Movie Review: Corsair (1931)

Synopsis: After helping his college football team to a win on the East Coast, star football player John Hawks meets beautiful heiress Alison Corning at a party. Alison, taking a shine to Hawks, convinces her father, Stephen, to hire him as a stockbroker but the job doesn't work out because Hawks doesn't like the way Stephen swindles widows and the poor.

Determined to make money without taking advantage of the innocent and knowing Stephen also runs a bootlegging operation, Hawks uses his ship, Corsair, to hijack boats owned by Stephen's partner, Big John, and sells the spoils to Stephen at a discount. However, it is only a matter of time before Big John comes up with a plan to stop him.

Who's in it? The movie stars Chester Morris, Thelma Todd, Fred Kohler, Emmett Corrigan and Ned Sparks.

Review: I thought about watching another Dick Tracy movie this morning but changed my mind when I came across Corsair and thought it sounded interesting. After I finished watching it, I decided it was a good choice.

I think the thing that surprised me most about this was the way John Hawks' (Morris) motives weren't as clear as I expected. Based on his first interaction with Alison (Todd), I figured it was going to be a simple romance movie with Hawks doing everything to win her. However, that didn't end up being the case and his decisions seemed to be much more about putting Stephen (Corrigan) in his place.

It was the same way with Alison herself as well. She clearly had some sort of interest in Hawks, but it was difficult to tell if it was a romantic interest or just trying to keep herself entertained. Based on her personality, it really did feel like the latter throughout most of the movie. Plus, even if there was a romantic interest, there was the complication of Hawks conning her father.

One of the more intriguing parts of the movie had to be Hawks' accomplices, Slim (Sparks) and Sophie (Mayo Methot). While the Hawks/Alison relationship was sketchy, the romance between those two felt real and I became much more invested in that relationship as the movie progressed and their involvement was exposed. Frankly, they had a lot more depth than I would have expected from a movie that was only 75 minutes long.

My only real complaint about the movie is it did seem to take Big John (Kohler) an awfully long time to retaliate. I would think, after the very first raid, he would have at least taken some precautions, such as arming ship better, rather than waiting until it happened again before finally settling on a plan that was probably more complicated than it needed to be. I found it even less believable Stephen wasn't able to figure out where Hawks was getting the discount liquor from.

I was also undecided about the ending, which honestly felt a bit forced in my opinion. I'm fine with happy endings and all that but this happy ending both seemed a bit too easy and had Hawks making quite a few compromises that made me question his overall character and whether he ended the film as the hero.

Final Opinion: I think the ending could have used a bit more work, but the overall film was entertaining and had a decent amount of action and suspense along with some interesting characters. It's worth taking the time to watch.

My Grade: B+

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Here are some reviews of other dramas from the 1930s:

Movie Review: Heat Lightning (1934)

Movie Review: Ace of Aces (1933)

Movie Review: Gabriel Over the White House (1933)

Movie Review: Wives Under Suspicion (1938)