Sensation Hunters (1933) User Reviews (17)

Arline Judge Gets Her Dream Role!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 6 May 2014]

If Arline Judge hadn't been so matrimonially minded she would have made a first class comedienne. Initially compared to Clara Bow, she was one of the new crop of youngsters who were introduced in "Are These Our Children". She played the gin and jazz mad teenager who puts Eric Linden on the wrong road but when she lightened up her heavy vamping she proved up to the mark as a wise cracking secretary to Ricardo Cortez in "Is My Face Red?". By the time she found her dream role as smart talking Jerry in "Sensation Hunters" she was already on marriage No. 1 and her career quickly reverted to second place as she doggedly looked for Mr. Right!!

A better name for this movie would have been "Panama Hijinks" - there were no "sensation hunters" in this movie and in spite of the lurid, racy poster no nudity or salaciousness either. Aristocratic Dale Jordan (Marion Burns) is part of an all girl troupe sailing down to Panama - her room-mate on the voyage is sassy Jerry (Judge, in a role she was born to play) who shows her the ropes. Burns carries the romantic plot of the movie along with Preston Foster as Tom, a stuffy mining engineer but Judge provides the wise cracks and the fun - "Love's a high class name for hooey", "she's a sailor's delight" etc. Established at a Panama cabaret Dale proves a singing sensation but behind the scenes the girls are ruled by the indomitable Trixie who forces them to hustle the customers for drinks as well as pick their pockets.

Tom decides he can't bear to watch Dale work in such a seedy environment but his place is soon taken by Jimmy (Kenneth MacKenna, a husband of Kay Francis) a happy go lucky blue blood who is desperate to marry. When she is kicked out of the troupe for intervening between a battling Trixie and a drunken chorus girl - suddenly Jimmy is not so keen, but wait, he isn't a bad guy!!! It seems he is already married - to a money grubbing leech who will not give him a divorce. He is distraught and can only see one way out!!

The film seems to step on the gas after this - down to their last dime, Dale and Jerry get a job at yet another low down dive where Jerry is caught in the cross fire of a shoot out. Dale then takes their hard earned savings which were going to show them a new life and arranges for Jerry to have the best medical care available - she is short with the bill by $30 and, desperate, is almost forced to resort to the world's oldest profession.....

Doing all that she could with the role of Trixie Snell was one time serial queen and Mack Sennett bathing beauty Juanita Hansen whose career was derailed in the early 1920s due to drug addiction. To her credit she was probably the first star to go public about her drug problems but of course after that no studio would touch her. And unfortunately the "cure" didn't take so the 1920s found her in and out of court, usually impressing the judge with her sorrowful demeanour. "Sensation Hunters" came along when she felt her troubles were behind her and she could look forward to getting back to movie work but unfortunately she made no impression on the studio bosses because despite of the reasonably sized role it proved to be her last film.

I'm here to sing! not to be mauled by a bunch of drunken sots!

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 5 December 2005]

(There are some Spoilers) Early exploitation movie about a naive country girl trying to find fame and fortune in the world of show business and ending up down and out not in Beverly Hills but in Panama City.

On a cruise in the Pacific young and pretty Dale Jordan, Marion Burns, joins this group of singers and dancers who embarked on her ship, in Port Los Angeles, that are headed for Panama to do a show at Panama City's swinging "Bull Ring Cafe". Striking up a friendship with singer/dancer Jerry Royal, Arline Judge, the two girls together with their fellow singers and dancers are such a sensation that the show that they do goes on for twelve weeks. Dale starts getting tired of doing her act night after night and has two rich American suitors who want her hand in marriage; businessman Tom Baylor, Preston Foster, and playboy jet-setter Jimmy Crosby, Kenneth MacKenna. Making it very difficult for her to choose which one of the two she'll want to marry.

Things on the podium of the "Bull Ring" are also starting to go sour with the head of the singing and dancing troupe Trixie Snell, Juanita Hansen, hitting the bottle every night and causing the girls to miss their steps and notes on the stage due to Trixie's constance drunken badgering and bickering. With Jimmy winning her over Dale is ready to fly, with him in the cockpit, back to New York Ciy to start a new life in the rich and glamorous world that he lives in but something goes very wrong to change Jimmy's plans.

