those who only know her from her later frowzy parts. McHugh, who was a drinking pal of Spencer Tracy and Pat O'Brien among other Irish actors stationed in Hollywood, is a delight. His trademark sing-song laugh is utilized often, but remains amusing each time. Hs underrated persona adds a lot to the film. It's a brief, but well-done, jewelry box of a film that runs the gamut from comedy to romance to tragedy very adeptly.

The only reason I'm reviewing this film is because I find its score hard to swallow. There is nothing here that merits such a high one and I'm a fan of both Kay Francis and William Powell. They have given much better performances elsewhere. "Jewel Robbery" for instance, where they both appear, is much more fun and considerably more realistic. Here everything seems forced. They are good but they lack chemistry. And the supporting cast also doesn't click. Aline McMahon is hard to take as an adventuress on the hunt for a sugar daddy who falls for the dumb cop played by Wayne Hymer whose character is totally lacking in any social graces. You're left wondering why on earth she would be attracted to this bozo. And then there's Frank McHugh who plays a drunk throughout the movie and managed to just annoy me. So there you have it. On a positive note the film begins auspiciously with the bar scene where our protagonists first meet. There is a marvelous little vignette of the a capella trio as they struggle to catch the gratuities tossed to them by customers. It's fun as is the actual meeting scene of Francis and Powell but after that auspicious beginning the film deteriorates rapidly.

Kay Francis and William Powell are doomed lovers in "One Way Passage," a 1932 film also starring Frank McHugh, Aline McMahan and Warren Hymer. Right after meeting the lovely Joan Ames in a bar, escaped murderer Dan Hardesty is caught by Sgt. Steve Burke and brought back to San Francisco via ship to be hanged. Ames is also on board ship; she's dying of an incurable illness (probably some form of heart disease they couldn't do anything about in 1932). Knowing the sergeant can't swim, Hardesty, handcuffed to him, jumps overboard and, while trying to drown Burke, steals the handcuff key and frees himself. When Burke yells for help, it draws attention from passengers, and Hardesty has no choice but to save him. To thank him for saving his life, Burke lets Hardesty walk around the ship with no handcuffs. Thus, when he and Joan meet again, she has no idea he's headed for a death sentence, and he doesn't know about her. I saw Carol Burnett do a send-up of either this or the remake - just think if Burnett were on TV today, no one would have any idea what she was doing. How times have changed. This is a beautiful film with wonderful performances, not only from Powell and Francis, but from Frank McHugh, Aline McMahon, and Warren Hymer. McHugh is a petty crook who runs into McMahon, another crook who is posing as a countess. She catches the eye of Sgt. Burke. It's a great subplot with some fun moments. Powell is gallant, melancholy, and charming, and Francis is glamorous and lovely; both give very touching and sweet performances, each knowing he/she isn't going to live. Each time they drink together, they break their glasses and cross the stems, and this crossing is something the camera focuses on as they sit in a cove in Hawaii and toss away their cigarettes. The ending is one of the best ever and will make the viewer smile and cry at the same time. It's 1932, so some of the sound seems to have been done in an echo chamber, but that shouldn't bother anyone. "One Way Passage" is a treasure of a film.

In between his time with Paramount and MGM, William Powell did a two year stint at Warner Brothers where I don't think Jack and his brothers ever quite knew what to do with him. His films there, vary in quality, but the best of them is this doomed romance with Kay Francis, One Way Passage. The title itself tells how poignant this film will be. Powell is a fugitive who is tracked down and brought aboard ship in handcuffs by San Francisco Detective Warren Hymer. Powell escaped while being transported to San Quentin to be hung for murder. At the same time good time party girl Kay Francis is traveling home essentially to die. Unsaid at the time because the audience knew what the effects of bootleg liquor were on some people from the Roaring Twenties. Her organs are generally failing and she's coming home to die. These two people are as poignant a pair of lovers as has ever been brought to the screen. Neither knows about the other and the aura of heartbreak just permeates One Way Passage. It's a cosmic joke played on them, both finding in each other a reason to live and both knowing it can't be. Warren Hymer plays it a great deal straighter than he normally does. He's not the brightest cop in the world, but he's a far from the dim witted hooligans he usually is cast. Aline McMahon and Frank McHugh are a pair of confidence workers who both team up to help the doomed Powell and Francis. McHugh repeated his own role in the remake of One Way Passage from 1940, Till We Meet Again. The most cynical heart will melt in seeing One Way Passage.

