Westward Passage (Robert Milton, 1932)

Laurence Olivier and Ann Harding in Westward Passage

Cast: Ann Harding, Laurence Olivier, Irving Pichel, Zasu Pitts, Juliette Compton, Irene Purcell, Emmett King, Florence Roberts, Ethel Griffies, Don Alvarado, Bonita Granville, Florence Lake, Edgar Kennedy, Herman Bing. Screenplay: Margaret Ayer Barnes, Bradley King, Humphrey Pearson. Cinematography: Lucien N. Andriot. Art direction: Carroll Clark. Film editing: Charles Craft. Music: Bernhard Kaun. 

Laurence Olivier made an early try at American movie stardom with this creaky marital drama, and its failure sent him back to England and success on the stage. He plays an egotistical would-be writer, Nick Allen, who makes things hard for his wife, Olivia (Ann Harding), and their small daughter. After trying to make a go of it, they divorce and she re-marries. Both find success, she in marriage and he in writing, but when they meet again on a ship bound for America from Europe, he tries to rekindle their relationship. It's a fairly flimsy movie, and Olivier looks alarmingly skinny and lupine.