You won't be disappointed!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Leave it up to the noble and sexy and ex- footballer and extremely capable Woody Strode and Edmond O'Brien to save the day on this one. I can't believe I've never seen this movie before being a fan of the catastrophe genre of the day. Of course I wasn't even born yet when this movie was made but I'm a die hard fan of TCM and prefer the classic movies over most anything put out today. I was pleasantly surprised to see George Sanders as the Captain here as well....

Andrew L. Stone directed this early disaster yarn that stars Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone as Cliff & Laurie Henderson, who, along with their young daughter Jill, are passengers aboard an old luxury liner whose boiler explodes, starting an engine room fire that spreads out of control, threatening to sink the ship. George Sanders plays Captain Adams, and Edmond O'Brian plays the engineer trying desperately to save the ship, and help Henderson, whose wife is now trapped, and in need of a blowtorch to free her. Exciting film with a fine cast and impressively uses a real ship to sink, rather than model work, which gives this film an added feeling of authenticity.

This early disaster movie is dated and hackneyed but it manages to build to a suspenseful conclusion.What would you do in a similar situation -- drown with your spouse or jump aboard a lifeboat so your only child wouldn't become an orphan? This movie was striking for the moral dilemmas that it raised; I watched it with my 8-year-old son and it was interesting for us to weigh these questions together.Yet "The Last Voyage" is full of clichés and weirdness. How preternaturally happy the central couple seemed together before the crisis hit -- I didn't believe that a married couple would act this mutually bewitched. Their daughter struck me as a mini-adult in a child's body -- her screeches were so uncharacteristic of a young girl that I wished she would slip as she blubberingly crossed a plank over an abyss. And how anachronistically odd to see the only black person on board appearing bare-chested throughout, as if he were a modern incarnation of Melville's Queequeg.The film's conclusion was suspenseful and somewhat moving despite my conviction throughout that this movie would end happily. Various illogicalities jarred along the way -- how 'bout that wife appearing glamorous throughout her ordeal? And how the hell can she stand on her own just moments after being cut from the debris? Despite such quibbles, this movie kept my interest.

I heard once that Andrew Stone and Alfred Hitchcock were friends. If so, I can just imagine those two gents sitting around during a long, rainy evening discussing ways of torturing an audience with suspense."The Last Voyage" cuts to the chase right away. Something happens on board the ocean liner "Claridon" and before you can sing "row, row, row your boat" the vessel is plunged into crisis. No soapy melodramas, bickering couples, singing nuns, etc. Just a good old-fashioned straightforward action flick. There are two stories. One involves the entirely myopic attempt by the captain (George Sanders) to save the ship and his reputation. He's the voice of authority in denial, prevalent in countless movies (where he's challenged by the pragmatic man-of-action). "Jaws" is a prime example.The other story concerns the entrapment of Robert Stack's wife in the film (Dorothy Malone) under a steel beam and his race to save her. Naturally, Stack soon finds himself at odds with the captain as he tries to get help to free his wife, and all kinds of obstacles get in his way. Meanwhile things are getting worse with the ship. The suspense keeps cranking tighter and tighter, as I breathlessly watch and try to convince myself that all will be well in the end - to no avail! Filming on a real ship is what really makes this movie work; in fact, the ship becomes a major character in the story. There's very little suspension of disbelief required. Stone keeps the story moving with dispatch and the ninety minutes fly by quickly. There are a few anomalies that I found problematic (where were the ship's medical staff, and how could the captain be SO intransigent), but these were diminished by the strong emotional elements and the movie's depiction of courage, devotion and loyalty, which were inspiring.I found Dorothy Malone to be particularly moving as the wife who, sensing a hopeless situation, just wants her husband and their kid to get themselves off the ship. It may be that, because I found her to be so sanely practical and REAL, that I kind of fell in love with her. She's the emotional centre of the film.