The Last Voyage
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| The Last Voyage (1960) | |
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| Directed by | Andrew L. Stone |
| Produced by | Andrew L. Stone Virginia Stone |
| Written by | Andrew L. Stone (screenplay) |
| Starring | Robert Stack Dorothy Malone George Sanders Woody Strode Edmond O'Brien |
| Music by | Rudy Schrager |
| Cinematography | Hal Mohr |
| Editing by | Virginia L. Stone |
| Distributed by | Metro Goldwyn Mayer |
| Release date(s) | February 19, 1960 |
| Running time | 91 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Last Voyage (1960) tells the story of an aged ocean liner, SS Claridon that meets destruction in the Pacific Ocean. Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack portray Laurie and Cliff Henderson, who are relocating to Tokyo, Japan. The ship's faulty boilers explode, and Laurie is trapped in their stateroom by wreckage. The film primarily deals with Cliff trying to free his wife and daughter (Tammy Marihugh) from their wrecked stateroom before the ship sinks. George Sanders also stars as Captain Robert Adams, Edmond O'Brien as Second Engineer Walsh, and Woody Strode as Hank Lawson, a crewman who helps rescue the endangered couple. Captain Adams is portrayed as a rather arrogant and clueless man who likes to impress his passengers and intimidate his crew and officers. The film begins with a fire in the second-class dining room, a fact Captain Adams keeps hidden from the passengers. Second Engineer Walsh lost his father on the RMS Titanic, and has a premonition that the Claridon will meet with disaster.
[edit] Trivia
The ship was actually the legendary French luxury liner Ile de France. Originally sold to a Japanese scrapyard by her owners, the French Line was appalled when they discovered the Ile de France was leased to MGM producers to be used as a floating prop. The ship was towed to shallow waters, where her forward compartments were flooded (so she appeared to be sinking by the bow); her forward funnel sent crashing into the deckhouse and her beautiful Art Deco interiors were destroyed by explosives and/or flooded. According to William H. Miller, American maritime historian, The French Line thereafter forbade any use of the ships they sold for scrap to be used for anything other than scrapping.
The film also marks the third and final pairing of Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack. They had previously starred together in Written on the Wind (1956) and The Tarnished Angels (1957) with Rock Hudson.
