Panique à bord

• 3/5 STARS -

A family battles for survival as an explosion devastates their cruise ship and punctures its hull. The father must race to free his wife as rising waters threaten them all.

The Last Voyage is fun to watch because it's so OLD. This is the first modern motion picture involving a sinking ship OTHER THAN the Titanic. The movie is squeaky-clean, and Robert Stack is as wooden as a two-by-four as the desperate father. There's not much dramatic tension created here, but that almost seems to be a function of the time period.

This is the final voyage of the U. S. S. Claratin, and her primitive construction becomes critical when a fire in the engine room melts the fuel flow valves in the fully open position. Within minutes, the boiler explodes and creates a very visually satisfying hole blown through every deck of the ship. Of course, this hole separates the family, and when the father struggles to rescue his daughter by trying to cross this bottomless void, we know this movie is going to try hard. And it does.

The special effects are somewhat sparse but exceptionally well done for the period. I was surprised by the level of expensive detail, such as water pouring in through the dining room windows even though they're only visible for a few moments. Dad's first challenge is to rescue his daughter from her perch alongside the path of the boiler. Then he must find a way to free his wife, who lays pinned under several steel beams in her stateroom. This becomes his objective for the remainder of the movie.

A friendly fireman (one who stokes the fires in the engine room) helps Stack get the equipment he will need to free his wife. Meanwhile, the sailors below decks attempt to reinforce the walls of the engine room to prevent the bulkhead from breaching. It does, of course, and that's when everyone really starts to run out of time.

This movie is particularly memorable for its ending sequence, which shows the survivors running down the length of the ship's upper deck, as water splashes onto the floorboards from the sea. This visual is striking, and even a modern audience will wonder how the shot was done; was this a giant set or did the producers simply sink a ship and film its last few minutes above water?

Disaster enthusiasts should see The Last Voyage because it stands uniquely alone in the timeline of movie history. It was the first modern movie based upon people being trapped in an enclosed construction (such as a boat or a building) that was NOT based on a historical event (such as the sinking of the Titanic). More importantly, the plot of the movie was focused on dealing with the disaster, rather than the disaster coming as a big finish to the main story line. This is the formula that dozens of movies would attempt to perfect for the remainder of the century and beyond.

Although it is rather bland, this film is crisp, efficient, and a key turning point for the genre. It represents Hollywood's first try at the modern disaster movie: it features a plot focused on multiple characters escaping from a fictional situation, while fighting for survival amid expensive special effects.

There's a part of me that says that if you want to watch a movie about the dramatic sinking of an ocean liner and the fate of its passengers you could just watch any of the several versions of the Titanic story - some of which were already out in 1960 when "The Last Voyage" was made. They, while heavily dramatized, do have the advantage of being based on a real incident. But there was no "SS Claridon" (although some say that some aspects of this film were loosely based on the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria a few years earlier.) Without the factual basis, this movie depends on the story itself, and as it turns out the story is pretty good and becomes increasingly tense as it reaches its last 15-20 minutes.

The movie opens with a fire in the ship's engine room. So we get right into the drama; there's no build up and no time spent introducing the characters. That initial fire is the beginning of a series of problems that make it clear that the Claridon is doomed; there's no hope of saving it. You might wonder - if things are made clear that early - where the movie is going to go, and I admit that for the first bit I was wondering this myself. But the writers made a very good decision: rather than giving us a huge collection of revolving stories we basically were given just one - a woman (Dorothy Malone) who's pinned in her cabin by debris after the explosions on board and who can't get free, and her husband (Robert Stack) who's desperately trying to save her as the water rises all around her. Throw in their daughter (played by an 8 year old Tammy Marihugh - who I thought was going to turn out to be an irritating child actor but who actually ended up putting on a pretty believable performance as the terrified child) and you have a series of sympathetic characters to root for, and you do empathize with their increasing desperation as things become more and more hopeless. You also have some tension in the crew that serves as a sort of backdrop, as the captain (George Sanders) seems reluctant to do very much at first, being more concerned with the ship (and a pending promotion) than with his passengers. I thought the performances were good all around. The special effects were also well done (the movie was nominated for a special effects Oscar) and even though this was made in 1960, this doesn't really have a dated feeling at all - although the very last scene showing the Claridon going under looked completely fake. One weakness throughout I thought was the repeated use of narration by George Furness (who also played one of the ship's officers who disagreed with the captain's handling of the unfolding disaster.) While it sped the movie along by recounting in a few seconds what might have taken several scenes to establish it just didn't seem to fit with the dramatic feel of the movie.