It turns out that Jimmy is already married to Elizabeth and that she won't give him a divorce even though they've been estranged for years. Not knowing what to do Jimmy fill's her up his gas tank and stomach with gasoline and alcohol and takes a ride on his plane to think things over. Losing control due to his being heavily intoxicated Jimmy takes a nose dive and crashes on the runway in a spectacular Kamikaze-like smash-up killing himself.

Dale now alone and needing money to get back to the states goes, together with Jerry, to get her job back with the Trixie girls but in a wild argument with Trixie Jerry punches her out and the two Cabaret singers are now left out in the cold. Left to having to do song and dance acts at the sleazy Burger Bar entertaining drunken sailors and mariners.

Things don't go too well at Burgers Bar with the girls being grabbed and fondled by the drunken clientèle and the manager and owner of the bar, Mr. Burger, is not too helpful allowing all this groping to go on in order to keep his bar full of paying, but drunken, customers.

One of the persons at the Burger Bar Indian Joe, Charles Stevens, is approached one evening by the local police for questioning in a number of knifing. It's then that all hell breaks loose with Jerry ending up in the hospital with a bullet in her chest. Needing money to pay Jerry's hospital bills Dale takes all the money she saved up, $150.00, to get back to the USA and pays for Jerry's hospital stay in Panama City.

The film "Sansation Hunters" does indeed have a happy ending with Tom Baylor coming to Dale's rescue, after receiving a letter from Jerry about her's and Dale's plight,and are soon married. As for Jerry her long lost boyfriend and sailor Olaf Anderssen, Jack Pennick, who one evening years ago in a Shang-Hai bar got so drunk that he missed his boat and was left stranded in the Chinese port city not knowing a word of Chinese. Well Olaf's now back in Panama City to start where he left off with his Jerry but this time not as a sailor! He not only learned to speak Chinese but worked himself up the ladder to become an Admiral in the Chinese Navy!

P.S the actor Charles Stevens playing to part of Indian Joe is not only a real American Indian but the grandson of non-other then the legendary Apache Indian Chieftain-Warrior Geronimo!How About That!

Rollicking Pre-Code

[boblipton · 7/10 · 15 December 2017]

Because it was Charles Vidor's first credited feature, and because it was a pre-Code flick, I was hoping to see something astonishing. I didn't, but I found it a fine pre-Code.

Marion Burns is on her first steps in what she imagines to be a career in the performing arts -- all she has been in before is college shows. She has gotten a job as a singer in Juanita Hansen's troupe, on their way to Panama, where she quickly makes friends with her room mate, cynical old hand Arline Judge, and begins a budding romance with upright Preston Foster, whose mine is somewhere around there. She soon discovers that the troupe is not called on just to entertain on stage; they're there to get the customers to buy drinks, and Hansen is an old buzzard. Gradually things go downhill...

Although Burns is the central character, it's Arline Judge who has the standout role: pugnacious, profane, liable to marry anything with tattoos, and waiting for her first husband to show up again, she's a three-ring circus on her own. It's a lively movie and a lot of fun.

Another film using the GeeBee Racer crash footage!

[robinakaaly · 4 August 2011]

Actually, this was better than expected. On a ship going from San Francisco to Panama via Los Angeles, the posh passengers object to dancing girls going to Trixie's cabaret in the Bull Ring Café in Panama City. One of the girls, Dale, is of as different class to the rest: one can only assume she has an adventurous spirit. She befriends one of the hard-bitten girls, Jerry, who is always waiting for her husband to come back from Shanghai, and also falls for a mining engineer. However, his rather manipulative manner in suggesting she give up her stage career means they have a rather angry parting. On the ship we see lots of girls in their bathing costumes, and the two leads in their skimpies. We get more of the latter in the dressing room of the café. Dale does well as a singer and is courted by a well known airman. Having been taken out a couple of times, she agrees to fly back to New York with him, and get married there. She moves into his hotel, and though we see a rumpled double bed, Dale implies to Jerry that nothing will happen before they are married. Before they leave he has to test a biplane, but before taking it up he has too much to drink, as his wife has telegrammed that she won't agree a divorce. The air is where he always sorts his troubles out, and does so this time, courtesy of the GeeBee Racer crash footage - surprise, surprise. Dale and Jerry having fallen out with Trixie are now on their uppers, and reduced to performing in low dives to make money for the fare back to America. They've nearly got enough when Jerry is accidentally knifed in a bar room brawl. Her recuperation costs exceed the money they have, so we see Dale dressing up like a Parisienne, complete with beret. The implication is obvious. With seconds to go, the plot ravels itself up, as the mining engineer turns up unexpectedly, having been summoned by Jerry with a story that Dale was dying, then Jerry's sailor, now an admiral in the Chinese navy also arrives. Interesting shots on the ocean liner and of a three funnelled ship going through the Panama Canal.

