Dr. March has a closer relationship with a tumor than his mail-order wife Phillipa, and local cad Hugh Dawltry just may be the cure. Alfred Green directs this mostly talky and stagey mawkish lover’s four-sided triangle, but the excellent cast delivers clunky dialogue with the utmost zeal and panache, while DP Robert Kurrle puts more effort into this minor melodrama than it probably deserves. In one great shot, he begins with a close-up of Phillipa (Doris Kenyon) and slowly pulls the camera backwards and out of the bungalow window, hides the cut to a model shot as the camera slowly glides across the jungle until it enters Hugh Dawltry’s (William Powell) home and slowly rotates until he is framed in close-up too! Jungle drums beat their seductive rhythm, celebrating the local goddess of love who became mortal for a day to experience the joys of flesh. Fucking great shot for such a forgettable little soap-opera!
The plot is four-sided in its sexual tension: Dr. March (Louis Calhern) and his lonely wife Phillipa, Hugh Dawltry whose local reputation for breaking up marriages is well known, and the Dr’s 18-year-old precocious sister Renee (Marian Marsh) who crushes on Dawltry. Unfortunately, the story is burdened with casual racism and bigotry of the time, where being white and British prevails over the Rights of the indigenous population. Though set in Kotah, the title references Phillipa’s promise in the final act to take the road to Singapore and leave both men behind. What’s interesting is that while Dawltry is a scoundrel by his own admission, he’s not dishonest to either Phillipa or Renee in the final act, revealing his deception and accepting the consequences. He’s flattered by the waifish attention from Renee but doesn’t take advantage of it either. Then, when he’s facing a bullet in the back, he slowly puts down his “old flame” and walks into the hot jungle night without Phillipa. Everyone goes their separate ways, and each character suffers from their own flaws, even the moral dual between Dr. March and our protagonist isn’t resolved in the typical manner: both are wrong!
A minor yet enjoyable 70 minutes of William Powell being a lovable and charming rogue, with a good cast to support him. And Marian Marsh is adorable. It’s nice to see a film that upsets patriarchal standards and allow a woman the chance to start life independently without the need for either lover. Does Dawltry follow her to Singapore?
Final Grade: C