This unusual supernatural drama, based on a 1924 Broadway stage hit, concerns a disparate group of people who find themselves sailing to an unknown destination on a ship constantly shrouded in fog. Tom Prior (
Leslie Howard) discovers that he's travelling with his ex-boss Mr. Lingley (
Montagu Love); Mrs. Cliveden-Banks (Alice Skipworth) chats with the steward Scrubby (Alec B. Francis); Mrs. Midget (
Beryl Mercer) is curious about how her son is doing; and a young couple, Henry (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) and Ann (
Helen Chandler), wonder if they'll be together forever. In time, the passengers slowly realize what's going on -- they're in limbo between this life and the next, and Thompson (
Dudley Digges), the "examiner," is determining what will happen with them in the next world, except for Henry and Ann, who unsuccessfully committed suicide and now hover between life and death. Outward Bound was later remade as
Between Two Worlds, and again as
The Flight that Disappeared. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide