Director: VICTOR HALPERIN. Screenplay: George Wallace Sayre, Harvey Huntley. Suggested by the 1899 short story, "A Thousand Deaths", by Jack London. Photography: Jack Greenhalgh. Film editor: Holbrook N. Todd. Art director: Fred Preble. Music director: David Chudnow. Sound recording: Hans Weeren. Producers: Sigmund Neufeld, Ben Judell. A Sigmund Neufeld Production.Not copyright by Producers Distributing Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 28 October 1939. 57 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A mad doctor experiments on a ship full of criminals.COMMENT: Even in its truncated 48-minutes version (the opening scenes have been deleted), this little movie is bound to disappoint Halperin admirers who thrilled to his highly imaginative direction of White Zombie and Supernatural. Mind you, it's competent enough, but so ordinary that for all intents and purposes producer Neufeld might well have achieved the same results by using their services of his brother, good old Sam Newfield, instead. Best thing about the film is the skillful performance of Irving Pichel as the mad doctor. Worst thing is the unattractively wan appearance of the normally lovely Julie Bishop who looks positively anorexic here, thanks to Greenhalgh's unflattering lighting and photography. Her costumes and make-up don't help either. Yet another sore point is the continued presence of Eddie Holden as a comic steward. A little Eddie goes a long way-- far too long in this case. If broadcasters thought the movie was too long at 57 minutes to keep the attention of restless night owls, surely the scissors would have been better employed removing Holden's part. Instead a lot of necessary exposition has been jettisoned, making the plot difficult to follow and the characters just barely possible to place.

Good intentions are the pathway to hell, and in the case of doctor Irving Pichel, he's on his way there with a one-way ticket. Certainly, the idea of experimenting on the criminal mind in an effort to change their ways seems on the surface like a good idea, but his methods really lead to madness-both his and his victims. Gathered together on a ship, Pichel has no idea that his so-called patients are determined to stop him, convinced that his experiments will leave them without memory and possibly crippled for life. The fact that vile law busters end up being the innocent here is certainly not leading the audience to sympathize with any of the characters, even if there are a few women aboard. Pichel's nephew (Lyle Talbot) happens to be the lieutenant steering the ship and ends up working with a few of the criminals to stage a mutiny. Convoluted and non-sensical, this becomes just so absurdly ridiculous that the audience just might end up wishing it over sooner than it is. Ultimately, the entire mess is so cartoonish that the only real torture is for the viewer to get through it.

The Alpha Video release seems to be fairly complete with the entire story intact (except for some splicy sections in what was probably a 16mm television print: The story does make sense in this version which has the entire explanation of why the criminals are on the ship in the first place and what the doctor's motivations are.It is mysterious that the film runs about 63 minutes when the main IMDb description has it released at 57 minutes. That's probably incorrect and doesn't represent the original theatrical release, but rather some random individual's timing from a DVD or VHS tape that wasn't complete in the first place.

There are a lot of people on this boat. Many are criminals who are going to be experimented upon against their wills. There is a boring Swedish guy who is supposed to be comic relief but turns out to be simply insufferable. There are people taken, escaping, taking over, taking back, getting injected, and so on. All in the name of science, I guess. There are many punches thrown. At one point, as they hit each guy coming through a door, they land, stacked nicely on the floor. One girl is a criminal, then she isn't, but she's here. It goes on and on and it just doesn't matter. Apparently some of the thing is missing. This may actually be merciful. It never piqued my interest for one second. And I actually recognized some of the actors. It's talky and obtuse. Don't bother.