From the great suspense Best Seller about the ghost ship Mary Deare based on the novel written by Hammond Innes , being well scripted by prestigious Eric Ambler . This intriguing as well as exciting flick packs crisp performance , thrilling scenes , suspense , courtroom drama , twists and turns . This interesting sea adventure focusing on a wreck is set in the British Channel , there John Sands (Charlton Heston ) along with his colleague , from a small rescue ship called ¨Sea Witch¨ , meet the freighter Mary Deare drifting . Although there's only a little fire , the whole crew seems to have left the vessel ; however there is an officer , the only crew member on board . John's already looking forward to a large salvage fee , but then he meets a first officer named Patch (Gary Cooper) still on board . Sands can't get back to his tug boat and stays with Patch while Patch grounds the Mary Deare . Although he doesn't understand yet what happened on the Mary Deare , Sands allows Patch to persuade him not to talk about what he saw on board and to drag out the official investigation of the incident . Patch in order to prove his innocence and to vindicate his good name decides to investigate the deeds and as a result the events go wrong .
This is a alright suspense movie in Hitchcockian style where intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every corridors and interior and exterior from a freighter . The best scenes turned to be when the stars appeared at end of the film in underwater scenarios and fighting enemies . ¨The wreck of the Mary Deare¨ originally was to be shot by Alfred Hitchcock but he turned down the offer to make ¨North by Northwest¨ . Almost all the studio work for the film was done in Hollywood, with California-based Britishers playing supporting parts . However , the lengthy scene of the inquiry was filmed in Britain, following a small amount of British location work ; London-based actors and a British crew were employed for these scenes . Nice acting by Gary Cooper as a disgraced merchant marine first officer called Gerald Patch who elects to stay aboard his sinking cargo ship to demonstrate the ship was deliberately scuttled . However , Cooper had frequent illnesses during the shooting . Good performance from Heston , as usual , as a boat salvager who comes up a seemingly empty ship one night . Heston was impressed that Gary Cooper still performed his own stunts , including remaining submerged for long periods of time, despite his age and obvious ill health . Richard Harris hated the constant delays while making the film so much that he refused to return to Hollywood for five years . Very good support cast formed by notorious English actors such as Michael Redgrave , Emlyn Williams , Cecil Parker , Alexander Knox , Virginia McKenna and John Le Mesusier .
Evocative as well as atmospheric musical score by George Duning . Rousing and colorful cinematography in Technicolor by Joseph Ruttenberg . This overlong motion picture was compellingly directed by Michael Anderson , plenty of thrills , action , twists , breathtaking production design with great scale models , and being pretty entertaining though with some feeble stereotypes and flaws . Michael Anderson is a British veteran filmmaker, a director and assistant director, who shot all kinds of genres , especially known for Shoes of fisherman (1965) , Operation crossbow (1968) , Doc Savage (1975) , Logan's run (1976), Around the world on 80 days (1956) and The Dam Busters (1955) , Milennium (1989) .
This is a alright suspense movie in Hitchcockian style where intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every corridors and interior and exterior from a freighter . The best scenes turned to be when the stars appeared at end of the film in underwater scenarios and fighting enemies . ¨The wreck of the Mary Deare¨ originally was to be shot by Alfred Hitchcock but he turned down the offer to make ¨North by Northwest¨ . Almost all the studio work for the film was done in Hollywood, with California-based Britishers playing supporting parts . However , the lengthy scene of the inquiry was filmed in Britain, following a small amount of British location work ; London-based actors and a British crew were employed for these scenes . Nice acting by Gary Cooper as a disgraced merchant marine first officer called Gerald Patch who elects to stay aboard his sinking cargo ship to demonstrate the ship was deliberately scuttled . However , Cooper had frequent illnesses during the shooting . Good performance from Heston , as usual , as a boat salvager who comes up a seemingly empty ship one night . Heston was impressed that Gary Cooper still performed his own stunts , including remaining submerged for long periods of time, despite his age and obvious ill health . Richard Harris hated the constant delays while making the film so much that he refused to return to Hollywood for five years . Very good support cast formed by notorious English actors such as Michael Redgrave , Emlyn Williams , Cecil Parker , Alexander Knox , Virginia McKenna and John Le Mesusier .
Evocative as well as atmospheric musical score by George Duning . Rousing and colorful cinematography in Technicolor by Joseph Ruttenberg . This overlong motion picture was compellingly directed by Michael Anderson , plenty of thrills , action , twists , breathtaking production design with great scale models , and being pretty entertaining though with some feeble stereotypes and flaws . Michael Anderson is a British veteran filmmaker, a director and assistant director, who shot all kinds of genres , especially known for Shoes of fisherman (1965) , Operation crossbow (1968) , Doc Savage (1975) , Logan's run (1976), Around the world on 80 days (1956) and The Dam Busters (1955) , Milennium (1989) .