The screenplay for director Sam Wood""s melodramatic film, made at MGM""s British studio, was based upon James Hilton""s short novel of the same name, first published in theBritish Weeklyand hen inThe Atlantic Monthly(April 1934 issue).He was given hard-boiled, cheesy romantic advice about being a tough, self-confident, desirable and virile man, and about how to treat dames.Blake knew of the last confirmed sighting of Batman eight years earlier before he vanished, and had always pondered his identity."In he climactic race back to Gloucester port against a rival schooner, heJennie Cushman, Manuel volunteers to climb to the top of the mast to furl the sail, but tragically is mortally injured when the mast cracks and he is plunged into the water, caught in he tangled rope and the topsail canvas.- Who did what to what?- Oh, they all did, sire.There they were in the dark; the Duke with his dagger, the Doge with his dart, and the Duchess with her dirk.