Simply Perfect

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This movie has some spectacular scenes but too much about it makes no sense.Why should the captain be so obcessed about making a record trip in a ship headed for the scrap heap? And all the things in the boiler room that were defective, no matter how old the ship was or what was its intended fate, passenger ships were carefully inspected before each voyage, No inspector would have failed to make sure something as critical as a steam gage or safety valve was working. That kind of thing was constantly checked.Nor would an engineer in charge have to worry about begging a higher up for taking action immediately.He would have immediately cut off the fuel oil supply to all boilers to reduce pressure until he had checked everything out.Nobody in this thing uses the least common sense.And as far as the woman trapped, the sensible thing,AGAIN" would be to round up some strong male passengers to help.get a heavy beam or oron bar to use as a lever, with something to use as shims to prevent the wall from falling back down as pressure was released.FIRST clearing all the depris out of the room so you could see what you were doing,you could have leavered the wall clear in a fraction of the time,far more quickly than bothering with the cutting torch,which could never have cleared things in the few minutes shown.At the time people regarded the trashing of the fine old liner as desecration to make this thing,It is a great pity that no one thought of preserving it as a hotel like the Queen Mary.

The Last Voyage (1960) *** (out of 4)A ship is on its final voyage but after a boiler explosion it begins to sink. The Captain (George Sanders) believes that it can be saved so his main focus is on the boat and not necessarily the safety of the passengers. Also happening is a husband (Robert Stack) tries frantically to save his wife (Dorothy Malone) who finds herself trapped under a large piece of iron.THE LAST VOYAGE is a pretty good movie on its own merits but I'm sure many people will watch it and find it old-fashioned or "not entertaining enough" because of the disaster films that would follow more than a decade later. When people think of a sinking ship they obviously go towards the Titanic, which plays a major role in the plot here. Outside of that when it comes to movies THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE comes to a lot of people's mind. That film certainly seems to have been influenced by this one.Again, people should remember that this was made more than a decade earlier than THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, which is reason alone to be even more impressed by this film. The special effects are quite excellent as they were using a real ship and tried to re-enact everything that they could. The scenes towards the end of the ship sinking looked extremely good and I must say that they contained a great amount of suspense as a group of men struggle to save the wife. These suspense scenes didn't happen throughout the film but they clearly saved everything for the finale.The performances for the most part were good too. Shack is a sympathetic character than one can easily connect with and the actor is fine in the role. Malone doesn't get too much to do other than wait to be rescued. Sanders is very good in his role as the Captain who never seems to be saying or doing the right thing. Woody Strode is the real stand out in his supporting role. Edmond O'Brien is also wonderful in his part. Both Strode and O'Brien easily steal the movie.THE LAST VOYAGE certainly has some flaws including the lack of suspense throughout the first seventy five minutes of the movie. Still, everything really picks up during the finale making this a successful disaster movie.

Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, and George Sanders star in this fictional account of an ocean liner sinking. Almost right away there's a fire to be put out, but there's problems that caused it, which obviously lead to more. Bob and Dorothy are a married couple out on vacation with their daughter and George is the ship's captain who is in denial about the peril his ship, passengers and crew are all in. The film is a short 90 minutes so it wastes no time in setting up the stage of trouble and gets everyone in a panic. But it takes the majority of the movie to get George to alert the passengers about using life-jackets and getting them on the lifeboats. Due to an explosion, Dorothy is trapped under a heavy piece of wreckage that can not be moved by mere men. I forget now just what they called it, but Bob needs to get some sort of laser (yeah right) that would cut through the heavy metal. It takes some doing for that too. And, in the explosion, a hole opened up in their cabin and their daughter was almost sucked out of the room. All this sounds awful, doesn't it? Well, it does make a very taut and entertaining short film. If you like this kind of action and story with it not reflecting any true events, this movie, which costars Edmund O'Brien and Woody Strode, packs a wallop and delivers good performances. I would watch this again. That's something, considering it puts people in bad, possibly realistic situations that do not make for a good vacation. Kudos for a well written and mounted film.

After a fire in the engine room, "Claridon" luxury liner captain George Sanders (as Robert Adams), in true disaster movie form, orders engineer Edmond O'Brien (as Walsh) his crew to make repairs without telling on-board passengers. But, when the ship suffers a subsequent explosion in its boiler room, everyone knows something has gone horribly wrong. Job-transferring from Sacramento to Tokyo, Robert Stack (as Cliff Henderson) finds beautiful blonde wife Dorothy Malone (as Laurie) pinned under some debris. Moreover, red-haired daughter Tammy Marihugh (as Jill) is left cowering on the side of their cabin, which has lost its floor.Watching Mr. Stack rescue his daughter is a highlight, even though you know how this will play out; rest assured, filmmakers weren't in the habit of killing off cute little girls in the beginning of 1960 movies. From then on, the story focuses on Stack's efforts to save Ms. Malone while passengers and crew scramble for survival. Stack and Malone must consider the possibility that she - still pinned under a steel beam - should go down with the ship. One of the first crew people willing to help the couple is presciently cast Woody Strode (as Hank Lawson). Writer/director Andrew L. Stone and his wife Virginia make "The Last Voyage" an exciting trip.******** The Last Voyage (2/19/60) Andrew L. Stone ~ Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Woody Strode, Edmond O'Brien