The Live Wire

Sailor Richard Talmadge sold a pot to a pawnbroker a year ago. Now some professors track him down. It seems it came from an extinct civilization on a tropical island. They want him to help them in their expedition to find the ruins. Alberta Vaughn sneaks her way onto the ship disguised as a man, because it's too dangerous a trip for a woman. Along the way, some of the sailors mutiny.

It's an awkwardly paced action comedy. Talmadge enlivens it a bit, with his usual acrobatics, including some interesting leaps and swinging from ropes. Talmadge first came to notice as Douglas Fairbanks' stunt double. By the middle of the 1920s, he was starring in his own movies, featuring his stuntwork. He made the last of his starring vehicles in 1936, then resumed his work as a stunt man and second-unit director. He last worked in 1967, and died in 1981, aged 88.

Talmadge's performance is hampered by his German accent, the awkward pace of cutting and the clumsily performed fight sequences. It was fairly typical of the Poverty Row movies of the era.