Girl Overboard (1937)

The Girl Overboard is Mary Chesebrooke (Gloria Stuart) but she doesn't take her dunk into the deep until the film's final minutes. A department-store model, Mary takes a break from her work and embarks upon an ocean voyage. Any hopes for a peaceful vacation are dashed when one of Mary's fellow passengers is murdered. The victim is Mary's lecherous boss Alex LeMaire (Sidney Blackmer), so guess who the police suspect? With the help of district attorney Paul Stacey (Walter Pigeon), who also happens to be on board ship, Mary clears herself, but not before nearly perishing in a fire at sea. The title of this little actioner is amusingly ironic, considering that, six decades later, leading lady Gloria Stuart would be Oscar-nominated for her performance as a shipwreck survivor in Titanic (1998). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi