Mystery Liner (1934)

A rather nifty little science fiction-thriller/murder mystery from Poverty Row company Monogram, Mystery Liner was based on a Saturday Evening Post story by British pulp writer Edgar Wallace. Noah Beery starred as John Holling, the captain of an ocean liner equipped with a powerful scientific gadget, the S-505, capable of steering the vessel by remote control. The captain is taken unaccountably ill and replaced by First Mate Downey (Boothe Howard), who might or might not have poisoned him to get the job in the first place. But then the inventor of the S-505 (Ralph Lewis) is found strangled and all hell breaks loose. During the voyage, Downey suffers the same fate as the professor and foreign agents attempt to sabotage the steering device. The liner is virtually overrun with murder suspects — from a mysterious foreigner (Gustav von Seyffertitz) to a cantankerous elderly passenger (Zeffie Tilbury) — and the sudden reappearance of Captain Holling complicates matters to no end for the detective in charge (Edward Maxwell).

1934, B&W, 62 minutes