Vessel of Wrath [The Beachcomber] **** (Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Robert Newton) – Classic Movie Review 9668

The 1938 British film Vessel of Wrath [The Beachcomber] is made for the Mayflower Pictures Corporation, a film company formed by star Charles Laughton and producer-director Eric Pommer.

Happily, Laughton’s first venture into film production is one of his most joyous vehicles – a warm, comic version of W Somerset Maugham’s 1931 short story The Vessel of Wrath about a pious spinster missionary’s improbable love for a drunken layabout.

Laughton is superb as the dissolute beachcomber Ginger Ted Wilson, living in a tropical Dutch colony in the Indian Ocean, and his wife Elsa Lanchester is extremely affecting and amusing as his co-star, missionary Martha Jones.

It is written for the screen by Bartlett Cormack.

It is remade in 1954 as The Beachcomber by director Muriel Box, with Robert Newton (who appears here as The Controleur, the colonial governor) in the Laughton star role.

Also in the cast are Tyrone Guthrie, Dolly Mollinger, Eliot Makeham, D A Ward, J Solomon, S Alley, Mah Foo, Rosita Garcia and Ley On.

Vessel of Wrath [The Beachcomber] is directed by Erich Pommer, runs 93 minutes, is made by Mayflower Pictures Corporation, is released by Associated British Film Distributors (1938) (UK) and Paramount Pictures (1938) (US), is written by Bartlett Cormack and B Van Thal, is shot in black and white by Jules Kruger, is produced by Charles Laughton and Erich Pommer, is scored by Richard Addinsell and Muir Mathieson, and is designed by Thomas N Morahan.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9668

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