This was clearly an early entry in what would become a familiar genre in the 1970's: the disaster flick. Compared to most of those films this one stands up very well. It's better than anything in the "Airport" series and although I liked "The Poseidon Adventure" it avoids becoming gimmicky (in the way that the capsized ship was a gimmick in that movie.) Anyone who became a fan of those later disaster movies really should give this one a chance. (7/10)

A good decade before the disaster films of the '70s we had this engrossing, tightly knit disaster film about a luxury passenger liner's last voyage after a fire and explosions make it sinkable.

George Sanders is the Captain who doesn't want to alert the passengers and thinks the fire can be contained before things get worse. Robert Stack is traveling with his wife and daughter and having a wonderful time until they learn the hard way that the ship is doomed. Most of the film has him trying to find someone help him rescue his wife who becomes trapped beneath some steel girders. Fortunately for him, Woody Strode agrees to help and most of the suspense deals with their efforts to free her despite no help from the Captain or his crew--until Edmond O'Brien joins forces with them to free her.

All of the details are realistic and certainly the actors had to undergo some uncomfortable physical demands in going through their paces. Woody Strode is impressive both physically and otherwise as the man who gives his all to help Stack. He and Robert Stack give the strongest performances in their physically demanding roles.

George Sanders is rather bland as the stubborn Captain but since most of the action concerns Stack and his efforts to free Malone, it doesn't matter too much. Dorothy Malone is impressive as the woman who tells her husband and daughter to save themselves before it's too late.

A very engrossing thriller...but one that had me squirming uncomfortably while watching situations that seemed painfully real. A forerunner of James Cameron's TITANIC, it tells the tale in a swift one hour and thirty minutes with some of the action filmed aboard the real Ile de France.

After a fire in the engine room, "Claridon" luxury liner captain George Sanders (as Robert Adams), in true disaster movie form, orders engineer Edmond O'Brien (as Walsh) his crew to make repairs without telling on-board passengers. But, when the ship suffers a subsequent explosion in its boiler room, everyone knows something has gone horribly wrong. Job-transferring from Sacramento to Tokyo, Robert Stack (as Cliff Henderson) finds beautiful blonde wife Dorothy Malone (as Laurie) pinned under some debris. Moreover, red-haired daughter Tammy Marihugh (as Jill) is left cowering on the side of their cabin, which has lost its floor.

Watching Mr. Stack rescue his daughter is a highlight, even though you know how this will play out; rest assured, filmmakers weren't in the habit of killing off cute little girls in the beginning of 1960 movies. From then on, the story focuses on Stack's efforts to save Ms. Malone while passengers and crew scramble for survival. Stack and Malone must consider the possibility that she - still pinned under a steel beam - should go down with the ship. One of the first crew people willing to help the couple is presciently cast Woody Strode (as Hank Lawson). Writer/director Andrew L. Stone and his wife Virginia make "The Last Voyage" an exciting trip.

******** The Last Voyage (2/19/60) Andrew L. Stone ~ Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Woody Strode, Edmond O'Brien

Andrew and Virginia Stone, the husband and wife creative team who conceived and made the film The Last Voyage had the good fortune to use a real ocean liner in their film. No miniatures for their special effects which got The Last Voyage its only recognition from the Academy.

That harbinger of bad luck named Murphy must have been on the passenger roster of the S.S. Claridon which was captained by George Sanders because the law he espoused was operating full tilt on this trans-Pacific voyage. It all starts with fire in the boiler room which leads to a series of bad luck and bad decisions.

The story of the doomed ship Claridon proceeds on a double track. There is the story of the ship sinking itself and particularly the clash with Captain Sanders and Engineer Edmond O'Brien. The second is the personal story of Robert Stack who with wife Dorothy Malone and their little girl Tammy Marihugh are traveling to Tokyo for Stack's job. When an explosion occurs both Malone and the little girl are trapped in the cabin. With all that's going on around Stack finds precious little help for his family's personal plight.

The Last Voyage is a tightly paced drama which does not waste a second of film frame in the telling of its story. Best in the film I think is Malone who is just brilliant as the woman coming to grips with an impending doom. Honorable mention should also go to Woody Strode who plays a ship's stoker who renders needed assistance to Stack in his hour of trial.

The Last Voyage was nominated for Best Special Effects, but lost to the only other film nominated that year, George Pal's The Time Machine. I'd hated to have been an Academy voter that year and have to make that choice.

Five years earlier the Andrea Doria disaster had happened only minutes from New York harbor. The stories from that sea disaster were fresh in the public mind, let alone the story of the Titanic.

Fifty years after it was released The Last Voyage holds up well and even the technology changes haven't dated this film one bit. This one is highly recommended.