The novel co-written by Robert Louis Stevenson is the basis for this lavish Paramount production which was to feature one of the white mountain studio's latest discoveries, Frances Farmer. Frances is the daughter of the late captain of a trading schooner in the South Seas which is in need of someone to take her to Sydney, Australia.Who might fill the bill is Oscar Homolka who is a beached captain on a South Sea Isle barely scratching out an existence as a beachcomber along with pals, Ray Milland and Barry Fitzgerald. All three of these guys have a sad tale to tell as to how they came to such fringe circumstances of existence.When Homolka is hired he takes the other two along and they've got different ideas about the direction of the ship and what to do with her cargo which is cases of champagne. A whole lot of drama happens on the schooner before they arrive at an island ruled by Lloyd Nolan who is a bible spouting psychotic who has the natives cowed. The sight of Farmer gets his hormones in an uproar as if the other three don't have those same issues as well.Ebb Tide is a film badly in need of restoration. I saw a bootleg print of it and the sound could use a little enhancement as well. Oscar Homolka was billed with courtesy to British Gaumont Pictures where he had recently starred in Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage. I'd love to know whose brilliant idea at Paramount's to have Homolka shave those trademark bushy eyebrows. I could hardly believe it was him.Farmer was beautiful, but she wanted roles of substance as she complained in those famous memoirs of her's Will There Ever Be a Morning. Ebb Tide didn't provide her with it, but Lloyd Nolan did wonders with his role. His was a subtle performance, he conveyed so much by underplaying the fanaticism of his character.Hopefully Ebb Tide will be earmarked for restoration and soon.

One of the strangest films to come from a major studio during the golden era of Hollywood, "Ebb Tide" was promoted as "the first South Seas drama in COLOR", and boasts an eclectic (to say the least) cast, including Oscar Homolka (in his US feature debut), Frances Farmer (in her only color film), Ray Milland, Barry Fitzgerald and Lloyd Nolan. Dour, pessimistic, and full of tortured close-ups of Homolka grimacing, this was probably not what movie-goers of 1937 were expecting. On the plus-side, the performances are riveting (though Homolka is difficult to understand at times), and the chance to see the ravishing Farmer in Technicolor splendor is worth wading through a turgid plot involving three ne'er-do-wells shanghaing a quarantined ship to the tropical paradise island of Tehua, where they meet madman Lloyd Nolan. There's also an exciting storm sequence which was the "Perfect Storm" of its day. Based on a story co-written by Robert Louis Stevenson. The only broadcast print in wide circulation is edited and is badly in need of color correction.

I saw this film in 1937 when it came out and I was 15 years old. Just an uncomplicated South Seas adventure yarn, but it had this marvelous cast: Ray Milland, Lloyd Nolan, Barry Fitzgerald, Oscar Homolka, and the fabulous, tragic, Frances Farmer at the peak of her short-lived career. I fell instantly in love with her, and have never completely gotten over it! I have been trying to view (or obtain a copy) of this film for years with no luck. Any help out there?