Marie Galante (DVD)

Lovely bicycle courier Marie Galante (Ketti Gallian) is shanghaied in Paris by a drunken sea captain who abandons her in the tropics and leaves her for dead. Reviving miles away from civilization, Marie makes her way to the Panama Canal in the hopes of gaining passage back to France. In the port, Marie falls in with the seedy crowd at The Pacific Gardens Nightclub. She befriends boozy singer Tapis (Helen Morgan) and Dr. Crawbett (Spencer Tracy), an undercover secret agent. Inadvertently, she becomes embroiled in a plot by international terrorists who wish to sabotage the canal while agent Crawbett must determine whose side she's on.

Created as a vehicle for the radiant Ketti Gallian, Marie Galante instead launched Spencer Tracy towards stardom and features a standout performance by Helen Morgan, the spectacularly heart-breaking star of James Whale's Show Boat.

• drama