We have another nautical movie for this week’s Pulp Fiction post. It’s not as good as Lifeboat but it was directed by a mere mortal, not the immortal Alfred Hitchcock.

I don’t care for contemporary action movies. They’re loud and dumb with characters only their mother could care about. That wasn’t always the case. Andrew L. Stone’s 1960 film The Last Voyage epitomizes old school action movies. One could even call this a non-disastrous disaster film.

The Last Voyage is set on the SS Claridon, an aging passenger liner scheduled to be retired after a few more voyages. It’s a comfortable but creaky ship until everything went haywire.

A goodly portion of the movie was shot on a real life cruise ship, whose owners let it be sunk because it was destined for the scrap yard anyway. The owners crawfished on that and caused Stone and his co-producer wife Virginia endless headaches. The good news is that the movie is as entertaining as all get out despite many production problems.

The characters we get to know best are Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, and their daughter played by Tammi Marihugh. They go to hell and back in the movie with Stack obliged to rescue his daughter from this peril:

It gets worse for our stars. Dorothy Malone is trapped and nearly drowns when the ceiling of their cabin collapses:

Stack spends much of the movie vainly seeking help  and enlists former football star Woody Strode in his quest to save Dorothy Malone:

Holy beefcake, Batman.

The captain of the wayward vessel is a stubborn man deep in denial played by George Sanders. Here he is in heated conversation with fellow Oscar winner Edmond O’Brien:

Sanders is what one could call a Show Captain, specializing in the care and feeding of the passengers. This is a shot of him on the bridge with the real mariner played by another George, Furness:

Sanders doesn’t listen to the Other George. He tries to put on a good show as the ship goes down but his slow decision making hinders the crew’s efforts to save lives.

The Last Voyage runs an action packed 91 minutes. There’s not a wasted second but character development was not a priority. That’s okay, the movie delivers many thrills, chills, and the odd spill.

There are a few minor continuity issues I noticed on second viewing, but they don’t bother me. Writer-Director Stone delivered a fine film starring an excellent cast.

This is the third film written and directed by Andrew L. Stone that’s appeared in this feature: Highway 301 with Steve Cochran and Julie with Doris Day came before. Cochran and Doris played a married couple in another film featured here, Storm Warning.

Grading Time: I give The Last Voyage 3 stars and an Adrastos Grade of B.

I hope my first disaster film post wasn’t too disastrous. I enjoyed writing it almost as much as watching the movie. It was much drier as well.

It’s time to posterize your life. I mostly found quads online so let’s lead with one:

Here’s the three-sheet for the French release of The Last Voyage:

Now that we’ve seen wet movie stars, let’s go to the lobby:

This week, we have color lobby cards for a color film. There’s a first time for everything.

Let’s abandon ship and watch the trailer:

The last word goes to TCM host Alicia Malone: