Alan Ladd plays the "rich boy" who finds himself forced to assume sailor duties on a ship bound from New England around the tip of Cape Horn. At one point he's stripped to the waist, tied to ropes, and given a flogging in a sequence which everyone who's watched the movie seems to remember. It seemed to embody the slightly-masochistic tone which runs through many of Ladd's roles and it's far superior to the flogging scene in his later "Botany Bay."
Black-and-white photography limits the movie's visual appeal and makes it play like an "oldie" to modern audiences.