Sensation? What sensation?

[CourtoftheTable · 5/10 · 4 September 2005]

A somewhat disjointed story. Hooray for editing. There is no direct sensation in this movie as the sleeve of the DVD intimates. I am always interested in precode films and how they handled sex. This one has none. The story is eh. A great example of precode sex in films is the one with Constance Bennett The Common Law. Now thats a great story. Anyway its interesting to see Walter Brennan in a minor role and to see Preston Foster as our hero. Juanita Hansen as Trixie plays the alcoholic leader of the womens troupe entertaining sailors and various other vagabonds. The story jumps around too much to be given any serious consideration but I was curious you might be too.

It's a bit of a guilty pleasure--I really enjoyed it and it was NOT the sleazy film you'd think it was based on the poster

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 8 August 2011]

I watched "Sensation Hunters" for two reasons--it looked like a very scandalous Pre-Code film and it was free to download (from the IMDb link). However, I was happy to see that while it had strong Pre-Code sensibilities, it was NOT a salacious film like you'd think based on the poster currently used on its page on IMDb.

The film begins with Dale (Marion Burns) being incorrectly assumed to be among the aristocrats traveling on a cruise ship. However, this classy lady is actually a member of a group of traveling 'dames'--low-class showgirls who would normally never be mistaken for the upper crust! During this time, she meets a nice rich guy and he grows to love her regardless of her social status. But, she did lie to him and this and some other misunderstandings keep these two apart for much of the rest of the film--which is a shame as they are head-over-heels with each other.

Once they land, Dale finds that the woman that runs the troop is a horrid lady--with the heart of a rabid wolverine. Not surprisingly, she and her new buddy end up leaving and they have it very, very rough. So rough that the friend is stabbed and Dale appears to have no option other than to sell her body to keep her friend in the hospital. Yet, despite all this, this is an amazingly chaste film. Dale is a very good woman and the audience is drawn to her and her problems. Perhaps the ending is a bit too perfect--but I really enjoyed it. Despite a very low pedigree (due to a low budget, sleazy marketing and the type of production values you'd expect in a Monogram film), the overall product is actually surprisingly good and, at times, clever.

Sensation Hunters review

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 18 April 2020]

A showgirl finds herself romantically torn between a daring pilot and a mining engineer. It's hardly surprising that Arline Judge never really made a name for herself if her weak performance here is anything to go by, and she isn't helped by the inconsequential quality of the material here. Former Mack Sennett bathing beauty Juanita Henson, presumably in the period between her cocaine and morphine addictions, stands out as the brassy, bullying leader of a dance troupe, and a youngish Walter Brennan appears in a couple of scenes as a gormless waiter. Sadly, these two provide the only scenes worth watching.

Manners & survival

[TomSunhaus · 7/10 · 31 August 2021]

Older movies often center on manners. What some call melodrama, in this case, is 1930's survival. There is no Russian Bolshevik to save the day, which leaves people catting around looking for their place in the world. Women would join a low rent musical troupe to try for success or a husband. There are some comments on relative status aboard the ship on which the movie starts. The men are scrounging for work & wives.

I enjoy the movies & plays in which manners & human behavior are important. This is missed in modern super-hero epics that are contests of super-powers. If you wish an old-fashioned contest of manners, then you should enjoy this film. It might remind you of 'A Farewell to Arms' (1932) with Gary Cooper.

