''The Wreck of the Mary Deare'' is a 1959

Metrocolor Metrocolor is the trade name used by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for films processed at their laboratory. Virtually all of these films were shot on Kodak's Eastmancolor film. Although MGM used Kodak film products, MGM did not use all of Kodak's proc ...

(in

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

) British-American

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by Michael Anderson and starring

Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...

and

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten C ...

, and featuring

Michael Redgrave Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Elect ...

Cecil Parker Cecil Parker (born Cecil Schwabe, 3 September 1897 – 20 April 1971) was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between ...

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in ''This Sporting ...

and

John Le Mesurier John Le Mesurier (, born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley; 5 April 191215 November 1983) was an English actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation co ...

. The screenplay by

Eric Ambler Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (28 June 1909 – 22 October 1998) was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for book ...

was based on the 1956 novel of the same name by

Hammond Innes Ralph Hammond Innes (15 July 1913 – 10 June 1998) was a British novelist who wrote over 30 novels, as well as works for children and travel books. Biography Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, and educated at Feltonfleet School, Cobham, Surrey ...

Plot

The steamship ''Mary Deare'', out of Hong Kong, is found adrift at sea in a storm in the English Channel by salvager John Sands. Sands boards it hoping to claim it for salvage, but finds Gideon Patch, former first officer who has been captain for four days since the death of Taggart, the previous captain, still aboard and trying to run the ship on his own. Patch gives Sands mysterious hints about two fires, a dynamite incident and having been hit on the head and left on the ship when the crew abandoned it four days before. He refuses to let the ship be claimed for salvage, and insists on running it onto rocks in the dangerous region of the

Minquiers The Minquiers (''Les Minquiers''; in Jèrriais: ''Les Mîntchièrs'' ; known as "the Minkies" in local English) are a group of islands and rocks, about south of Jersey. They form part of the Bailiwick of Jersey. They are administratively part ...

, so that it will stay above water until an official inspection by a board of inquiry in England. Sands tries to get back to his own ship, the ''Sea Witch'', and cannot because of the storm; Patch saves his life by pulling him back onto the ''Mary Deare''. Sands reluctantly joins him in running the ship, with much effort in the flooded engine room, onto a reef in the Minquiers. When the two reach land, Sands learns that the survivors among the crew, led by second officer Higgins, are claiming that Patch gave an unnecessary order to abandon ship. A boat containing the officers who were not allies of Higgins was lost, and they are claiming Patch was responsible for the deaths of those men. The owner of the ship, the insurance company and the salvage company put pressure on Patch and Sands, who remains Patch's ally, but Patch insists on a board of inquiry. He visits Captain Taggart's daughter Janet, who lets him borrow a page of a letter from her father that mentions being anchored for days beside another ship in the harbour at

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. Patch's story gradually emerges: Higgins and his allies were in a conspiracy with the shipowners in which they offloaded their most important cargo, high-quality American-made airplane engines being sent home from the Korean War, to the other ship at Rangoon, possibly to sell them to the Communist Chinese. Then they destroyed the ship's communications, blew a hole in its side with dynamite and fired the engine room to sink the ship slowly while they got away, destroying the evidence that the engines were no longer on board. They took advantage of the fact that Captain Taggart was an alcoholic having a breakdown. Patch finally gets his board of inquiry, but it goes badly for him: the lawyer for the owners presents Higgins' story as the credible record of events, and Patch's credibility is damaged when he has to admit that he accidentally killed Captain Taggart while trying to control him in a fit of delirium. The judges do not allow Patch to read his version of events into the record. The lawyer then announces that the ''Mary Deare'' has been found by a survey from the air, and a French salvage crew is now working to refloat it and take it to shore. Janet, who suspects the owner's party, tells Patch that Higgins will be on board when the ship floats, and Patch realizes that in its weakened condition it will be easy for one man to sink it in deep water, so that it will never be known that the engines are missing. Patch steals Sands' salvage boat to get to the ''Mary Deare'' and prevent this; Sands, after catching him fueling the boat, joins him. They don diving suits and get into the ship underwater through the dynamite hole, and they indeed find that the engine boxes are filled with rocks and not engines. Higgins has seen Patch's and Sands' underwater lights as they entered through the hole. Higgins then traps them in the flooded hold by locking the hatch they entered through and waits at the only other exit from the flooded decks with a harpoon. His two friends are reluctant to actually kill, but Higgins wounds Sands with the harpoon. Patch and Sands fool him into striking at emptiness with lights on a pole, pull him into the water and subdue him. When they emerge, Higgins' friends abandon the murderous plot, and the French salvagers call the authorities. Patch is vindicated, and says to Sands that the only thing he wants is another ship to command.

