Panique à bord

I heard once that Andrew Stone and Alfred Hitchcock were friends. If so, I can just imagine those two gents sitting around during a long, rainy evening discussing ways of torturing an audience with suspense.

"The Last Voyage" cuts to the chase right away. Something happens on board the ocean liner "Claridon" and before you can sing "row, row, row your boat" the vessel is plunged into crisis. No soapy melodramas, bickering couples, singing nuns, etc. Just a good old-fashioned straightforward action flick. There are two stories. One involves the entirely myopic attempt by the captain (George Sanders) to save the ship and his reputation. He's the voice of authority in denial, prevalent in countless movies (where he's challenged by the pragmatic man-of-action). "Jaws" is a prime example.

The other story concerns the entrapment of Robert Stack's wife in the film (Dorothy Malone) under a steel beam and his race to save her. Naturally, Stack soon finds himself at odds with the captain as he tries to get help to free his wife, and all kinds of obstacles get in his way. Meanwhile things are getting worse with the ship. The suspense keeps cranking tighter and tighter, as I breathlessly watch and try to convince myself that all will be well in the end - to no avail! Filming on a real ship is what really makes this movie work; in fact, the ship becomes a major character in the story. There's very little suspension of disbelief required. Stone keeps the story moving with dispatch and the ninety minutes fly by quickly. There are a few anomalies that I found problematic (where were the ship's medical staff, and how could the captain be SO intransigent), but these were diminished by the strong emotional elements and the movie's depiction of courage, devotion and loyalty, which were inspiring.

I found Dorothy Malone to be particularly moving as the wife who, sensing a hopeless situation, just wants her husband and their kid to get themselves off the ship. It may be that, because I found her to be so sanely practical and REAL, that I kind of fell in love with her. She's the emotional centre of the film.

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.

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.

We have to say this was a real surprise when it was presented by TCM the other night. Andrew Stone's "The Last Voyage" makes an impressive film that got our attention from the start. Mr. Stone, working with his own screen play, makes a great disaster film about a luxury ocean liner that encounters problems in the middle of the Pacific.

This film looks so real, it's hard to believe it's a filmed account of a real disaster. The old Ile de France was used for the exterior shots and sunk for realism sake. The story is compelling, as well as terrifying. Imagine to find yourself in the middle of an ocean facing death aboard luxurious surroundings!

That is the fate the Hendersons encounter on their way to Japan. Cliff and Laurie are happily married with a small daughter. Everything looks good, but a funereal note is delivered to the captain in the middle of a meal. "Fire in the engine room"! This is only be beginning of the end. We realize this is going to be a horrible experience.

The film feels real. When an explosion occurs, Cliff returns to his cabin only to find Laurie trapped by some steel panels and he can't move her. To make matters worse, he finds his young daughter in a panic holding dearly to her life on a ledge of what used to be her room. The rescue effort of the girl, in a terrifying scene, is one of the most heart wrenching things in the movie. We watch, in horror, at the end, as Laurie is kept alive from drowning,

Excellent acting from all the principals. Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, George Sanders, Edmond O'Brien, Jack Krushen, Woody Strode and the rest of the cast, makes this a film that delivers a lot of action and keeps us glued to what's happening.

A film to recommend those with a strong heart. A great achievement for the director Andrew Stone.