Movie Review: The Last Voyage (1960)

Genre: Disaster Adventure

Director: Andrew L. Stone

Starring: Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, George Sanders, Edmond O'Brien, Woody Strode

Running Time: 91 minutes

Synopsis: The aging luxury ocean liner Claridon is crossing the Pacific with Captain Robert Adams (George Sanders) at the helm. The passengers include Cliff Henderson (Robert Stack), his wife Laurie (Dorothy Malone), and young daughter Jill. An engine room fire triggers a large explosion, separating Jill from her parents and trapping Laurie under debris. As Captain Adams dithers, Second Engineer Walsh (Edmund O'Brien) and his crew struggle to prevent water flooding into the damaged vessel, while Cliff tries to save his family with help from crewman Lawson (Woody Strode).

What Works Well: Andrew L. Stone directed, wrote, and co-produced (with his wife and editor Virginia) this effective disaster thriller, and focusses with cold and detached efficiency on three groups grappling with the unfolding crisis: the officers surrounding the slow-to-react Captain Adams, the crewmen led by the scrappy Walsh, and the Henderson family. The narrow focus results in crisp storytelling, enhanced by excellent special effects and imaginative cinematography. Themes of sacrifice, determination, and life prioritization are unafraid to wander towards dark emotional places.

What Does Not Work As Well: Other than the Hendersons, all the other passengers are irrelevant extras, and the cumbersome attempts to rescue Laurie from under the debris occupy excessive screen time.

Conclusion: As the crippled ship slowly sinks, the thrills soar.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

The Movies Of Dorothy Malone

All movies starring Dorothy Malone and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

The Big Sleep (1946)

Written On The Wind (1956)

The Last Voyage (1960)

The Last Sunset (1961)

Winter Kills (1979)

Basic Instinct (1992)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Last Sunset (1961)

An astute western, The Last Sunset adds character texture, multiple romantic threads and complex themes to traditional genre elements.

In Mexico, Bren O'Malley (Kirk Douglas) rides to the ranch of Belle Breckenridge (Dorothy Malone), his lover from years ago. She is now married to the limping and bottle-dependent cattle baron John Breckenridge (Joseph Cotten), and has a 15 year old daughter Melissa (Carol Lynley). Bren is honest about his intentions to win back Belle's love while Melissa quickly develops a crush on the handsome stranger, despite their age difference.

Sheriff Dana Stribling (Rock Hudson) arrives at the Breckenridge ranch with a Texas-issued warrant to arrest Bren for murder. But this is also a personal pursuit, because the murder victim was Stribling's brother-in-law. Dana is immediately smitten with Belle, creating a romantic triangle. The two men agree to pause their looming showdown and help the Breckenridge family drive 1,000 head of cattle to Texas, where the fugitive and the sheriff will settle their differences.

An adaptation of a Howard Rigsby novel produced by Douglas' company Brynaprod, The Last Sunset delivers all the staples expected from a conventional western. The cattle drive as a centerpiece and transformative journey carries echoes from Red River, as does the conflict between two strong personalities at the helm. An epic fist-fight, no-good bandits (including the omnipresent Jack Elam), foul weather, stray cattle, quicksand and a run-in with a native tribe all make an appearance. 

Despite the cliches and some sticky, creaky and melodramatic moments, director Robert Aldrich keeps the action moving, aided by visually rich and colourful cinematography courtesy of Ernest Laszlo. But writer Dalton Trumbo, in a post-blacklist credit, is also interested in pushing well beyond typical genre topics. The Last Sunset features multiple elaborate romantic pursuits and two compelling women in the mother-daughter pair of Belle and Melissa, both provided with expansive arcs.

Belle finds herself at the centre of three men. Her husband is the weakest (Joseph Cotten in a thankless role), O'Malley is the fiery lover from her past and Stribling the potentially more promising and stable presence. Dorothy Malone strikes the right balance portraying a woman with a sudden range of options and a pragmatic disposition to assess them, and Belle takes her place among the more memorable women in westerns.

Melissa (nicknamed Missy by O'Malley) slowly gains presence, first as an awe-struck teenager then as a more outspoken woman-in-the-making. Carol Lynley grows into the role and asserts increasing influence as the cattle drive reaches a climax. The relationship twist in the tail is not difficult to anticipate, and Trumbo strides into dangerous territory with eyes open and an elegant ending in mind.

Douglas gave Hudson first billing, and he is fine in the lead role as a guardian of the law with a personal sting. But Douglas reserved the more intricate role for himself as Bren O'Malley, a man at the crossroads and eager to right past wrongs but still at the mercy of his character failings. He pursues a long-gone vision of Belle and is emotionally ambushed by the emergence of Missy as an eager here-and-now lover. O'Malley has to navigate away from a dark past and into a potentially impossible future.

In a relatively tangential side-story, the resolution of John Breckenridge's journey reveals the breadth of narrative ambition. His past as a confederate soldier catches up with him, and Trumbo writes a soul-destroying scene for a broken man facing the ultimate humiliation. The Last Sunset is a challenging time for men and women on the frontier, and a more than worthwhile western.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Written On The Wind (1956)

A four-way romantic drama smoldering within an oil tycoon family, Written On The Wind offers up love and lust among the idle rich.

Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) is the hard-drinking playboy and scion of the Texas-based Hadley oil empire, founded by his father Jasper (Brian Keith). Kyle's best friend since childhood is Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), a geologist and stand-up guy, and son of salt-of-the-earth farmer Hoak (Harry Shannon). Kyle's sister Marylee (Dorothy Malone) is the conniving town tart, sleeping with any willing guy while still hoping to attract Mitch's attention.

While on a business trip to New York City Kyle and Mitch meet executive secretary Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall). Both fall in love with her, but Mitch stands aside and allows Kyle to instigate an immediate courtship followed by a quick marriage. Lucy helps Kyle settle down and stop drinking, but within a year he receives unwelcome news, rocking his new-found stability.

A melodramatic and over-clocked drama, Written On The Wind is one of the templates for what would become standard television prime-time fare a couple of decades later: lust, love, jealousy, miscellaneous between-the-sheets shenanigans and the all-round bad behaviour of the rich and famous, all presented in glossy imagery, vivid colours and with photogenic stars.

The book by Robert Wilder receives a script treatment by George Zuckerman, and director Douglas Sirk delivers a grandiose, sappy-music infused film. Sirk is either taking the drama with utmost seriousness or making complete fun of his characters with a straight face, and in a good way the film works in both contexts. Fans of sordid romantic entanglements can enjoy the overflowing emotional showdowns just as much as jaded viewers can laugh at the whole lot of them.

Missing from the lives of the characters is any sense of purpose or working for a living. Mitch gets one scene with a pencil behind his ear to pretend he is a geologist taking his career seriously. Otherwise, the lives on display are devoid of any responsibility other than drinking, partying, fighting and plotting the next romantic conquest.

The cast do what is required. Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall are generally stand-offish, their would-be romance on ice for the duration of the film as Lucy foolishly falls for the deeply flawed Kyle.

Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone get the showier roles. Stack fires blades from his eyes and sweat from every alcohol-clogged pore as the highly-strung and disrespected but stupidly rich son of a tycoon. Malone gives an uninhibited and dynamically aggressive performance, breaking out into wild dancing on a couple of occasions, Sirk intercutting her explosive gyrations in red with a sudden and tragic family death. When it's Written On The Wind, it's always bold and brash.

All Ace Black Movie Blog Reviews are here.