Adventure-Romance of the South Seas

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 11

Adventure-Romance of the South Seas

EBB TIDE" STARS FRANCES FARMER AND RAY MILLAND

(Kegeut: Screening Saturday.) Taken from a story by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, “Ebb Tide" presents the famed European character actor, Oscar Homolka in an American picture for the first time.

Homolka lives up to expectations in his characterisation of Captain Tliorbecke, a broken sea captain who has lost his ship and papers through drunkenness. He has the knack of making even the worthless Thorbeeke a likeable character. His supporting cast is more than the name implies, since it includes Frances Farmer, Ray Milland, Lloyd Nolan and Barry Fitzgerald of the Abbey Players of Dublin.

Milland and Miss Farmer supply the romantic interest of the tale. Their love story is a strange one, for Milland is a beachcomber friend of Homolka’s, while Miss Farmer is the orphaned daughter of a sea captain, who meets him while he and Homolka are planning to steal her ship. The antagonism of the two is slowly changed to a comradely feeling as they go through several harrowing experiences together. When they are at last released from the danger that threatens them, they realise they are in love.

At the beginning of the film Homolka, Milland and Fitzgerald, a sly and dishonest Cockney, are "on the beach" of a South Sea island, hungry and without shelter. Miss Farmer’s ship comes into harbour, the captain dead. Homolka is put on as captain, to take the ship, carrying a cargo of champagne, to Australia.

He takes his companions along with him, and once at sea he plans to steal the ship and cargo, in spite of Milland’s protests. Miss Farmer trios to stop the scheme, but is ignored by the trio, except Milland, who tries to be friendly. A few days out, Homolka gives way to liis old weakness and gets drunk, staying that way for days. The supplies give out, the ship is almost lost in a storm, and they are blown off their

Milland sails the ship to a small island ruled by Lloyd Nolan, who is a sadistic, half-mad trader in pearls. Homolka and Fitzgerald try to rob Nolan, and are killed for their pains, while Milland and Miss Farmer escape from the island and sail away together, their unhappiness over.