Login
Warmed over Red Dust, lacking in the original’s erotic charge, classists undertones, and exotic atmospherics, China Seas is a competent enough film, but pales in comparison to the film it’s obviously trying to recapture. Yet the real heart of the problem is Harlow’s China Doll, as written she’s loose cannon, not a bad type of character to throw into this mix. But China Seas rests on the idea that she would betray the man she loves just because she was upset, causing the ship to be infiltrated by pirates and the deaths of numerous people falling squarely at her feet. The film treats her character as an overly sexed infant who needs her emotions appealed to at all times.
Harlow still manages to be a pro at all times, bringing in her particularly zany, looney type of sex appeal to the role. She and Clark Gable have an appealing chemistry, but it doesn’t come anywhere near the scorched earth sexuality of Red Dust. China Seas is far more polite, even the upper-class love interest, Mary Astor being traded out for Rosalind Russell, is more polite flirtations than anything. Astor’s brittle, slowly falling apart wife gave Red Dust a nervy energy that China Seas never allows Russell to even try to emulate. Russell is professional and delivers solid work, but nothing much is asked of her.
Wallace Berry in the largest supporting role is like watching a glazed ham slowly cook. He’s not awful, but it feels like a totally different movie than the other three characters. His character is instrumental in accelerating the action, and I will admit that for all its problems China Seas is tightly constructed and moves at a good pace. There’s a propulsive energy here, but the twin romances are fairly bloodless. The film really picks up whenever there’s a big rousing action scene. The ship getting battered by a storm is one, and Lewis Stone’s climatic sequence in which he saves the day is another. China Seas is a B-list production on every level, except it was given to an A-list exterior.
