Outward Bound Movie 1930

Ethan had met her one winter afternoon of thunder and snow in 1938 within the foyer of a suburban Toronto cinema, where they were showing Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., in Outward Bound. October Ferry to Gabriola

Outward Bound (1930) is a film based on the hit 1923 play of the same name by Sutton Vane. The film stars Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Helen Chandler, Beryl Mercer, Montagu Love, Alison Skipworth, Alec B. Francis, and Dudley Digges. It was later remade, with some changes, as Between Two Worlds (1944). Malc saw a performance of Sutton Vane’s play Outward Bound at the Theatre Royal, Exeter in 1924 on a family holiday. The play was most influential on Malc’s late work October Ferry to Gabriola in which he used the play’s title as a title for Chapter 3 of his novel.

A disparate group of passengers find themselves aboard a darkened, fog-enshrouded crewless boat, sailing to an unknown destination. Their stories are revealed one by one. Tom Prior, a prodigal son, discovers that he's travelling with his ex-boss Mr. Lingley, a captain of industry; Tom's mother, Mrs. Midget, whose identity the son does not know, is curious about how her son is doing; Mrs. Cliveden-Banks, an affected socialite, chats with the steward Scrubby; Rev. William Duke, a clergyman, is keen about his missionary work in the London slums; and a young couple, Henry and Ann, who are facing an impossible love affair and find they cannot live without each other, wonder if they'll be together forever.

In time, the passengers slowly realize what's going on -- the one thing they have in common is that they are all dead, and they are on their way to either heaven or hell; during the course of the trip they will be judged. Arriving at their destination, they sit awaiting judgment by Thompson, the "examiner". He will determine what sort of punishment or reward they receive in the next world.

But Henry and Ann, who unsuccessfully committed suicide and now hover in a sort of limbo between life and death, have not quite crossed over yet. Scrubby, the ship's steward, has already been condemned to sail the ship for eternity, having successfully committed suicide. Henry is eventually saved from asphyxiation by his dog breaking a window pane; he calls to Ann, she revives, and together they are rescued by an ambulance. Read more on Wikipedia

You can view the trailer for the movie below:



You can read more about the use of the movie in October Ferry to Gabriola in Anthony Kilgalin's 'The Long Voyage Home' available in George Woodcock's Malcolm Lowry The Man And His Work

The unfortunate thing is that the movie does appear to be available on DVD.