One Way Passage (1932)

One Way Passage
Directed by Tay Garnett
Written by Wilson Mizner and Joseph Jackson based on a story by Robert Lord
1932/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
First viewing/My DVD collection

Joan: Remember our first?
Dan: We thought it was our last. You never can tell.

One of the great doomed romances of classic Hollywood.

Dan Hardesty (William Powell) is a fugitive from justice who has been fleeing a death sentence. He meets Joan Ames (Kay Francis) in a Hong Kong bar and instantly they only have eyes for each other. They part wishing that luck will bring them together again.

Soon after, Dan is apprehended by U.S. police officer Steve Burke (Warren Heimer). Dan is handcuffed to his captor until the ship is well out of port. Joan has one of those inevitably fatal movie illnesses where the sufferer looks gorgeous at all times and merely daintily faints at appropriate moments. She is sailing back to the U.S. to suffer her fate. Her doctor has ordered total lack of excitement, smoking. drinking etc. But when she spots Powell aboard she throws caution to the wind, determined to live fully until she dies. Thus begins the most romantic of love stories, with each half of the couple waiting until almost the end of the cruise to reveal his/her secret.  With Alene MacMahon as a fake countess/conwoman who owes Powell a favor, Frank McHugh as a comic drunk, and Warner Hymer as the cop who is bringing Powell back to justice.

The plot summary sound melodramatic and I guess it is. But the story is so romantic that one doesn’t mind. All the actors do themselves proud keeping the basic mood light throughout. I love Kay Francis and she is really lovely in this one. The romantic leads certainly had chemistry.  Recommended.