THE LAST VOYAGE

Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone

THE LAST VOYAGE (1960). Written and directed by Andrew L. Stone.

Robert Adams (George Sanders) is the captain of the cruise liner SS Claridon, which will be retired after only five more voyages. Adams is hoping that he will be given a new ship and a promotion, and is therefore reluctant to see a major problem when a fire breaks out in the hold. Unfortunately, this fire leads to an explosion that not only causes a number of deaths, but traps one lady, Laurie Henderson (Dorothy Malone), under a piece of steel in her shattered cabin. As the captain and crew argue about what to do next, Laurie's husband Cliff (Robert Stack) tries to get someone, anyone, to help him free his wife before the ship goes down, and also importunes a compassionate crew member, Lawson (Woody Strode), to get his little girl, Jill (Tammi Marihugh), into a lifeboat.

Strode, little Marihugh and Stack

Part of the reason that this gut-wrenching disaster film works so well is that it was filmed not on a Hollywood sound stage but on the SS Ile de France, which was retired the previous year. The ship was partially sunk and these sequences certainly add a chilling veracity to the proceedings. The climax with surviving characters racing to get off the boat as gallons of water wash down the corridors and over the decks is thrilling and fantastic. Not only is there the horrible dilemma of whether or not Cliff can leave his wife to die so that he can be a father to their child -- Laurie even contemplates suicide to free him from that choice --  but at one point the little girl is trapped herself over a huge hole in the floor.

George Sanders

There is also some first-rate acting from such players as Malone, Sanders and Strode, although Stack hardly gets across the desperation that his character would be feeling. Edmond O'Brien is fine as the chief engineer, who clashes bitterly with the captain in one especially effective sequence. Little Tammi Marihugh is a natural performer, and when she has to crawl on a board over a deep pit you have to wonder if she was actually acting or not; she certainly out-acts Stack. There are several very good supporting performances as well from such as Jack Kruschen, George Furness, Marshall Kent, and others.

Woody Strode 

The action in The Last Voyage starts even before the credits begin and never lets up, so the screenplay doesn't have much room for character development, but some of the actors are able to get it across in any case. We don't learn that much about Laurie and Cliff, but Lawson emerges as a brave and highly sympathetic figure and Sanders etches a classic portrait of the man in authority who is too concerned about his job and appearances to make sure that people are safe, and we all know how many people there are who fit that description. Andrew L. Stone also directed Doris Day in Julie. Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone were previously teamed in Written on the Wind.

Verdict: Highly entertaining and often nerve-wracking suspense film. ***1/2. 

JULIE

Doris Day and Louis Jourdan 

JULIE (1956). Written and directed by Andrew L. Stone.

Julie Benton (Doris Day) is married to her second husband, Lyle (Louis Jourdan), a famous concert pianist. However, Lyle is not only pathologically jealous, but Julie comes to realize that he may have murdered her first husband, who was supposedly a suicide. Julie seeks help from old friend Cliff Henderson (Barry Sullivan), as well as the police, but their hands are tied. She is convinced that Lyle is going to kill her as he promised ...

Doris Day and Barry Sullivan 

Julie is unusual in that the movie seems to begin in the middle of the story. More often pictures of wives with sinister husbands show the courtship, wedding, and early days of the marriage until it starts going south, but Julie gets off with a bang: our girl rushes off after Lyle has caused an off-screen scene at a gathering. This is followed by a well-done and exciting sequence in which Lyle and Julie drive off and Lyle nearly causes the car they're in to crash as it goes crazily careening down a coastal highway.

Day is in control!

The often under-rated Doris Day gives a very vivid and convincing performance as the tormented and frightened heroine, who finds herself in a terrifying position faced by many women whose husbands and boyfriends refuse to let them go and are psychopathic to boot. Jourdan may underplay too much, but he's effective enough as Lyle, and Sullivan is more than solid as the concerned Henderson. The movie's climax, in which stewardess Day winds up piloting an airliner, may seem absurd (although it actually plays out convincingly), but it's generally tense and very well acted by all. One could argue, however, that it might have been better if the wife vs psychopath scenario had played out in a more intimate manner.

Julie is well-directed by Andrew L. Stone, who keeps things moving so the audience won't ask too many questions, and Leith Stevens' [The Bigamist] score is effective backup to the proceedings. Frank Lovejoy (a cop), Ann Robinson (another stewardess on the plane), Jack Kelly ( a co-pilot) and Barney Phillips (a doctor on the flight), among others, are good in supporting parts. Aline Towne, Pamela Duncan, and Mae Marsh appear in smaller roles. Four years later Day played another terrified spouse in the equally entertaining Midnight Lace. Stone also directed the creditable Steel Trap.

Verdict: Doris in the cockpit! ***.

THE STEEL TRAP

THE STEEL TRAP (1952). Director: Andrew L. Stone.

A bank officer named Jim Osborne (Joseph Cotten), with a wife, Laurie (Teresa Wright), and a small daughter, hits upon a scheme of stealing a million dollars and taking his family to Brazil, where no extradition treaty exists. But getting out of the country with the loot proves no easy feat, as there's one complication after another involving passports in locked offices, missed flights, curious customs men, and the like. The Steel Trap is extremely suspenseful, especially at the nail-biting climax, and the two leads give superlative performances; Cotten is particularly effective. What perhaps prevents this from being a masterpiece is that the characterization is comparatively minimal. Johnathan Hale is fine as Osborne's boss, Mr. Bowers, and there are short appearances by two of the cast members of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman: William Hudson is a bank teller, and Michael Ross, who played the alien giant and the bartender in that film, is a building guard in this one. Wright and Cotten were most famously teamed in the earlier Shadow of a Doubt while Hale was in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. 

Verdict: Quite memorable and tense thriller. ***.

BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER

BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER (1953). Director: Andrew L. Stone.

Joseph Cotten plays a man who comes back into the life of his late brother's wife and daughter after the latter becomes sick and dies in the hospital. Egged on by the wife of a friend, he comes to suspect that his sister-in-law (Jean Peters/pictured) killed not only the girl [her step-daughter] but his brother as well – for money. Will she also murder his trusting little nephew, the only person who stands between her and millions of dollars? When it turns out that there isn't enough evidence for a trial, Cotten determines to murder the woman on an ocean voyage before she can dispose of the boy. But can he bring himself to do it? And is he right in his suspicions? Oh, what a picture Alfred Hitchcock could have made of this fascinating, suspenseful story, although Blueprint for Murder certainly holds the attention in any case. The audience doesn't learn the woman's guilt or innocence until the very end of the movie. Filmed on a very low budget, the film generally has the appearance of a TV show when it comes to production values, but it's very absorbing and well-acted all the same.

Verdict: Worth a look. ** 1/2.