SEVEN WERE SAVED

Richard Denning and Catherine Craig

SEVEN WERE SAVED (1947). Director: William H. Pine. Colorized version. 

Captain Jim Wilson (Russell Hayden of Lost City of the Jungle) is looking forward to a future with Lt. Susan Briscoe (Catherine Craig of The Pretender), but their plans hit a snag when she finds out he wants to stay in the service and she wants out. Although engaged, they don't really know each other that well. Later Susan is flying as a nurse in a plane that not only carries her patient and others, but a Japanese prisoner, Colonel Yamura (Richard Loo). Yamura tries to get the pilots to fly him to an island, and the plane winds up hitting the ditch. Now the lifeboat is filled to the brim with, among others, the Hartleys (John Eldredge and Ann Doran), and the amnesiac Smith (Keith Richards), who turns out to have a highly surprising connection to Mrs. Hartley. As various problems confront the castaways hoping for rescue, chief among them Captain Danton (Richard Denning), Captain Wilson is on a desperate search for the woman he loves, but a bout of malaria may prevent this. 

Russell Hayden and Don Castle

Seven Were Saved begins with a tip of the hat to the Air and Sea Rescue Service, for which this might be considered an advertisement. Although the movie is by no means in the same league as such films as Lifeboat and similar adventures, there is an attempt to create interest with a couple of intriguing characters and situations. The film might have had more impact with a more stellar cast, but a bigger problem is the cutting back and forth between the inflatable lifeboat and the attempts to find it, and there are too many tedious stretches. However, there is some decent acting in this, and a few nice touches. Star Russell Hayden later directed When the Girls Take Over. 

Verdict: Rather minor sea crash melodrama. **1/2.