Cast

as Gideon Patch *

as John Sands *

as Mr Nyland *

Emlyn Williams George Emlyn Williams, CBE (26 November 1905 – 25 September 1987) was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor. Early life Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at 1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flintsh ...

as Sir Wilfred Falcett *

as The Chairman *

Alexander Knox Alexander Knox (16 January 1907 – 25 April 1995) was a Canadian actor on stage, screen, and occasionally television. He was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for his performance as Woodrow Wilson in the film '' Wilson'' (1944). ...

as Petrie *

Virginia McKenna Dame Virginia Anne McKenna, (born 7 June 1931) is a British stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner. She is best known for the films ''A Town Like Alice'' (1956), '' Carve Her Name with Pride'' (1958), ''Born Free'' (1966), and ...

as Janet Taggart *

as Higgins * Ben Wright as Mike *

Peter Illing Peter Illing (4 March 1899 – 29 October 1966) was an Austrian-born British film and television actor. Selected TV series * ''Deadline Midnight'' (1961) as Captain Dnieprovsky * ''The Saint'' (1962) as Inspector Buono Filmography * ''The Silv ...

as Gunderson *

Terence De Marney Terence Arthur De Marney (1 March 190825 May 1971) was a British film, stage, radio and television actor, as well as theatre director and writer. Career Actor The son of Violet Eileen Concanen and Arthur De Marney, and the grandson of n ...

as Frank * Charles Davis as Yules, Quartermaster on Mary Deare * Ashley Cowan as Burrows

Production

The novel was optioned by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

with the intention of having

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

direct the picture (under a two-picture deal), starring Gary Cooper and

Burt Lancaster Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-yea ...

. Hitchcock had long wanted to work with Cooper, who had been asked to star in ''

Foreign Correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

'' in 1940, and Lancaster, who had been asked to star in ''

Under Capricorn ''Under Capricorn'' is a 1949 British historical thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock about a couple in Australia who started out as lady and stable boy in Ireland, and who are now bound together by a horrible secret. The film is based on ...

'' in 1948.''Detroit Free Press'', June 12 1948, p17
/ref> After developing the script with

Ernest Lehman Ernest Paul Lehman (December 8, 1915 – July 2, 2005) was an American screenwriter. He was nominated six times for Academy Awards for his screenplays during his career, but did not win. At the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001, he received an Ho ...

for several weeks, they concluded that it could not be done without turning the film into "a boring courtroom drama". They abandoned the idea and started a new story which eventually became ''

North by Northwest ''North by Northwest'' is a 1959 American spy thriller film, produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The screenplay was by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to ...

''. The task of adapting the novel passed to

. British director Michael Anderson took over for Hitchcock. The cast included Cooper as Patch, and

as Sands, with

and Sir

in supporting roles. Critics generally agree that the finished film matches Hitchcock and Lehman's prediction.DVD Journal review of ''The Wreck of the Mary Deare''
/ref> There were long delays in filming due to Gary Cooper's ill health, although he was not diagnosed with cancer until the spring of 1960.

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $1,165,000 in the US and Canada and $1,650,000 elsewhere.

References

External links