Until They Sail

This film was written by famous writer James Michener and also a very famous director Robert Wise along with a great cast of actors who made this into a great 1957 Classic to view and enjoy. The story revolves around sister's who live in New Zealand during the war and most of the men have gone into the service of their country and left a small town without any men and strictly women. As the war continues, these women seek men and when the United States troops arrive in New Zealand many women want to get married, some have babies out of wedlock and the war upsets the morals of all men and women in this small town. Jean Simmons, (Barbara Leslie Forbes); Joan Fontaine Anne Leslie and Sandra Dee, (Evelyn Leslie) are all sisters, some married and some simply living with one man after another. Sanda Dee plays the role of the baby sister in her teens who also begins to fall in love. Paul Newman, (Capt. Richard Bates) has a great interest in Barbara Leslie after her husband is killed, but he will not commit himself to her and is really afraid to start a relationship because he has to fight in the Pacific against the Japanese Government. This is a very emotional film and shows the horrors of war and the suffering it causes men and women. Enjoy.

Until They Sail might be the first Hollywood film about New Zealand that was filmed in New Zealand. Although you will find nary a Kiwi in the cast in the principal roles and no one even attempts an accent.

Despite this, the fact that it was written by James Michener who certainly was the American author who wrote stories of the South Pacific certainly guarantees authenticity and entertainment. The film is about the four Leslie sisters who are getting a bit lonely because all of the available males are in the service in some of the far flung fronts that the British Empire needed defending.

Although the danger wasn't as immediate for New Zealand as it was for Australia with Japanese occupied New Guinea spread like a canopy over that continent, still after Pearl Harbor for a couple of months fear of occupation was also added to the collective civilian psyche of the Kiwis. Then the American marines arrived and later the army as they did in Australia using the place as a training and embarkation point for the various island battles of the Pacific War.

The four sisters are Joan Fontaine, Jean Simmons, Piper Laurie, and Sandra Dee. Fontaine the eldest feels responsibility for the rest and she's in danger of becoming one prudish spinster, but she finds real romance with a marine captain in Charles Drake who is a Rhodes Scholar to boot.

Simmons is married with a husband off in North Africa and she resents all the Yanks, as they said in Great Britain, oversexed, overpaid, and over here. Paul Newman is a recently divorced marine who's quite cynical about the opposite sex and no threat. Later on Simmons and Newman do find a need for each other.

Newman is a staff officer and one of his jobs is to investigate claims for all the homesick marines who fall in love and decide they want to marry Kiwi girls. Piper Laurie has not let any grass grow under her feet, she marries Wally Cassell one of the few male Kiwis around and because she has needs. Then later she's got her pick of Americans for that chore after Cassell goes off to war. Truth be told Cassell is something of a low life, but not like Laurie didn't know what she was getting into.

Finally there's Sandra Dee in her motion picture debut creating her image of sweet virginity for the public. The youngest and wisest, she's content to wait for a boy in the service and hopes he'll come back safe and sound of wind and limb.

As the Citadel Film series book on The Films Of Paul Newman points out, this was Newman's first attempt at screen romance. The cynical part of his nature he always had down. But his scenes with Simmons were very tender indeed especially after his wall of cynicism comes crashing down.

The surprise for me was the performance that director Robert Wise got out of Wally Cassell. This is a guy who usually plays happy go lucky types, but good guys in many films. This portrayal opens quite a different dimension for me, for this particular player.

If it were remade today I think that it would be mandated that players from New Zealand or Australia have roles. I can certainly see Nicole Kidman in either the Simmons or Fontaine parts. Until a remake is done this version of Until They Sail is a fine wartime romance.

Until They Sail (1957)

In some ways this is a terrific movie about women at home as their soldier men fought in World War II. The setting is New Zealand, and the women are four sisters there. The men are mostly American soldiers, seen not as invaders but still as aliens who are not quite welcome, The filming in wide screen (Cinemascope, really wide) black and white is fabulous. And the acting, including key roles by Paul Newman and Jean Simmons, is great.

