Across to Singapore *** (1928, Ramon Novarro, Joan Crawford, Ernest Torrence.) – Classic Movie Review 12,460

MGM’s 1928 silent sea-going romantic drama film Across to Singapore stars Ramon Novarro, Joan Crawford and Ernest Torrence. It offers plenty of high emotion, high adventure, high spirits and of course romance. 

‘A Romance full of the tang of the Seven Seas!’

Director William Nigh’s 1928 American silent sea-going romantic drama film Across to Singapore stars Ramon Novarro, Joan Crawford and Ernest Torrence.

It offers plenty of high emotion, plenty of high adventure, plenty of high spirits and plenty of romance, as MGM refilms Ben Ames Williams’s 1919 novel All the Brothers Were Valiant in a belated silent picture (the studio was tardy in adapting to sound). It was previously made in 1923 as the now-lost All the Brothers Were Valiant with Lon Chaney Sr.

Ramon Novarro and Ernest Torrence kick up a storm as Joel and Mark Shore, the good and bad brothers clashing with mutineers on the high seas, while a young Joan Crawford emotes impressively as Priscilla Crowninshield, the woman reluctantly betrothed to the hard-drinking captain Mark Shore (Torrence), and involved a love triangle between the two brothers.

Director Nigh ensures there is no lack of brio in the action and the acting, while the MGM production is impeccable, with the highest production values and, for its day, state-of-the-art trick work.

MGM remade it again as All the Brothers Were Valiant in 1953.

Also in the cast are Frank Currier, Edward Connelly, Duke Martin, Dan Wolheim, and James Mason [Jim Mason].

Across to Singapore is a remake of the 1923 American silent sea adventure and romantic drama film All the Brothers Were Valiant starring Lon Chaney Sr. That film is now considered lost, destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire. That was remade by MGM as Across to Singapore in 1928 with Ernest Torrance playing Chaney’s role.

Ramon Novarro with Joan Crawford in Across to Singapore (1928).

It was long thought lost, but one 35mm print of Across to Singapore has survived, though some sections have deteriorated. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) have screened a version of Across to Singapore with an uncredited piano music score and running time of 85 minutes. It has appeared freely on the Internet. Stewart Granger stars in the Chaney role in the 1953 All the Brothers Were Valiant.

Across to Singapore is directed by William Nigh, runs 85 minutes, is written by Richard Schayer and Ted Shane, is shot by John F Seitz and Joe Farnham, and is designed by Cedric Gibbons.

The cast are Ramon Novarro as Joel Shore, Joan Crawford as Priscilla Crowninshield, Ernest Torrence as Captain Mark Shore, Frank Currier as Jeremiah Shore, Dan Wolheim as Noah Shore, Duke Martin as Matthew Shore, Edward Connelly as Joshua Crowninshield, James Mason [Jim Mason] as Ship’s Mate Finch, and Anna May Wong as Singapore Woman.

Joan Crawford later opined she disliked the film and thought she and Ramon Novarro were miscast.

It was her next role as Diana Medford in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) that catapulted Crawford to stardom.

Frank Currier and Edward Connelly died in 1928 when the film was released.

James Pier Mason (February 3, 1889 – November 7, 1959) was an American actor who appeared in more than 170 films between 1914 and 1952, often as a villain or henchman in Westerns, and was sometimes credited as Jim Mason.

Some may know Ben Ames Williams’s work via the film Leave Her to Heaven (1945) starring Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,460

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