Numb "shocker" from the Pre-Code era

[melvelvit-1 · 5/10 · 25 February 2015]

A gaggle of seasoned showgirls board a luxury liner bound for jobs in Panama and the "newbie" among them falls for one of the passengers but it's a rocky road to love for a good girl stranded in the tropics...

SENSATION HUNTERS isn't as cheap as later Monogram features but the only "sensation" I saw was in the film's provocative poster -unless, of course, you're wild about clichés. The eclectic cast was the selling point for me and I wasn't disappointed; sassy Arline Judge (the lady in red on the poster) as a wise-cracking, thrice-married cabaret entertainer ("a sailor's delight") was the nominal star but she played second fiddle to the heroine (the boring Marion Burns) and was no less of a firecracker off-screen, having been married eight times. Cocaine addiction ruined the career of silent screen serial queen Juanita Hansen and according to "Hollywood Babylon", she later got religion and went on cross-country bible-thumping tours denouncing drugs. She must have gotten over that because here she is in this as a blowzy "Texas Guinan"- type and, like fellow Mack Sennett bathing beauty Marie Prevost, she'd packed on a few pounds by the time talkies took over. There's even a couple of cheesy song & dance routines as Preston Foster, Kenneth MacKenna, and Walter Brennan (as a stuttering waiter) look on agog. Directed by Charles Vidor who'd later become a house director for Columbia, the little studio that could.

If you are a eternal student ...

[samantaprivate · 7/10 · 17 July 2021]

From a really cinema and score lover I feel like movies like this one that keeps hidden on a pre-code section are destinated for the ones that feels the urge to understand how society was back in the day and how the cinema was made!

I like it.

Texas Guinan in Panama

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 1 September 2014]

Sensation Hunters is a pre-code melodrama set in the tropics of the Panama Canal Zone. The action mostly centers around Trixie's Bull Pit a kind of upscale dive owned by Juanita Hansen who is Texas Guinan like character for the low brows.

Two women are going to work there, good time girl Arline Judge and newcomer Marian Nixon. The girls are kind of on the menu there as well and millionaire aviator Kenneth McKenna. He might be the answer to Nixon's prayers, but it doesn't work out that way.

Preston Foster who I usually enjoy is completely wasted in a role that only calls for him to be a shoulder that Nixon cries on. The whole story despite its trash setting is an old fashioned Victorian melodrama not likely to be revived

Nor should it.

Great film — and probably the first about Howard Hughes

[mgconlan · 8/10 · 19 February 2005]

This is an extraordinary movie, one of those quirky little gems that flourished in the days of the studio system and indicates that even an independent studio like Monogram could sometimes achieve high quality. The script is intelligent and — at least until Kenneth MacKenna's character gets into his airplane when he's drunk and we KNOW what's going to happen to him — it avoids the most obvious movie clichés. (BTW, MacKenna's character — a rich man who builds and test-flies his own airplanes — is clearly based on Howard Hughes and this is probably the first movie ever made in which a Hughes avatar appears.) Vidor's direction anticipates film noir in general and his own "Gilda," 13 years later, in particular and makes this story of degradation in the Panama cabaret scene live. The acting is appropriate and low-keyed and even the two songs are unusually good. Monogram is a little-regarded company and DID make a lot of lousy films — mostly after it was reorganized in 1937 — but in the first phase of its existence it produced some of the best indies in Hollywood: this one, "The Thirteenth Guest" (a thriller with Ginger Rogers based on a book by the author of "Scarface"), "The Phantom Broadcast" and the underrated first sound version of "Jane Eyre" with Virginia Bruce (who totally out-acts Joan Fontaine) and Colin Clive.

Top Sensation.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 20 July 2014]

With a new CEX having recently open near by,I started to gather DVD that I could trade it.As I picked up the final DVDs from the shelf,I was shocked to spot a Pre-Code title which I've been meaning to view for ages,which led to me getting ready to experience a new sensation.

The plot:

Joining Trixie Snell's showgirl dance troop,Dale Jordon and close friend Jerry Royal find themselves getting aboard with the rest of Snell's gang on a luxury cruise ship to Panama.With them being miles away from Panama,Snell takes advantage of the ship being filled with single men,by having the women offer private dances to each of their fellow travellers's,whilst also becoming experts in pick pocketing,when every man's gaze on the ship is cast towards another showgirl.

