Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

IceboxMovies The last 15 minutes are interesting, when the criminals take over the ship and become the new villains, but the rest of the film is pretty shoddy and can hardly be called a legit adaptation of "A Thousand Deaths". The filmmakers' first mistake was changing the relationship from a father killing and resurrecting his own son to... an uncle merely performing obscure experiments on his nephew. No real tension there. For whatever reason, the filmmakers care more about the nephew falling in love with a woman onboard than they do his complicated relationship with his uncle (something that is never really explored). Personally, I think that including female characters in this film was a mistake. The story is meant to be very Freudian and Oedpial, in the sense that a son is terrified by his domineering father; London allegedly wrote the story as a revenge fantasy about William Chaney, an astrologer who was probably his real father but forever denied it. Regrettably, no trace of that amusing autobiographical context is present in this film. London's original story was concise and simplified: a son is frustrated from being killed and brought back to life by his father over and over again. By comparison, this film is difficult to follow because there are too many characters and way too many individual stories being crammed into the 50-minute running time. Here and there, you can sense the screenwriters struggling to keep some of London's original dialogue in their convoluted script. "A chance one must take" = "Take the chances, since the affairs of men were full of such."The mad scientist's deathbed scene (which is not in the original story) could have worked better in the film had it not been so glossed-over. Seems like the nephew hardly cares.Ending was corny. We have no reason to care that the nephew fell in love.I kind of feel sorry for the orchestra that was hired to compose the music, considering that the music isn't memorable for a second. Seems like a big waste of talent.Of course, not every adaptation can be faithful, and sometimes even the loose adaptations still make for great films. What works against this film is that, aside from being profoundly unfaithful to London, it is also a crushing bore.

kidboots Dr. Herbert Stander (Irving Pichel) is working on some experiments to cure the criminal mind. He buys a boat and on the premise of a cruise (that's what it seemed liked to me!!!) takes a variety of criminals on board to conduct his experiments.One of the criminals, Poison Mary (Sheila Bromley), fights with her secretary, Joan Martel (Jacqueline Welles) and manages to convince the ship's crew that Joan is just as much of a criminal as all the rest. Bob Bennett (Lyle Talbot) believes in her innocence. After one of the criminals goes out of his mind and creates mayhem on the boat Dr. Stander decides to experiment on people free from criminal taint. Bob, who was knocked out in the scuffle is the first victim. Bob awakes a changed man - he tries to attack Joan but his uncle, Dr. Stander, subdues him. When the drug wears off, Bob fills the syringe with distilled water and "fakes" his sickness, while trying to send messages to the mainland. He then gathers the rest of the criminals together and takes over the ship. The criminals have other ideas - they want to kill off all the doctors, starting with Dr. Stander. Bob then organizes the doctors and together they overthrow the criminal mutineers by an ingenious method. Poison Mary has also been injected with serum but she has been a success - she asks Joan's forgiveness and says she feels like a new person!!!With a plot based on a Jack London story, this film was always going to appeal to me. It was considerably shorter than 57 minutes . My copy started with the criminals on the ship planning to take over and then the fight between Mary and Joan. You can pick up the story though. A good cast makes the film work. Lyle Talbot, still looking good, plays kindly Bob. Irving Pichel, who was a top notch villain and also a reasonable director ("The Most Dangerous Game" (1932)) plays Dr. Stander. Jacqueline Welles, before she changed her name to Julie Bishop plays Joan Martell. Sheila Bromley, who also went by the name Sheila Mannors and appeared in a few westerns was Poison Mary. She was probably the most exciting and lively person in the whole film. Russell Hopton appeared as Harry the Carver.Recommended.

Dukey Flyswatter Recently got one of those Mill Creek 50 pack of horror and mystery PD movies (Tales Of Terror) because there were about 25 of these programmers I had not yet seen.I was already aware from experience that the quality on most of these is less than desirable but some can't be had anywhere else or were not worth paying ten bucks for alone.In this case I was taken royally as this print is missing the first 8 minutes or so leaving one to guess the rest. Fortunately the plot is simple and you can pick it up easily but you'll still be burning at the Faux Pas. Don't know if Alpha's print of this is the same way but in any case this is one to avoid.

dbborroughs A well known doctor is indicted for his experiments toward curing the criminal mind. Needing to continue his work and hoping that success will clear him, he buys a boat, loads it with several high profile criminals hoping to escape the law and heads out to sea. At least that's the plan, but things start to go wrong and things are revealed to be not what they seemed at first.This is an okay little thriller that seems more than a bit too talky, even as the action picks up and the crooks try to take over the ship and the captain and crew have to fight to take it back. Lest you think that reveals too much, you obviously haven't watched this, as things go left, right and every which way during its fleeting one hour running time.The cast is a B-movie lovers dream that includes Lyle Talbot, Irving Pichel and group of character actors that seems to have been pulled from every movie made within five years of this one. Their interaction is what keeps this movie afloat even as the film begins to sink into low level nonsense.If you're looking for a forgettable time killer or just like watching veteran actors making mountains out of mole hills then by all means give it a shot. Just don't expect high art and you won't be disappointed.