''Seven Were Saved'' (also known as ''S.O.S. Rescue'') is a 1947 American film directed by William H. Pine and starring

Richard Denning Richard Denning (March 27, 1914 – October 11, 1998) was an American actor who starred in science fiction films of the 1950s, including '' Unknown Island'' (1948), '' Creature from the Black Lagoon'' ( 1954), '' Target Earth'' (1954), '' Day ...

Catherine Craig Catherine Craig (born Catherine Jewel Feltus; January 18, 1915 – January 14, 2004), sometimes credited as Kay Craig, was an American actress. Early years Catherine Jewel Feltus was born in Bloomington, Indiana, where she was a member of Phi ...

and Russell Hayden. The film's opening title says: "This film is dedicated to the men of the AAF Air-sea rescue service, who risk their lives daily that others may live." ''Seven Were Saved'' was the first of a number of films that dramatized survival at sea after an aircraft crash.

Plot

In 1945, several months after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Army nurse Susan Briscoe is taking an amnesia victim, who was imprisoned by the Japanese, to the United States via

transport aircraft Transport aircraft is a broad category of aircraft that includes: * Airliners, aircraft, usually large and most often operated by airlines, intended for carrying multiple passengers or cargo in commercial service * Cargo aircraft or freighters, fix ...

, piloted by Captain Allen Danton. The passengers include the Japanese Colonel Yamura, who is on his way to Manila to face war crime charges. Also on board is a couple, the Hartleys, who were married on the day they were liberated from a Japanese prison camp. During the flight, the colonel tricks a guard and breaks away from his guards, grabbing a gun and shooting a crew member and the co-pilot. The colonel struggles with Allen at the controls and causes the aircraft to plummet into the sea. Once the aircraft is declared missing, Air-Sea Rescue pilot Captain Jim Willis, Susan's fiancé, begins a desperate search over the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. He flies countless missions until, running a fever due to malaria, he is grounded. The eight survivors of the crash have managed to inflate a life raft. After carefully assessing their situation, Allen, who has suffered a head wound, declares that they may have to attempt the 600-mile journey to the nearest island while hoping for rescue. In the first day at sea, Mrs. Hartley realizes that the amnesia victim, called Mr. Smith, is really her former husband, Philip Thompson, who was thought to be dead. The Hartleys now face a dilemma as they may not be married legally. During the evening of the third day, Smith slips overboard without anyone noticing, but suspicion is cast on Mr. Hartley, who was supposed to be on watch. In the ensuing argument fomented by Yamura, the boat capsizes and the seven survivors fight for their lives in the ocean. After losing the sail and oars, the survivors realize that without food or water, their chances for survival are slim. When repairing a leak with chewing gum, Sergeant Blair is attacked by a shark, but Lt. Martin Pinkert jumps into the water to distract the shark and allow Blair to get back onto the raft. On the fifth day, Susan discovers Allen is blind from exposure to the sun, and the two conspire to keep the raft drifting on course. Air-Sea Rescue is about to cancel further searches when Jim sneaks onto a Boeing SB-17G "Dumbo". He locates the survivors, dropping a motorized boat nearby, but the seven in the raft are too emaciated and weak to paddle to the boat. Jim parachutes into the water, inflates a small raft and then steers the rescue boat to the life boat, eventually bringing everyone on board to safety. The rescue is complete when a

Consolidated PBY Catalina The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wi ...

flying boat airlifts the survivors back to their base. While Jim thinks that Susan has fallen in love with Allen, she reunites with him as they both bid Allen goodbye. Seven Were Saved (1947) 1

Boeing SB-17G of the 5th Rescue Squadron, Flight D

Cast

as Captain Allen Danton *

as Susan Briscoe * Russell Hayden as Captain Jim Willis *

Ann Doran Ann Lee Doran (July 28, 1911 – September 19, 2000) was an American character actress, possibly best known as the mother of Jim Stark (James Dean) in ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955). She was an early member of the Screen Actors Guild and serv ...

as Mrs. Ellen Hartley *

Byron Barr Byron Barr (August 18, 1917 – November 3, 1966), sometimes billed as Byron S. Barr, was an American actor. He appeared in 19 films from 1944 to 1951. Barr perhaps is best known for his role as Nino Zachetti in '' Double Indemnity'', his firs ...

as Lt. Martin Pinkert *

Richard Loo Richard Loo (October 1, 1903 – November 20, 1983) was an American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1982. Early lif ...

as Colonel Yamura *

Don Castle Don Castle (September 29, 1917 – May 26, 1966) was an American film actor of the 1930s and 1940s. Biography Castle was born in Beaumont, Texas. He started his acting career as a stage actor, then moved to films. The actor, who resembled Clar ...

as Lt. Pete Sturdevant *

George Tyne Martin Yarus (February 6, 1917 – March 7, 2008), better known by the stage name George Tyne, was an American stage and film actor and television director. He was blacklisted in the 1950s, and was indicted for contempt of Congress but subsequen ...

as Sergeant Blair * Keith Richards as Mr. Smith / Philip Thompson *

John Eldredge John Eldredge (born June 6, 1960 in Los Angeles) is an American author, counselor, and lecturer on Christianity. He is known for his best-selling book '' Wild at Heart''. Life and work Eldregde received his undergraduate degree in theater from ...

as Rollin Hartley

Production

''Seven were Saved'' was completed with the full cooperation of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

(USAAF)

Air Rescue Service The United States Air Force Combat Rescue School (for most of its existence, either Air Rescue Service or Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service), was an organization of the United States Air Force. The school was established in 1946 as ''Air ...

. The technical advisor on the film was Capt Kenneth H. Brettman, USAAF. The Air Rescue Service was reorganized in March 1946 to become a division of the Air Transport Command. It was composed of several Air Rescue squadrons (ARS), each assigned to a specific geographical area. The 3rd ARS covered the Far East which serves as the backdrop of this film. The producers hired a skeleton crew to film background footage for six weeks at a government air field in Mississippi. The aircraft in ''Seven Were Saved'' were Canadian Vickers OA-10A Canso, Boeing B-17H/SB-17G "Dumbo", Douglas C-47B Skytrain, Curtiss C-46 Commando and

Douglas C-54 Skymaster The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian a ...

Reception

Aviation film historian Stephen Pendo in ''Aviation in the Cinema'' considered ''Seven Were Saved'' as "part raft survival instructions, part details of the air search and part conflicts between the characters in the raft."Pendo 1985, p. 277.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Paris, Michael. ''From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema.'' Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. . * Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. .

External links

*
Review
at ''Variety'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Seven Were Saved 1947 films 1940s adventure drama films American black-and-white films American adventure drama films American aviation films Films about survivors of seafaring accidents or incidents 1947 drama films Films directed by William H. Pine 1940s English-language films 1940s American films