Coming back from Panama, Captain John Holling (Noah Beery), the captain of a luxury liner, has a nervous breakdown. He is tended to by the ship’s doctor, Dr. Howard (Howard C. Hickman) and nurse, Lila Kane (Astrid Allwyn). Holling is sent to a sanitarium and is replaced by Captain Downey (Boothe Howard), who had been the first officer. Cliff Rogers (Cornelius Keefe) is then made the ship’s first officer.
The ship has been chosen to test a remote-control apparatus, invented by Professor Grimson (Ralph Lewis), which allows someone to remotely control the ship without anyone being on board. The equipment is brought on board and set up under Professor Grimson’s direction. Once everything is set up, the professor moves to the remote location to oversee the experiment while Downey and Cliff remain on board to initiate the transfer of power to the onshore laboratory.
The government plans on using the invention to manually operate battleships and submarines, thereby preventing war. In the meantime, there is a foreign faction that plans on high jacking the S-505 and using it for their own nefarious plans. Since the liner is still a passenger vehicle it welcomes aboard the usual group of passengers and crew. In addition, it is learned that there are potentially two enemy agents on board that are among the regular passengers.
At the offshore facility, someone attempts to kill Professor Grimson. His neck is broken, and he is paralyzed. The doctor isn’t sure how long he will live but he still conducts the experiment with the aid of his assistants. The professor calls in a friend of his who is a private detective, Major Pope (Edwin Maxwell) to investigate the murder attempt. Then they learn that Captain Holling escaped from the sanitarium. Pope boards the ship to continue his investigation. On board the liner, another murder puts the experiment in jeopardy.
“Mystery Liner” was released in 1934 and was directed by William Nigh. It is an American Pre-Code mystery thriller with science fiction elements. The movie was based on an Edgar Wallace story “The Ghost of John Holling” that had been originally published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1924.
The story is a little on the strange side. In some ways it plays like an ‘old dark house’ mystery complete with hidden passageways. It ended up being a little silly and rather farfetched. There are also some leaps of logic that are not all that logical. There is a tube of some kind of liquid called S-505, which generates energy and operates the machine that controls the ship. There are some whiz-bangs in the laboratory and aboard the ship that add some authentic science fiction aspects.
It’s got all the elements of a good mystery, but they aren’t used very well. The pace is rather plodding. It does have a few twists and turns. It being an Edgar Wallace story proves why the story is so confusing. The casting, for the most part, was great with some good standard actors of the time. In its defense, the reveal at the end was done better than I would have expected. It’s not all that great, but it was OK and the little twist at the end added a little interest.
Comic relief is in the form of an old lady named Granny Plimpton, played by Zeffie Tilbury. She’s more annoying than funny. She’s also got more screen time than headliner Noah Beery.