Still image from the 1932 film One Way Passage.

One Way Passage

Directed by Tay Garnett

An ocean voyage leads to romance for a dying heiress and a condemned criminal.

1932 1h 9m Drama TV-G

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CAST
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Tay Garnett, Director
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Tay Garnett
Director

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William Powell, Dan [Hardesty]
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William Powell
Dan [Hardesty]

2

Kay Francis, Joan [Ames]
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Kay Francis
Joan [Ames]

3

Aline Macmahon, [Barrel House] Betty [also known as Countess Berilhaus]
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Aline Macmahon
[Barrel House] Betty ..

4

Frank Mchugh, Skippy
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Frank Mchugh
Skippy

5

Warren Hymer, Steve [Burke]
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Warren Hymer
Steve [Burke]

FULL SYNOPSIS

In a Hong Kong bar, Joan Ames and Dan Hardesty literally bump into each other, and fall in love at first sight. Joan goes back to her friends, and without taking his eyes off her, Dan leaves the bar. Outside he is arrested by Steve Burke, a policeman who has been hunting him since he escaped from San Quentin, where he was imprisoned after being convicted of murder. Steve is a sympathetic man and, after Dan saves him from drowning while they are on board a San Francisco-bound ship, agrees to remove his handcuffs. Joan is also aboard the ship, and although she seems healthy, she is actually very ill with only a short time to live. During the voyage, Dan and Joan spend every minute together, and grow to love each other deeply. They develop a ritual of breaking their glasses after a drink to symbolize their desire to live in the moment. Dan cannot bear to tell Joan the truth about himself, but while she plans a trip ashore in Honolulu, he plans to escape. Expecting just such an attempt, Steve locks Dan in the brig. Barrel House Betty, a confidence woman posing as a countess, decides to help Dan out. Flirting with Steve, she gets the key to the brig and passes it to Skippy, a petty thief escaping from the Chinese police, who releases Dan from the cell. Steve and Betty go ashore, as do Joan and Dan. After a romantic day, Dan is about to tell Joan about his planned escape when she collapses. To save her life, Dan gives up his last chance at freedom and carries her back to the ship. The doctor warns him that another shock could kill Joan, so he keeps his secret. Steve and Betty have also fallen in love. When Steve asks her to marry him, Betty tells him who she really is, but Steve doesn't change his mind. Joan learns the truth about Dan when she overhears a ship's porter talking, but says goodbye to Dan, pretending that everything is fine. They agree to meet in Caliente on New Year's Eve even though they know that this is impossible. At midnight on New Year's Eve, a bartender in Caliente hears a sound and turns to find the shattered stems of two glasses, broken in the same way that Dan and Joan always broke them, but no one is there.


VIDEOS
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Ben Mankiewicz Intro...
Hosted Intro
Dave Karger Intro
Hosted Intro
Paradise Cocktail
Movie Clip
Smart Guy
Movie Clip
Original Trailer
Trailer

ARTICLES
This Oscar®-winning original story by Robert Lord is about a shipboard romance between a man condemned to be executed and a woman doomed to an early death. At a bar in Hong Kong, Joan (Kay Francis) bumps into Dan (William Powell) and almost immediately they are drawn to each other. But their brief time together is interrupted when Dan is arrested for a past crime and shipped back to San Francisco on the same ship Joan has booked. Dan jumps overboard but then returns to save his pursuer Steve (Warren Hymer) from drowning. In gratitude, Steve allows Dan to go without the cuffs on the voyage. During the remainder of the cruise, Dan and Joan resume their love affair, realizing that this may be their last chance for happiness. An expert tearjerker, One Way Passage (1932) was the sixth teaming of Powell and Francis and proved to be their biggest commercial hit. They were first paired at Paramount when the studio realized their on-screen chemistry together and a string of successful melodramas followed: Behind the Make-Up, Street of Chance, For the Defense (all 1930), and Ladies Man (1931). Unfortunately, Paramount couldn't keep up with their salaries and both stars were lured away from that studio and given exclusive contracts with Warner Bros. They starred in two more features there: Jewel Robbery and this film, One Way Passage (both 1932). Yet strangely, despite the box-office success of both films, Warner's never paired them again. Powell's disillusion...

ARCHIVES
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 Scene Stills from the movie 'One Way Passage'
One Way Passage
Scene Stills

NOTES

The film's working title was S.S. Atlantic. Writer Robert Lord received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story. In his autobiography, director Garnett remembers writing the treatment from Lord's original idea, but says he refused credit and was not recognized with an Oscar. Modern sources list Ruth Hall and Allan Lane in the cast. According to modern sources the film did so well at the box office that Warner Bros. remade it in l940 as 'Til We Meet Again (see below).

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