West of Singapore
Cast & Crew
Albert Ray
Betty Compson
Weldon Heyburn
Margaret Lindsay
Noel Madison
Tom Douglas
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Oilman Dan Manton becomes engaged to London debutante Shelby Worrell. Wanting to make money before their marriage, Dan returns alone to Southeast Asia, where he refuses to drink with his associates and repulses the advances of his former lover Lou, a cafe singer who is heartbroken by his behavior. When Dan's refinery begins to run low on crude oil, he approaches Degama, who controls the only available oil lands. Finding Degama's price too high, Dan bets Degama the refinery against a five-year lease that he will increase the refinery's output in three months without using Degama's oil. Dan goes into the swamps in search of a new supply of oil, but soon comes down with jungle fever. As he is unable to find oil, he decides instead to get new boilers for his gasoline still, so that he can produce more gasoline from his supply and win the bet. Meanwhile, Shelby's younger brother Glenn arrives. Glenn idolizes Dan, so he is upset when Dan will not allow him to go into the swamps. In anger, Glenn begins an affair with the all-too-willing Lou. Dan begins to drink heavily to fight off his fever, while Degama presents obstacles to his plans. When Shelby visits, Lou, who has agreed to marry Glenn although she still loves Dan, tries to drive her off by letting herself be found by Shelby in Dan's room scantily clad to imply that she spent the night there. While Shelby is outraged, Glenn is furious, and armed with a revolver, he goes in pursuit of Dan. At the refinery, Dan holds off a tribal revolt provoked by Degama, who has paid the tribesmen to blow up Dan's new boilers. After Glenn shoots Dan and flees along with the tribesmen, Dan, although wounded, is able to forestall an explosion. He then returns to the house and reports that he has more than doubled his output before he falls unconscious. Lou nurses Dan to health and admits to Shelby that the earlier set-up was a ruse, but Shelby leaves in disgust with Glenn. Dan and Lou are finally reconciled.
Director
Albert Ray
Cast
Betty Compson
Weldon Heyburn
Margaret Lindsay
Noel Madison
Tom Douglas
Clyde Cook
Harvey Clark
Ernie Adams
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Sources conflict concerning writing credits. Only Film Daily credits Elizabeth Meehan with dialogue. Documentation in the copyright descriptions credits Adele Buffington with continuity and dialogue, while a pressbook in the copyright descriptions and other reviews credit her only with adaptation. Sources also conflict concerning the setting of the film: while the synopsis in the pressbook states the film takes place in Burma (now Myanmar), reviews cite the location as Malay. VarB commented that the story "is virtually a dupe" of the 1932 M-G-M film Red Dust. In their view, the "characters have been altered somewhat, but not sufficiently to hide [their] identity."
