The oceangoing epic also features Rosalind Russell, Lewis Stone, Akim Tamiroff, and Hattie McDaniel, while humorist Robert Benchley portrays a character reeling drunk from one end of the film to the other.

The lavish MGM epic was written by James Kevin McGuinness and Jules Furthman from the 1930 book by Crosbie Garstin, and directed by Tay Garnett.

Tensions are high before the Kin Lung sails from Hong Kong because some pirates are discovered disguised as women passengers, while others try to smuggle weapons aboard.

Meanwhile, Jamesy McArdle is a corrupt passenger in league with a gang of pirates planning to steal a shipment of gold bullion worth £250,000 GBP carried on the steamer.

In calm seas following a typhoon in which the ship suffered damage to its cargo and the deaths of some of the crew, the Kin Lung is boarded by Malay pirates with whom McArdle is in alliance.

When the Kin Lung docks in Singapore Captain Gaskell, still limping due to his tortured foot, concludes that his love for Sybil is superficial.

"[4] Gable had several temper tantrums on the set, which were tolerated by MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer because the star had recently won an Academy Award for Best Actor in It Happened One Night (1934) on a loan-out to Columbia Pictures, and he did not want to risk losing him.

Mayer even tolerated that Gable risked his life by refusing a stunt double in a sequence in which he assisted numerous Chinese extras in roping in a runaway steamroller that crashed up and down the decks of the cantilevered studio ship.