Gangway (1937)

I thought that maybe ninety minutes would be a bit long for this, but the presence of Alastair Sim's quirky and curious "Taggett" onboard the ship helps keep this quite entertaining. "Pat" (Jessie Matthews) wants to flee the routine job of a junior movie critic and travel to America where she thinks the real journalists live. Her luck is in when her boss sends her, undercover, on a trip as a lady's maid to attend on a travelling, and rather snobbish, actress (Olive Blakeney). Meantime, jobbing policeman "Bob" (Barry MacKay) discovers that he's inherited a country pile and has absolutely no way of keeping it up! His boss takes pity on him and charges him with investigating a robbery at a swanky London hotel. Soon he is on the trail of "Sparkle" and the onboard antics-cum-romance start to kick in as confusion reigns and the search for the stolen $1m gem becomes muddled with mistaken identity amidst the constant quizzing of "Taggett" who's after the jewel - or it's thief - for the insurers. It all sounds a bit messy but the confines of the ship and a bit of chemistry between Matthews and MacKay help keep it moving along fitfully, but still quite entertainingly. Matthews was a proficient singer and dancer, and she turns out a couple of jolly numbers along the way but it's really the pithy writing that helps this stand out. Some quick-witted one liners that are riddled with sarcasm and irony and frequently raise a smile. The humour is much more subtle with everyone from the police to the acting profession and the landed gentry all coming in for a whack before a bullet-ridden denouement. It's probably not a film you'll remember, but it is quite enjoyable to watch.