The Sin Ship is a 1931 film directed by Louis Wolheim.
Wolheim also stars as Captain Sam McVeigh, a roughnecked, hard-drinking merchant marine captain. McVeigh has just pulled in to San Diego when he is approached by a missionary, Rev. Marsden. Rev. Marsden asks for passage to Central America so he can go on a mission. McVeigh agrees, mainly because he likes the looks of Marsden's lovely wife Kitty (Mary Astor).
Sam corners Kitty in his cabin and demands sex. She gives him a scornful speech in which she demands that he "Clean up your mind! And your soul!" Moved by her example, Sam decides to turn over a new leaf and live a righteous life. What he doesn't know is that Marsden and Kitty are frauds. In fact, they are criminals, who are on the lam after they robbed a bank.
Louis Wolheim's last film, and the only one he directed. It came out two months after Wolheim died of stomach cancer.
Tropes:
- Alcohol Hic: Charlie the drunken mate is hiccuping as he hangs out with Sam in the main cabin.
- Calling Me a Logarithm: McVeigh asks how to start an apology letter to Kitty. Charlie suggests "Dear Madam." McVeigh nearly punches him, because he thinks Charlie is calling Kitty a Miss Kitty.
- Celebrity Paradox: Kitty, cackling with derision, tells Marsden that McVeigh tried "the Hairy Ape routine" on her. Louis Wolheim's big break was starring in a production of Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The rotund American tourist seen checking into the hotel in one scene. He turns out to be a detective on Marsden's trail.
- Dramatic Irony: A lot of this after the audience finds out the truth about Marsden but McVeigh doesn't know it. Like when he says that Marsden must be a great guy to have a wife like Kitty, or when McVeigh says "I wish I was like him!"
- The Drunken Sailor: Charlie, McVeigh's first mate, is drunk in every scene.
- I Will Wait for You: McVeigh says "I will wait for you forever" after Kitty suggests that she has to go to jail, but maybe he can be there when she gets out.
- Internal Reveal: It's revealed to the audience about 15 minutes in that Marsden and Kitty are criminals on the lam. McVeigh does not find out until much later.
- Killed Offscreen: Kitty, locked in her room, hears two gunshots. Thinking McVeigh was shot, she climbs out the window and down to the street, only to find out that Marsden made a run for it and the detective shot him.
- Leg Focus: "Reverend" Marsden approaches Sam in a bar and asks if he can get passage to Central America. McVeigh is considering this when he looks out the bat wing doors of the bar and sees Kitty's calves and high heels under the door. He agrees.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kitty responds to Sam's crude demand for sex by giving him a righteous dressing-down where she says "You're an animal! You have no fine feeling! Clean up your mind, and your soul!". A shamed McVeigh elects to turn over a new leaf.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: McVeigh is dressed all in black, black pants and a sailor's black turtleneck, when he tries to strongarm Kitty into sex. After he decides to turn over a new leaf, he puts on a white shirt, drawing sarcastic comments from the other sailors.
