DANGEROUS PASSAGE
US, 1944, 60 minutes, Black-and-white.
Robert Lowery, Phyllis Brooks, Charles Arnt, Jack La Rue, John Eldredge, Alec Craig.
Directed by William Berke.
A slight supporting feature from 1944, with no reference to World War II. The passage in question is from Honduras to Galveston Texas. Robert Lowery plays a young man who is informed that he is to receive an inheritance in Galveston. He is attacked and decides to avoid the expected boat trip and sail on what is described as a bucket. He is befriended by the steward and pays his way.
In the background is his smiling crooked lawyer who has set him up and who later joins the ship with something of a lookalike so that the man can be got rid of and the substitute inherit the money. There is also a problem with the ship, the company which owns it being involved with fraud schemes, crashing the boat on rocks, the crew escaping, getting the insurance. And the ship does crash on the rocks but the survivors are rescued.
There is also a dancer, Phyllis Brooks, who is wanting to get back to the United States and a new way of life – needless to say, instant romance.
The steward is murdered – and the dancer reveals that he was an undercover agent to expose the fraud and she was his associate.
The smallest of budgets, not particularly well made – a time passer.