There isn't a stick of actual fighting here, if you want that kind of movie. Instead it's an interwoven tale of women trying to survive lost husbands in the war, and finding love, or not, in the mixed up world of war time New Zealand.

It's an interesting cast, with three women and one man (Paul Newman) as the top four billings. And a story by James Michener, with photography by Joseph Ruttenberg. Sounds like a winner, especially as the director (with MGM) was the soon to be legendary Robert Wise.

The scene is New Zealand during WWII. And it has to be added that Joan Fontaine and Jean Simmons are both first rate actresses (and Sandra Dee is getting a breakout role), all playing young women left behind by the men called to war. It's filmed in a kind of somber, clear-eye black and white, very emphatic and straight forward. It's what Paul Newman insisted was a "woman's picture," and in fact it really is about the four sisters and their varying interests in men.

Jean Simmons shines far more than the famed Joan Fontaine, and she is the counterpart for Paul Newman, who is the point man for the American presence (and the introduction to American men). The writing is a bit stiff and the editing sometimes slow, as if the nuances of fairly mundane reactions and intentions are worth lingering over. They aren't, not always. If you make it beyond the long long establishing scenes, you'll eventually get sucked in. I'm a huge fan of Simmons, who seems undeniable in any role and not just for some kind of cover girl beaiuty, and so I loved her scenes, which are numerous.

And yet, even if this movie seems to follow some ordinary romantic path, you can't help but feel, individually, for the four women wanting to not be alone. (It has some echo of "Little Women," to me.) That's the reason to hang in there. It takes time to get invested in the characters and their needs. Paul Newman is very good as usual, but more restrained than you might expect. Handsome, but without some kind of edge that made him bigger than life.

This strikes me as a drama, not a war film but about a human problem that happens to have some soldiers in it. It's not all great stuff-some of the writing is filler, or a bit dumbed down-but the best of it is felt and honest, and it's all seen (filmed) with classic beauty. The interwoven series of relationships with several women and several men has a weird echo of the earlier "The Best Years of Their Lives," and that's a good thing (and Ruttenberg holds his own against Gregg Toland in that parallel). In fact, the photography in black and white Cinemascope (anamorphic wide screen) is really special, for those who notice such things.

This is pure Hollywood, shot on an MGM lot (and studio). But it does to show how the "old" method worked so well. So, I loved this more than many of you will because of it's moviemaking aspects. It will get patient at times, but we all have to make time sometimes. As these women learned, too, without any choice.

This movie is wonderful. It's romantic, truthful and perfectly cast. It shows how lonely women can be without the love of a man in their life, and how wounds take so long to heal, and how easily they can be made. Jean Simmons is beautiful and sensitive in her portrayal of a New Zealand lass trying to remain decent and understanding emotional pain and restriction in a time of war. Paul Newman is positively gorgeous and plays his role as a cynical soldier so well i could seriously believe him really being one. The ending of the movie, although somewhat predictable, is lovely and suitable. I recommend this film to all lovers of Jean Simmons, Paul Newman and the classically romantic dramas of the 50's.

As I wrote in the summary, this is NOT your typical war movie full of action and battles with fire-arms scenes; so, if you want to see something similar to THE LONGEST DAY or BATTLE OF BRITAIN, this movie it's not for you!

Now I am not saying that UNTIL THEY SAIL it's bad. I am saying that this movie, instead of focusing on the war actions, it focuses on the women left behind waiting their husbands from the war and their woes and all the differences between them. And, even though it's not a must-see movie, it's actually pretty good.

Visually, this movie is beautifully shot, and the locations (in New Zealand) are simply a delight to watch; the soundtrack, even though it's not outstanding, it's also pretty good. And the pace, although it dragged half-way, it's measured.

The performances are all good: Paul Newman (in one of his first movies) it's charismatic and cool as always; Joan Fontaine, Piper Laurie and Sandra Dee are credible and give heart-felt performances, and Jean Simmons, like Newman, gives a deep and touching performance. And it's directed by Robert Wise, another great director of the 1950s-1960s.

The story is very realistic and never gets over the top despite the setting and subject explored. In substance, even with a few flaws, it's well done and worth-watching.