Despite being the best at hustling cash,Jordon finds herself soon wanting to get out of this lifestyle.Catching the attention (and a bundle of cash) from Jim Crosby,Jordon begins to notice that the wealthy Crosby appears to be falling in love with her,which leads to Jordon setting her sights on a new sensation.

View on the film:

Given a busted DVD transfer by Alpha Video,the screenplay by Whitman Chambers, Albert DeMond and Paul Schofield is largely able to sail over the rough waves by mixing melodrama with dollops of Pre-Code ranch.Keeping away from openly revealing what the showgirls are showing,the writer's are cleverly able to give strong hints by showing Trixie Snell constantly pushing the women to grab the cash out of the suckers hands.

Focusing on 'new girl' Dale Jordon,director Charles Vidor tastelessly uses footage from the real life GeeBee Racer crash to set Jordon sailing into the high-life,with Vidor using rather suggestive open dresses to show Jordon and the other girls desires to get away from their low- lives.Despite disappointingly giving the movie an extremely ill-fitting 'happy' ending,Vidor shows Jordon's attempts to reach the high-life,to be a dream which leads to her ending up in seedier and seedier places.

Teaming up for the movie, Marion Burns and Arline Judge each give alluring performances as Dale Jordan and Jerry Royal.Burns gives Jordon a naturally sweet,soulful side,whilst Judge gives an excellent performance as the hard living Jerry Royal,as Judge shows Royal to be unafraid to go up against the tough as leather madam Trixie, (played by a great Juanita Hansen-sadly appearing in her last title,and her one and only 'talkie') as Jordon begins to discover a new sensation.

"Girls who come down here never get home"

[view_and_review · 5/10 · 1 February 2024]

"Sensation Hunters" is another "romance" with a moralistic male who is proven right by the end. In this case the man was Tom Baylor (Preston Foster), the brief and recurring romantic interest of Dale Jordan (Marion Burns).

Dale met Tom on a cruise ship. They dined and danced together for the whole week they were on the ship. When Tom found out that Dale was a cabaret dancer who was going to be joining Trixie's show in Panama he launched into his sermon:

"Face the truth Dale, half the girls who come down here never get home unless some man pays their way. I know what I'm talking about. I've seen how it goes. Girls start drinking and they forget how rotten and sordid the whole thing is. They show up one night too drunk to go on, they have a fight with Trixie, and she kicks them out.

I'm crazy about you. I've even thought of selling my business (this for a woman he just met). Maybe if you promise not to drink. That's how the whole thing starts."

Dale: "You cheapen me by even asking such a thing."

Tom: "Cheapen you? Why you've cheapened yourself already by even associating with Trixie's crowd."

Dale: "Tom!"

Tom: "Why act like a child? Why put yourself in the way of temptations that thousands of women haven't been able to resist?"

It wasn't that Tom was necessarily wrong. It was that 1.) he didn't really know Dale so what right did he have to start telling her what she should and shouldn't do? And 2.) His approach was all wrong. He sounded like her father, and that wasn't his place. He'd only known Dale for a few days, yet there he was acting like he had all the answers for her and he could save her.

Of course, things went just as Tom said. Dale was in Trixie's show, she met a rich playboy named Jimmy Crosby (Kenneth MacKenna), he proposed to her, and she accepted though she didn't love him. Dale wanted out of Trixie's gig and out of Panama, and Jimmy was that ticket out.

She left the show and got a room in the swanky Washington Hotel. Tom went looking for her one more time perhaps hoping to convince her that he could save her, that he was what she needed. He tracked her down to the Washington Hotel where he could be a moral dictator yet again.

***Side bar***

There was no expectation of privacy back then from hotels. All a person had to do was ask the front desk about a resident and they'd offer up the answers to what they asked and more.

Person X: "Excuse me. You know where I can find Ms. Marsh?"

Front desk: "Ah yes, she's in room 204. She checked in yesterday wearing a fur coat and diamonds. She was accompanied by a gentleman and they are expected to check out tomorrow for a trip to Monaco."

Really dude? You shouldn't be giving up any information let alone information that wasn't requested

***End side bar***

Back to Tom's finger wagging again.

