It's love at first sight for Dan Hardesty (William Powell) and Joan Ames (Kay Francis) as they bump into each other at a Hong Kong bar. Police detective Steve Burke catches up to Dan and takes him into custody. They are taking the boat to San Francisco. Dan pulls them both overboard but rescues the drowning detective. They joined by Joan, drunken petty thief Skippy, and con artist Betty who is pretending to be a countess. Joan doesn't know that Dan faces a death sentence and he doesn't know that she's terminally ill.The only thing holding this back from unreserved love is why Steve is after Dan. It needs an opening of what happened in the original incident to exonerate him in the audience's eyes. The fact that he saved the detective from drowning already points to his goodness. It would be better to have something more definitive. Skippy's little scams are loads of fun. He's great comic relief. Powell is charming as heck. This is a fine rom-com with a dark edge.

Kay Francis and William Powell made several films together, first at Paramount, then later at Warner Brothers in the 1930s. This is one of their best collaborations, at Warners. To say the stars enjoy a smooth and easy rapport in this picture is an understatement.Also helping the flow of this pictures is some great fluid camera work. Notice the part where the filmmakers zoom in on Miss Francis who is standing on the upper deck when the ship is docked. Though what I liked most about the story is that we don't exactly see what happened to the characters at the very end. We know they are both doomed, and cannot escape a tragic fate, but instead, we're left with this fleeting romance that took place during the span of a month and the lasting memory of it. It's a bittersweet, beautiful film.

The influence of this Oscar winner for Best Original Story (by Robert Lord) would be seen at the end of the decade (1939) when, among the Best Picture nominees, were two films which shared with it elements of their plot line – DARK VICTORY, similarly involving a dying socialite living it up, while LOVE AFFAIR dealt with a comparable doomed romance aboard an ocean liner, complete with an unkept appointment down the line (ironically, this would also be nominated for its "original" story!). In any case, ONE WAY PASSAGE would be officially remade in 1940 under the title of 'TIL WE MEET AGAIN, with George Brent and Merle Oberon.The film is rated ***1/2 in the "Leonard Maltin Movie & TV Guide": in retrospect, it is no masterpiece and does feature some unfortunate comedy relief courtesy of Frank McHugh (we are supposed to be amused by his inebriated criminal activities, which invariably land him in trouble with the local Police throughout the Hong Kong-Honolulu-San Francisco trip!) – who even reprised his role for the above-mentioned remake. Even leading man William Powell, as a man destined for the gallows, is a bit stiff on this occasion (incidentally, both lovers are unaware of the other's precarious predicament and are naturally uneasy about confessing it!); consequently, the women come off best – heroine Kay Francis (her best role would emerge the same year in Ernst Lubitsch's sophisticated masterpiece TROUBLE IN PARADISE) and Aline MacMahon (a crook passing herself off as a Countess, and who even catches the attentions of the male protagonist's captor Warren Hymer!). Other familiar faces (albeit uncredited) gracing the supporting cast are Roscoe Karns as the ship's flustered bartender (aggravated at the central couple's penchant to shattering the glasses they drink from!) and attendant Herbert Mundin (who unwittingly lets Francis know of what awaits Powell on dry land – conversely, Francis' doctor dutifully informs the latter of her terminal illness). By the way, I am always confusing this one with another 1932 melodrama, in view of its almost identical title i.e. WESTWARD PASSAGE (with Ann Harding and Laurence Olivier)…which I do not even own a copy of! Finally, I would like to state that the computer program I use to play movies with has been displaying signs of instability of late, especially where old files are concerned – and this annoying glitch occurred again, briefly, here!

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.