AllMovie

Almost 30 years before the Peter O'Toole picture, Joseph Conrad's novel was first filmed as a silent. It was directed in typically virile manner by Victor Fleming, starred Percy Marmont as Jim, and was actually truer to the novel than the 1964 version. Jim is a seaman under the despicable Captain Brown (Noah Beery). When his ship, carrying a load of Muslims on their way to Mecca, collides with a derelict vessel, the captain and his crew -- Jim included -- desert. As a result, Jim loses his mate's certificate. Eventually a sympathetic merchant finds him work in a Malay settlement. He works his way up in the hierarchy, eventually taking over the management of the trading post after Cornelius (Raymond Hatton), and sharing leadership with the Rajah's son. Jim also comes to love Cornelius' daughter, Jewel (Shirley Mason). Brown and his crew, also blacklisted, have become pirates, and they attack the village. Although they are captured, Jim orders them to be released. They kill the Rajah's son, and Jim pays for their act with his own life.