this is not the great cinema, ethereal experience or most romantic movie of all time - despite several reviewers insistence. it is early Powell, and while he is always watchable and just grabs you with his first look, he hasn't quite got the assurance he showed in the thin man a couple of years later. i can't quite specify, but he seems just a little off. Kay Francis plays her part very nicely, and she and Powell go well together. McMahon, as the countess is good; not a demanding roll, but deftly handled. from here on out the cast gets a bit sketchy. McHugh overplays his part terribly and does it in dumb staggering-drunk fashion. the second time, third if you are a very forgiving person, he lets out with his breathless idiot's laugh you want to strangle him. this part could have been something; it's the chance to steal scenes from the stars. it is one of those little parts that can offer a lot to a fine actor. McHugh, in this role anyway, is not that actor. the routine would have gone over well in a 3 stooges film. Hymer, as Steve Burke, was a disappointment, too. the figure is cut from cardboard: dumb cop, easily duped, but maybe has redeeming characteristics. he's too dumb here. there is no reason he couldn't have been smart. his portrayal really offers Powell nothing to play against. as for his redeeming characteristics, well, they didn't show me enough to explain why a smart dame like countess Betty would want to hitch her wagon to his star forever. it doesn't play. oh. lest i forget, catch the bartender in the Brit pub in h.k.in the opening scenes. he has to be Sam Shepard's grandpa. his few seconds of fame is well spent. i imagine all the actors were really quite competent. the writers let them down, i think. could have been much better.

In the 1930s, Hollywood remade pictures at an astounding rate. Often, only three to five years after the original film was made, the same studio would remake the film--and rarely were the two versions that different--just the cast. Now if the original film were somehow seriously flawed and the remake corrected that, I could understand, but too often, like the saying goes, "when you've seen one, you've seen them all". In the case of "One Way Passage", eight years later the film was remade with George Brent and Merle Oberon ("'Til We Meet Again (1940)"). While Brent and Oberon were fine actors and they gave it their best, the bottom line is that the original is pretty much the same film...only better. In this film, William Powell plays a man wanted for murder who has been hopping the world trying to avoid the law. The film begins with him finally being caught by a nice but somewhat dim-witted detective (Warren Hymer--who made a career out of playing slow-witted guys). So, he books passage for them both to return from the Orient to America so Powell can serve his sentence--the death penalty! On board the ship, Powell is attracted to lovely Kay Francis. She does not know he's a condemned man, nor does he know that she's dying from a "Hollywood Disease"--a fatal illness that has very few symptoms, keeps you looking great and usually is unnamed! Both fall in love and spend all their time together--even though their love is fated to end before its time. There's quite a bit more to it than this, but I don't want to spoil the film, so I'll say no more about the plot. The bottom line is that the film is original and extremely artistic. The music and soft cinematography work wonderfully together to make a very sad but romantic film. The only negatives are the impossibility of the story--if you think about it, it really doesn't seem possible. But, if you suspend your sense of disbelief, you'll be rewarded with a lovely film.

When I worked a graveyard shift, my supervisor, brightening (and waking) us up, asked "Quick! What are your top 5 favorite movies?" I instantly put "One Way Passage" on my list. I wasn't surprised when it wasn't on anyone else's list, this is an obscure gem. The balance of melodrama and comedy is perfect; as it is in many thirties Warner Bros. dramas. It seems strange at first, but think it through. (For example, my ux Tom posits that Warners's unusual lug-n-mug filled western, "The Oklahoma Kid" is probably accurate, as most of the folks in the historical wild, woolly west moved from the wild East and could have talked like Cagney.) The McHugh and MacMahon sub-plots are are not just comic relief from the romance, they are deftly integrated into it, and they become romantic co-conspirators. This adds to the appeal; the descriptions "chick flick," "weeper," "women's picture" can not apply. The leads are sexy, gorgeous, and lovable. The crossed cigarettes tossed on the beach shows how the restraints on old movies resulted in delicious images. The crossed, broken cocktail glass image, at first seen quite early on in the movie, makes me question why IMDb Comments posters are saying this is movie has an unhappy ending (that's not a spoiler, is it?)