Tom: "I guess I was wrong about you. You're really doing better than I expected," he said in the most judgmental tone he could muster.

Dale: "What do you mean?"

Tom: "Well, you've moved up from the Bull Ring to the Washington Hotel. I understand the next hop is New York, and I suppose a Park Avenue apartment," he snidely remarked referring to where Dale and Jimmy were to get married.

At that, Dale rightfully blew past the blowhard and went about her preparations to pack and leave Panama. Then she suffered a setback. Jimmy killed himself in a plane crash. He was despondent because he'd promised to marry Dale, yet his estranged wife wouldn't grant him a divorce.

That left Dale in a predicament where she'd have to go back to dancing to earn enough money to get out of Panama. Either that or sell out and rely on a man to pay her way out.

She and her friend Jerry Royal (Arline Judge) ended up at a low-class dirty bar where sweaty, grimy, horny men pawed at them and the proprietor expected them to reciprocate. They had nearly enough money when Jerry was stabbed with a knife in the most preposterous manner.

The cops were looking for some bloke and found him. The dude wasn't going quietly so he pulled out a knife. Before everything jumped off Jerry was dancing. Once things got hot she didn't have the brains enough to get off the dance floor and find cover. The cop pulled out a gun and the wanted man pulled out his knife. Everyone else knew what time it was and scattered while Jerry just spun around in circles, clearly too confused to do anything intelligent. The cop fired a shot and the guy threw his knife hitting Jerry in the abdomen.

Jerry had to go to the hospital and Dale gave the hospital all of her money to help her get well. The movie wouldn't end like this of course. Tom came back to Panama when Dale was at her most desperate and saved her from prostituting herself. He was right in the end, and it was a man, him, that paid for her way out of Panama.

Free on Internet Archive.

Charles Vidor to the rescue!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 18 May 2018]

After leaving M-G-M, after a really sensational quarrel with Louis B. Mayor, director Charles Vidor was out of work for a few months before he found a niche at Monogram where he was hired to direct the aptly titled Sensation Hunters (1933).

Actually, the title has nothing to do with the story and was obviously added to a script that was lying around in the studio, just waiting for some director game enough to take it under his wing.

This story centers on a girl (Arline Judge) who is a member of a group of entertainers in a Panama café. Parted by one of those contrived misunderstandings from the man she loves (Preston Foster), she is befriended by another man (Kenneth McKenna).

It is almost needless to say, however, that belated happiness and reunion comes with the return of her original lover after the usual quota of trials and tribulations.

Seizing this chance with considerable vigor, Charles Vidor has directed this rather sudsy material with far greater artistry than it warranted, - especially in the final sequence where he makes commendable use of the mirror motif.

Average Old Movie

[gregberne11 · 6/10 · 22 January 2019]

This is a very old movie, I think from just after films started having sound in them. Some of the acting could be better but they were probably silent movie actors just moving into having to do talking roles, or just new to doing films in general. The story is fine and the performances too. Not super engaging or a great film but better than a lot of older movies, especially ones this old.

Nifty 30's quickie

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 29 September 2014]

Dale Jordan (a vibrant and personable portrayal by the fetching Marion Burns) aspires to be a showgirl, so she goes to Panama City to achieve her goal by working in a cabaret. While in Panama City, Dale befriends the sassy Jerry Royal (a winningly spunky performance by Arline Judge) and falls for smooth rich playboy Jimmy Crosby (solid Kenneth MacKenna). Director Charles Vidor, working from a compact script by Paul Schofield, relates the entertaining story at a brisk pace, maintains a pleasant tone throughout, and comes through with an amusing sense of cheeky'n'cheery good-natured humor. The musical numbers are a lot of fun. The breezy and natural chemistry between Burns and Judge keeps this movie bubbling along. Moreover, it's acted with zest by an energetic cast, with especially praiseworthy contributions from Preston Foster as nice guy Tom Baylor, Juanita Hansen as brash agent Trixie Snell, and, in a funny role, Walter Brennan as a stuttering waiter. Sidney Hickox's fairly polished cinematography boasts a few snazzy stylistic flourishes. A neat diversion.