AllMovie

Talking pictures made a star out of veteran movie villain Louis Wolheim, perhaps because his voice revealed a heart and soul otherwise obscured by his ugly countenance. In Sin Ship, Wolheim plays a schooner captain who is forced to protect reluctant passenger Mary Astor from his sex-starved crew. Actually Wolheim is saving Mary for himself, but he reverses his rape plans when he genuinely falls in love with her. Since virtually no one in Hollywood would dream of casting the fearsome-looking Wolheim as a romantic lead, the actor decided to direct Sin Ship himself. Sadly, this picture represented the last screen appearance for college professor-turned-actor Wolheim; he died suddenly, just before the film's release.