High Seas

China Seas (1935) is just a crazy, fun romantic adventure movie. It stars Clark Gable as the captain of a ship running from Hong Kong to Singapore. He drinks hard on shore, but runs a tight ship once under weigh. Jean Harlow is China Doll, the party girl who is stuck on him. Rosalind Russell, on the other hand, is the society dame that he always loved. Since she was married to his friend, he went to China to forget. Now she shows up on his ship, a widow and open to offers.

This little love triangle sets up romance for a whole movie, but we also get Malay pirates, a secret shipment of gold, a taiphoon, a disgraced sea captain with a chance at redemption, and on and on. We even get a perpetually soused Robert Benchley for comic relief. Plus Wallace Beery as a villain, C. Aubrey Smith as the ship's owner, Hattie McDaniels as (guess what) the maid, Akim Tamiroff, Ed Brophy and so on.

I don't know how deep this is, although there are many affecting scenes. But it sure is fun.