Piroscafo di lusso

A multiple story soap opera set aboard a luxury liner sailing from Germany to America, this Paramount production's format appears to have been influenced by MGM's mega hit of the previous year, Grand Hotel. Nothing about either the stories or cast are as compelling, however.

There's George Brent, a doctor desperate to stop his wife (Vivienne Osborne) from leaving him with a Wall Street-type tycoon (Frank Morgan) aboard the ship so he hustles himself a position as ship's doctor.

But also aboard are a variety of other characters, among them Zita Johann as a nurse who socializes with no one and remains mysterious about her past; Alice White as an ambitious third class passenger eager to get into the first class section and using her charms with various men to try to achieve her goal; C. Aubrey Smith as a former textiles millionaire just released from prison who when asked why he is traveling third class replies "because there is no fourth class"; and Vera Teasdale as an opera singer who gains Morgan's interest.

At 67 minutes this pre coder certainly moves quickly as it jumps between its stories, even if some of the plot lines are not particularly well developed and may have been victims of the editor's knife. The performances vary in quality, with the highlights for me Alice White in wide eyed bubbly form, telling every man who pays attention to her that he's the nicest man in the world, and C. Aubrey Smith as the old industrialist now broke who doesn't let his misfortune dampen his spirits.

Luxury Liner is a minor but amusing time waster, not to be mistaken with the later MGM musical fluff of 1948 with the same title which also featured George Brent, along with Jane Powell.