Cargaison dangereuse

Although Gary Cooper doesn't appear on screen for the first ten minutes or so, this movie is clearly his. Charlton Heston is billed second, and while his part is substantial, Cooper ultimately gets the meat of the movie. It's downright striking when Cooper, as Patch, first appears. This sea-wary captain looks nothing like the dapper romantic lead we associate with Cooper. He's grizzled, tired and dirty from head to toe. Cooper never got his universally-praised swan song moment before he passed, mainly because critics at the time panned a wonderful little movie called Love in the Afternoon based solely upon the age difference between Cooper and Audrey Hepburn.

You may not even notice, but there's very little dialog for the first forty minutes of this movie. There's such an eerie feeling, and so much going on visually, that dialog isn't even necessary. The special effects are stunning in this film. Everything in this picture, unlike contemporary movies, looks utterly believable. The beginning in particular has a few breathless sequences which certainly stand the test of time visually.

This picture is directed very capably by Michael Anderson; it nearly became an Alfred Hitchcock production before Hitchcock decided to make a little film called North by Northwest instead. No matter, Anderson, of Logan's Run and Around the World in Eighty Days fame, does a fine job at the helm. Heston plays his part, Sands, very well; free of the grandness and scope that people usually peg him for from the epics. Richard Harris also takes the villain role which could have easily come off as silly and made it dangerous and creepy.

I give this movie a 9 because I think the script could have used a couple lighter moments between Cooper and Heston. The ending scene, while a little short, was especially well-done. It takes on added emotional weight by the fact that this film would be Cooper's second to last. Watch this movie for Heston. Watch it for Harris. Watch it to see the pairing of two heavyweights in Cooper and Heston, but especially watch it for Cooper.

"The Wreck of the Mary Deare" is a British film, made by a British director, based upon a novel by a British writer (Hammond Innes), mostly set either in Britain or aboard a ship in the English Channel, and with a predominantly British cast. And yet it stars two major American actors, Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. The reason, apparently, is that Alfred Hitchcock was originally slated to direct the movie, but pulled out, claiming that the novel couldn't be filmed without turning the story into "a boring courtroom drama." (Hitchcock was fascinated by crime, especially the psychology of crime, but the criminal justice process, whether it involved police work or the courtroom procedure, held little interest for him). The task of directing the film eventually went to another British director, Michael Anderson.

The film's central theme, however, is a characteristically Hitchcockian one- the fight of a man wrongly accused to clear his name. The man in question is Gideon Patch, an American-born sea captain with the British Merchant Navy, who is accused of incompetence after his crew mutiny and abandon ship, leaving the vessel to sink; Patch alone remains on board desperately trying to save the ship. The structure of the film owes something to that of "The Caine Mutiny" from a few years earlier in that the action begins at sea and then moves to a court hearing on land. This film, however, begins in medias res when a salvage man, John Sands, boards the stricken and apparently abandoned "Mary Deare" in the middle of a storm only to find that Captain Patch is still on board. We never actually see the mutiny or the earlier part of the voyage, even in flashback, but hear about them later, both in the conversations between Patch and Sands and at the subsequent court of inquiry into the loss of the vessel. In order to clear his name, Patch needs to prove that the ship was sabotaged and the mutiny arranged by the owners as part of an insurance fraud.

This was to be Gary Cooper's penultimate film- his last, "The Naked Edge" from two years later was also directed by Anderson- and he gives a fine performance. When we first see Patch on board the stricken vessel he first seems dangerously obsessive, perhaps even mad, but we later come to realise that he is one of the few men of integrity in this film. He receives good support from Charlton Heston as Sands. By 1959 Heston was a huge star- this was also the year of "Ben-Hur"- but he occasionally agreed to appear in supporting roles to work with a director or co-star he particularly admired. (For example, he had taken a fairly minor role in "The Big Country" just for the experience of working with William Wyler). There is also a good contribution from a young, per-stardom Richard Harris as Higgins, the ringleader of the mutineers.

Anderson was something of an uneven director. He is most famous for having made "The Dam Busters", one of the most beloved of all British war films, but he also has some fairly second-rate entries on his CV, such as "Logan's Run" and "Orca" (which also starred Harris). "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" is also in some ways an uneven film. In one respect Hitchcock was correct; the courtroom scenes are not very interesting. Cecil Parker as the Chairman of the Inquiry is particularly dull. The main interest lies in the action sequences, particularly those near the beginning in which Patch and Sands are desperately trying to save both the storm-battered ship and their own lives. Although the film was made more than fifty years ago, the special effects are very well done and these sequences remain thrilling even today. The look of the film, shot in a muted palette dominated by greys, browns and greens, also seems appropriate to the film's theme of dark deeds and conspiracies.

