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No relation to the 1955 Cold War melodrama of the same title, the confusing 1933 melange Hell and High Water takes place in a tawdry waterfront community. Misogynistic garbage-scow skipper Captain Jericho (Richard Arlen) is none too happy when would-be suicide Sally Driggs (Judith Allen) ends up in his net. Sally's long-buried maternal instincts resurface when she sets eyes upon little Barney (Robert Knittles), a cute baby who was left in Jericho's care by its wayfaring mother (Esther Muir). When the mother returns to reclaim the kid, Sally buys her off by using Jericho's hidden bankroll. Meanwhile, Jericho, off on a tuna-fishing jaunt, ends up being rescued at sea by an admiral (SirGuy Standing) whose life had previously been saved by our hero. Somehow these various and sundry unrelated plot strands result in a happy ending for Jericho and Sally. The direction of Hell and High Water is credited to a pair of prolific screenwriters of the period, Grover Jones and William Slavens McNutt, who would have been better off sticking to their typewriters and leaving the directing to someone who knew how.