ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Raise your hand if you like a mystery set aboard a ship at sea which is testing an amazing new vacuum tube that can steer the ship by remote control, while spies attempt to sabotage the test.

Right — that was a rhetorical question, because absolutely everybody loves stories like that! What's not to love?

Unfortunately Jimbo Berkey's website, Free Classic Movies has closed down and the movie is no longer available there.

However, read his personal connection to this wild and wonderful tale, which is called Mystery Liner. (<— link to YouTube version).

* The video of this rare 1934 science fiction mystery has and excellent picture and audio, from a very fine print.
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One day in the mid 1960's while my family was living in Meadville, Pennsylvania our television set went on the blink. It was broken, and dad would try to fix it himself.

He unplugged it and removed the back cover and peered inside. He carefully unplugged all of the various sized vacuum tubes and marked which tube came from which spot. Then he carefully placed them in a small cardboard box and asked if I would like to go to the drug store with him.

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Of course I wanted to tag along . . . I was fascinated by the mysteries of television. Inside the drug store there was a large machine with a panel that contained many different plug configurations that vacuum tubes could be plugged into.

One by one dad plugged each tube into the machine, and it would tell us if the tube was good or burned out. When he discovered which tube was burned out he went to the counter and purchased a replacement tube of the same kind.



Returning home with the replacement vacuum tube he carefully plugged in all of the tubes in their proper spot, replaced the back cover and plugged in the television set. I held my breath as he turned on the set and we watched it come back to life.

Wow! Dad was just about the smartest man alive in that moment . . . he could fix a television set!

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This 1934 ship-board murder mystery revolves around a secret vacuum tube named the 'S505' . . . this vacuum tube was so special that when plugged into a wall of electrical machinery it could navigate a large steamship by remote control from the shore many miles away.

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Now, to make this adventure more exciting, they will test it on a regular voyage with a ship full of unknowing passengers. Of course we need some bad guys, so evil enemy spies are trying to mess up the test, and we discover that the foreign spies have planted two spies among the people on board the ship.

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Add in a wonderful old granny who loves to flirt with old men almost as much as she loves her scotch whiskey and we have a deliciously complicated but fun spy adventure. Soon the murders pile up and we start to suspect everyone, even a phantom insane ship's captain who may have secretly come aboard.

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Pop a big bowl of white kernel popcorn with plenty of warm melted butter drizzled on top and enjoy the show!

____Jimbo Berkey
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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This detailed review doesn't exactly recommend the movie, but it does warn the viewer about the movie's faults, as well as pointing out a few virtues.

___Mystery Liner (1934) REVIEW - CONQUERING 200 FILMS


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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There are several YouTube videos of this movie, but they all seems to be from the same initial source. The picture is only fair, despite the fact that most movies from the 1930s have very sharp images.

_______ Mystery Liner (1934) Adventure, Mystery


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)