It would have been interesting to see how Hitchcock might have treated the story. His film would probably have been very different from Anderson's, but in one respect I am glad he never got to make it. After dropping out of this film he moved onto a new project which eventually became "North by Northwest", one of his greatest achievements. 7/10

The night scenes are filmed very well but you must see them in wide-screen format or letter-boxed. For example, close scenes inside the ship at night are well filmed and staged, but literally won't make sense if not viewed letter-boxed. The outdoor sea scenes (almost all dark) are awesome, probably better than if they had been computer-generated. But again, the movements of the ships will not make sense if viewed other than letterbox. The story is largely told through movement- of ships, or of men moving around in the dark. I mention this to help any potential viewer.

Cooper gives a compelling, desperate performance that makes you really want to watch what happens to his character, Capt. Patch. Also, this is probably the most believable performance by Heston as an ordinary, non-historical, non sci-fi character. I was pleasantly surprised by both Cooper's and Heston's performances. Both performances are essentially very modern-style screen acting, and are not dated after these many years.

The supporting roles are undeveloped and one-dimensional, including the role so forcefully played by the young Richard Harris. Its a shame the great Virginia McKenna is so underused here. She could have made the film appeal to a broader-based audience. The other supporting actors (Alexander Knox at his most wooden) don't add to the film.

Even if you don't like seafaring stories, watch this for the acting by the two stars, and for the marvelous night cinematography. Film students and buffs should look carefully at the night scenes inside the ship and on the docks. You will see true night cinema work, with perfectly set light meters and minimalist lighting. In other words: nighttime lighting and camera artistry, not gimmicks.

The Wreck of the Mary Deare was the next to last film of Gary Cooper and it pairs him with Charlton Heston who was fresh off his Oscar from Ben-Hur. Between the two of them they were the heroes of six sound Cecil B. DeMille films. And this film does have some special effects old C.B. DeMille might have enjoyed.

Salvage tug captain Charlton Heston based in the UK comes across an abandoned freighter named the Mary Deare. Only Gary Cooper, sporting a head injury, and acting very mysterious is on the vessel. When raging seas prevent Heston from reboarding his ship, Cooper saves his life by hauling Heston on board when he can't hold on to the rope.

In the meantime Cooper completes his objective which was to beach the ship on a series of jagged rocks in the English Channel named the Minquieries. He's doing this because he suspects skullduggery from the crew and the late captain of the Mary Deare.

Americans Cooper and Heston are given good support by a cast of players from the UK such as Emlyn Williams, Michael Redgrave, Alexander Knox, and Mary Ure. The villain of the piece is second officer Richard Harris in one of his early and acclaimed parts before he became a star.

The Minquiries have a lot of legend about them. They are the top of an Atlantic based plateau. None of them are big enough to rate being called an island. Smugglers and pirates in centuries passed piled many a ship on them and looted the contents. Today the only thing on them are small fishing huts. They are a well known hazard to navigation.

The scenes involving the wrecking and salvage of the ship are well done. Many years ago I saw a picture of MGM's special effects man Buddy Gillespie inside the tank with the model of the Mary Deare. It was an interesting insight into the special effects game on the high seas.

Fans of both Cooper and Heston will like this film. I suspect C.B. DeMille regretted not having a chance to direct his two favorite leading men in a joint project.

Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston star in "The Wreck of the Mary Deare," along with an incredible supporting cast including Richard Harris, Michael Redgrave, Alexander Knox, and Emlyn Williams. The reason for such a cast? The original director was to be Alfred Hitchcock.

Heston plays John Sands, captain of a small rescue ship, who finds the freighter Mary Deare drifting. The crew seems to have abandoned the ship, but there's one person left, the first officer Gideon Patch. What happened on board isn't certain, but Patch begs Sands not to say anything about the ship until there is an official investigation and the ship is examined by an objective third party. Sands goes along, though this means not telling anyone that ship hasn't sunk, as people are led to believe, but that it is on the Minquiries Islands.

Very good drama, with a screenplay by suspense writer Eric Ambler. The shipboard atmosphere and storm sequences are great, and the performances are strong. Despite filming shutdowns due to Gary Cooper being ill, you wouldn't know it from his fiery portrayal of Patch, whose reputation and career are on the line. Heston does very well opposite him.

This is really the best of Gary Cooper's last few films. He only made one film after this, The Naked Edge, released in 1961 after his death, and that was a bomb. By that point, he had to stop filming frequently to get oxygen. He was ill while making "Mary Deare," but probably didn't realize that he had cancer. Amazing that he worked to the very end. He deservedly died the huge star that he had been for 30-plus years.

Very good movie, suspenseful, with great performances, atmosphere, and effects.