Whirlpool is a 1934 American pre-Code drama film directed by Roy William Neill and starring Jack Holt and Jean Arthur. The screenplay concerns a carnival owner convicted of manslaughter after a man is killed in a fight.

Plot

Buck Rankin is a shady carnival promoter who falls in love with Helen and decides to go straight and sell the carnival. However, a fight over a con game causes a melee at the carnival, during which Rankin accidentally kills a man. He is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Eight months later, Helen reveals to him in prison that she is pregnant with his child and refuses his request that she divorce him.

For the good of his wife and child, Rankin decides to fake his own death. After seeing fellow prisoner Farley leap to his death in the roiling waters and deadly whirlpool surrounding the prison, Rankin forges a letter to Helen informing her that he died while attempting to escape and that his body had not been found.

Many years later, Rankin is released from prison. He adopts the alias Duke Sheldon and, with his carnival partner Mac, becomes wealthy by using the skills that Rankin learned while incarcerated. Helen has since married judge Jim Morrison. Sandra, Rankin's daughter by Helen, is a newspaper reporter engaged to marry fellow reporter Bob Andrews, but she knows nothing of her father's existence.

Sandra is assigned to write a story on Duke and recognizes him as her father from an old photograph that Helen has kept. She reveals herself to him as his daughter and he is overjoyed. Despite having kept a low profile, Rankin is to testify on behalf of a fellow gangster, which will court unwanted publicity that could humiliate Helen, who is unintentionally guilty of bigamy because she and Rankin were never officially divorced.

Rankin kills the gangster's lawyer, who had been pressuring him to testify and intended to inform reporters of Rankin's sordid past. Rankin turns the gun on himself and commits suicide with reporters just outside his door, the secret of his past life hidden forever.

Cast

• Jack Holt as Buck Rankin/Duke Sheldon
• Jean Arthur as Sandra Rankin Morrison
• Donald Cook as Bob Andrews
• Allen Jenkins as Mac
• Lila Lee as Helen Rankin Morrison
• John Miljan as Barney Gaige
• Rita La Roy as Thelma
• Oscar Apfel as Newspaper Editor
• Willard Robertson as Judge Jim Morrison
• Ward Bond as Farley

External links

• Whirlpool at IMDb
• Whirlpool at AllMovie
• Whirlpool at the TCM Movie Database
• Whirlpool at the American Film Institute Catalog