Rich and Strange

Rich and Strange (1931), released in the United States as East of Shanghai, is a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock during his time in the British film industry. The film was adapted by Hitchcock, his wife Alma Reville, and Val Valentine from a novel by Dale Collins.

Plot

A couple, Fred (Henry Kendall) and Emily Hill (Joan Barry), living a mundane middle class life in London, receive a telegram informing them that an uncle will give them, as an advance against their future inheritance, as much money as they need to enjoy themselves in the present. Immediately Fred quits his job as a clerk and they leave on a cruise for "the Orient". Fred quickly shows his susceptibility to sea-sickness while crossing the English Channel. While in Paris, both are scandalised by the Folies Bergère.

As they cruise the Mediterranean, Fred's sea-sickness keeps him in bed. During this time, Emily begins a relationship with a Commander Gordon (Percy Marmont), a dapper, popular bachelor. Finally feeling well enough to appear on deck, Fred is immediately smitten with a German "princess" (Betty Amann), who hits him in the eye with the rope ring used to play deck tennis (a combination of tennis and quoits which was at the time widely played shipboard). Both begin spending their time on board with their new paramours to the virtual exclusion of each other, and each plans to dissolve their marriage. In Colombo, British Ceylon, the couple accidentally and awkwardly end up next to each other in a rickshaw, not knowing the other had even gotten off the ship.