SOULS AT SEA

US, 1937, 92 minutes, Black and white.
Gary Cooper, George Raft, Frances Dee, Henry Wilcoxon, Harry Carey, Robert Cummings, George Zucco, Virginia Weidler, Joseph Schildkraut.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.

Souls at Sea is an interesting film of the late 1930s. It is a star vehicle for Gary Cooper and for George Raft. They appear as sailors who take a stand against slavery in the 1840s, especially the African slave trade which leads to the English city of Liverpool.

The film has high drama – leading to the charge of murder against Gary Cooper and some courtroom sequences.
The film has a strong supporting cast including Frances Dee and Henry Wilcoxon as well as Joseph Schildkraut who was to win the best supporting actor award, the first one, for The Life of Emile Zola.

The film was directed by Henry Hathaway, veteran director of many action films in the 30s including Lives of a Bengal Lancer, the first colour western, Trail of the Lonesome Pine. Diplomatic Courier is more in the vein of some of his 1940s thrillers, especially after World War Two, 13 Rue Madeleine, House on 92nd Street, Call Northside 777. After this he was to make some rather glossy Cinemascope films including The River of No Return and continue making westerns into the 60s with John Wayne such as The Sons of Katie Elder and True Grit, for which Wayne won a best actor Oscar.



1. The implications of the title? How did this relate to the fact that Nuggin' Taylor had to make decisions about the life and death of souls?

2. Comment on the structure of the film and its success: the opening , the flashback, and the alternation for audience sympathies. The antipathy towards Nuggin' at the beginning, the emerging of what he was really like and the final understanding of what he stood for?

3. What was the atmosphere created in the early court scene? How was the atmosphere created? The use of close-ups of faces, emotional expressions, the attack on Nuggin’? How did this contrast then with the final court scenes where the audience knew the significance of emotions and the expressions?

4. How well did the film make explicit the slavery situation of the early l9th century? How horrible was the slavry situation? Comment on the use of the boats, the potential riots within the murders that ensued? What kind of people were involed in the slavetrading? Comment on the captain, and on Tarryton.

5. How could the captain and Tarryton and such men carry on their slave trade under the form of respectability? Why was Nuggin’ Taylor sent in to stop this?

6. Was Nuggin’ Taylor an attractive hero? How was he contrased with Powdah? What emerged from their friendship?

7. How well was the social background of the times filled in, for example shipboard life, the type of passengers going to America, the inns of England, English families? Did this add to the overall impact of the film?

8. How did audience feelings change during the film - especially in regard to Nuggin' Taylor?

9. How contrived was having of Margaret Tarryton on the ship? Of Nuggin's falling in love with her? Of his role in the disaster and her safety? And then her presence in the court? (Even though this seemed a cliche, how well was it used?)

10. How well were the clashes portrayed on the ship, especially between Nuggin' and Tarryton?

11. Comment on the passengers who were on the ship - did they emerge as strong personalities or not? Was this important in the event of the disaster?

12. Comment on the dramatic presentation of the disaster on the ship. The fire, the need for decisions to be made, the crowding of the life boats and human reaction and emotions, and Nuggin's decision (was he playing God in deciding how many should be saved or not? ) Did this mean that he should have been taken to court for his decisions? Could he in any sense have been considered a murderer?

13. Was the resolution of the film too contrived or did it fit in well with what had gone before? ( Though the film was made in the late thirties, how well does it stand up to modern viewing? Why? )