In the grim year of 1932, with Warner Bros. losing money like all the major studios except MGM (RKO and Paramount both went into receivership thanks to the Depression), along comes the movie One Way Passage, dealing with what seems are the petty cares of grifters on a Pacific cruise. Only this movie is not a screwball comedy or a story about rich people in tuxedos chitchatting when they are not dancing. Writer Robert Lord's frequent writing partner in 1932 and 1933, Wilson Mizner, specialized in stories about people on the margins of society, peaking with the great Heroes For Sale. In one way or another, most of the characters in One Way Passage are nearing the end of their line. When Frank McHugh's character Skippy drinks alone at a bar in Agua Caliente on New Year's Eve, there is no longer the usual smile on his face as he stares at his drink. The opening credits of the movie put Kay Francis' name above the title, but she is just one of several Warners stock company actors at their peak in this movie, including Warren Hymer as the tough detective who always gets his man. The year 1939 is described as Hollywood's peak year, when movies like Gone With The Wind and Gunga Din were in release. But judging movies by how they stand the test of time, movies released in 1932 and 1933 stand up better. One Way Passage is proof of that. Warner Bros. may have treated its employees like slaves, working stars and crew until 2:00 AM (with no overtime) to meet the 12 day production time limit the studio imposed on most movies, with a 6 day work week, but look at the results. One Way Passage. Baby Face. Mystery of the Wax Museum. Lady Killer. Joan Blondell described Warners Bros. studio then as a place where things were "really cooking." And now, almost 75 years later, One Way Passage can still hold a viewer's attention with its story of some passengers on a last voyage before everything changes.

What's wrong with this film?.......nothing. It has all the ingredients that make this type of film so wonderful......actors, set design, pathos, romance and it's pre-code to boot. William Powell, one of my favorites, is paired with the soigne Kay Francis. They are two doomed lovers, each ignorant of the other's "condition". Powell is headed for the hangman and Francis has some unidentified terminal illness(which apparently doesn't affect her looks). Francis who could wear a burlap bag and look glamorous is lovely here and Powell is at his suave best. Along for the ride are Warren Hymer as the cop taking Powell to his fate, Aline McMahon as the con who is conning Hymer, and Frank McHugh as the dipsy crook. All are in fine form. What ensues on shipboard is romance at its weepiest......a love that is fated to end when the ship docks. But the promise is made to meet on New Year's Eve in Mexico, thus leading to that ending that causes the audience to bring out the hankies. Often movies made in the early 30s are a bit corny but not so here. The film seems rather modern and the dialogue, although there are a lot of "darlings and dearests" is fairly contemporary. If you don't like weepers, better pass on this one....BUT if you are a sucker for a tragic love story with an almost ethereal feel to it, this is the one for you. Be sure to bring the Kleenex.

He's set to be hanged for murder; she's dying of a mysterious illness. By chance, they meet before sailing on a ship set-sailing for San Francisco, and fall in love. He is William Powell, the most debonair leading man of the 30's. She is Kay Francis, the best dressed woman of the 30's. They are both very attractive, yet doomed. Such is the basic storyline for this wonderful drama filled with tears, humor, and drama. The team of Powell and Francis had appeared together in four films at Paramount before being signed by Warner Brothers in 1932 when they made this film along with another classic, "Jewel Robbery". Where Powell and his later partner Myrna Loy exemplified sophisticated humor several years later at MGM, Powell and Francis were a romantic couple. Both Loy and Francis were well-dressed, dark-haired beauties. While Loy had a career that lasted almost 60 years, Francis would retire from the screen by the mid-late 40's. As a result, she was one of Hollywood's forgotten leading ladies until the success of Ted Turner's classic movie channel brought her back into the limelight. "One Way Passage" is the team's most beloved film, and its Academy Award winning story is just one of the highlights. The stars are another, but the supporting cast was simply superb as well. Frank McHugh, as a drunken conman, is perfect comedy relief along with the fabulous Aline MacMahon as the phony "countess". If there had been Supporting Academy Awards for acting in 1932, she would have won for this film handsdown. She is simply wonderful. There is not a moment of hers on screen where she doesn't dominate it. Warner Brothers apparently offered her the chance to become a leading lady, but the realistic MacMahon realized that her best parts would come with the character roles that often stole the limelight away from the stars. Catch MacMahon in the very well known "Gold Diggers of 1933" and more obscure films such as "The Merry Frinks" and "While the Patient Slept" to see what I mean. Her later films, "Dragon Seed" and "The Search", are perfect examples of what a gem she was as a performer. The music score, later heard in the background of many a Warners "B" film, is classic. The screenplay is superb, and the length-well, a mere 68 minutes, which goes to show that good things do come in small packages. Sadly, after this and "Jewel Robbery", Powell and Francis were never paired again; Powell went onto MGM where better things awaited him, while Francis remained at Warners for many similar films, none of which could surpass the charm of this film. It was remade of course by Warner Brothers in 1940 as "Till We Meet Again" with George Brent and Merle Oberon. That version was not bad, but certainly an also ran compared to this film. The ending will leave you joyfully heartbroken.