Absolutely Fantastic

A lot of fun.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Cooper retains his commanding on screen presence in his shared screen time with the rising star, Charlton Heston, in this moderately entertaining adventure/courtroom drama. Cooper is an acting captain, Gideon Patch, abandoned by his crew as the cargo vessel, The Mary Deare, is apparently on its way to sinking. Salvagers, including Heston's Sands, see the ship and plan to possibly attain from it whatever value it might hold. Sands doesn't expect to meet Patch on board considering how badly maligned it looks, but that isn't even the beginning of what he will be a part of before the film is over.Airplane parts that were to be transported are believed by Patch to be the reason behind systematic ruination of the Mary Deare (explosions, among other potentially purposeful acts to sink the ship). When confronting his captain about the criminal activity he considers by the crew, Patch is dismissively defied of his concerns. What happens between Patch and this captain, how the crew leave the ship under suspicious circumstances, why Patch would want to purposely drive the Mary Deare into the dangerous French Les Minquiers coral reefs to conceal its location, a British court inquiry on what happened to the ship (and on board it), Patch's abilities at commanding a water vessel of any kind, Patch's needed alliance with a jaded Sands who continues to trust less and less in the *man alone*, and the eventual return to the Mary Deare of Patch to prove his theory is correct about the reason behind sinking the ship to Sands all factor as key plot developments that drive this film. Heston does show here it was only a matter of time before he would be a big star (Ben Hur was this same year), but he concedes to the absolute star power of a dying Cooper who is still a charismatic icon. I think the best part of the film is the opening of it as the friction between Cooper and Heston's characters are heightened by the ship's condition and ongoing weather conditions both dangerous to them (accompanied by the approaching coral reefs, as well). The ship itself looks quite damaged, taking on water and looking quite aged. Heston trying to help keep the ship from total decline and eventual sinking while Cooper seems dead set on beaching the Mary Deare produces hotheaded back-and-forth. I like that there's this obvious gradual build up of respect although distrust during the trial somewhat fractures the good will starting to emerge between the two macho stars.That integrity and pursuit of proving that a greedy slug named Higgins (a young Richard Harris) was chief among the crew in helping his company sink the Mary Deare really establishes another Coop character so symbolic to that very recognizable archetype he was known for throughout his career. Seemingly a man with the whole world against him, this is the kind of part that seems fitting at the very end of Coop's career (he'd be dead the very next year). Coop's assertive nature at the beginning as Heston inadvertently stumbles onto a major situation when boarding his ship, the latter becoming an unwitting participant in the Mary Deare's beaching and secretive location is intriguing. Also I think you can understand why Heston's salvager would be puzzled and frustrated with Coop's acting captain, particularly as the treatment and hidden agenda of the Mary Deare is concerned. The courtroom portion of the film, I understand, is important to build the plot and place Coop under a lot of scrutiny, but it kind of grounds the film after that really adventurous, thrilling opening involving the cargo ship and how it was under a severe deterioration due to how the crew treated her. I think Cooper gains our sympathy as a wronged man trying to identify a crime and use the inquiry as a means to expose corruption. The insurance that would've made the company a lot of money due to the ship's sinking thanks to the pricey cargo, Coop is up against a powerful entity. This isn't a bad MGM product, even if its superb opening kind of loses momentum when the two men return to land for the inquiry. Michael Redgraves is rather wasted as a lawyer, but Ben Wright is amusing as the tug boat captain of Heston's salvager, The Sea Witch. Wright has one of those captains who listens to everything his ship's mate has to say, and he's always around during the whole Mary Deare business as it involved a salvage so possibly valuable. While a capitalist, Wright's tugboat captain becomes a crucial ally to Cooper when all is said and done thanks to Sands' involvement. The stuffy inquiry and how Coop seems guilty by everyone, trying but failing to emphasize his innocence and spotlight criminal behavior through the series of happenings on the Mary Deare produces that gulp in the throat that proves its worth to the overall presentation of the film.

I just love this film. For years I had to be content with my old VHS television print. When it was finally released on DVD I was amazed! Beautiful Wide Screen print, sharp and clear which makes for an even more enjoyable viewing experience. I have watched this film easily twenty times since first discovering it back in the late 70s. Always a Chuck fan, my wife and I were fortunate enough to meet the great man when he visited Australia for a Literary Luncheon to promote his book 'In The Arena'. It's still hard to believe he was left us. From the opening shot this film will grip you.It starts off with a good twenty minutes of seafaring action before settling into a solid land based drama in the middle and returning to the sea for an action-packed finale. Featuring the dynamic duo of Charlton Heston and Gary Cooper with top support by Ben Wright, Alexander Knox, Emlyn Williams, Michael Redgrave, Cecil Parker and Virginia McKenna and a truly menacing turn by Richard Harris. A memorable sound track as well!

I realize that great special effects shouldn't make or break a movie, and they don't here, but they ARE really terrific. The shipwreck scenes in the beginning of the film are not only great for 1958, they're great by today's standards too. I'd love to see a making of documentary. I'm so bored with the special effects "making of" docs of today. It's always that everything was first shot against a green screen, and then come the interviews with the SPX guys telling you what they did and how hard it was to do. "Yep, we just programmed the computer and went for coffee while it rendered the action". Yeah, really impressive. No computer here. This is the true essence of what used to be a CRAFT. Albeit scaled down, everything you see here on the screen actually existed in real life and not in cyberspace. I don't know if anyone will ever read this, or even care to compare, but watch the similar ship scenes in the newer version of King Kong and then compare them to what was done here almost 50 years sooner. IMHO, the scenes in the 2005 "King Kong" look more like a very realistic cartoon! Same thing with this years "Flyboys". The dogfights had a lot of great "camera" angles and thrilling sequences, but nowhere near as thrilling as done almost 80 years before for "Wings". And besides, that cartoon look clashes with the live action stuff. Yes, NOT using a computer WOULD have made things harder for the "Flyboys" and "Kong" crews, but if they're really any good they would have come up with better results! That's why the director of "The Fugitive" crashed a REAL train for the film rather than stoke up the computer chips. You really want real, you have to have real in there someplace! I really think that the film industry has it backwards. Huge budget films should spend all that money on the harder to do but more satisfying "hand crafted" SFX and leave the computer generated junk for the low budget flicks.

Anyone connected to the sea or anyone who just likes a good sea story is going to love this movie. This movie isn't Ben Hur or High Noon nor does it try to be, but this is still a very worthwhile movie. The opening scenes of this film set it's mysterious and eerie tempo, almost a film nourish character that carries the viewer through the movie. I particularly enjoyed the scenes depicting the ship itself and found them to be more realistic and believable and better shot than almost any other movie of the genre. I can only hope that one day this long forgotten film with be rediscovered and find a new audience in a DVD version.