Until They Sail (1957)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Robert Wise

Writers:

James Michener (story) and
Robert Anderson (writer)

Release Date:

27 February 1958 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama | History | Romance | War

Tagline:

They Couldn't Have The Love They Wanted, So They Took The Love They Could Get!

Plot:

Four sisters in New Zealand fall for four U.S. soldiers en route to the Pacific theater in WWII

Plot Keywords:

WWII | Soldier | Alcohol | Murder | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Jean Simmons	...	Barbara Leslie Forbes
Joan Fontaine	...	Anne Leslie
Paul Newman	...	Capt. Jack Harding
Piper Laurie	...	Delia Leslie Friskett
Charles Drake	...	Capt. Richard Bates
Sandra Dee	...	Evelyn Leslie
Wally Cassell	...	Phil Friskett aka Shiner
Alan Napier	...	Prosecution Attorney
Ralph Votrian	...	Max Murphy
John Wilder	...	Tommy
Tige Andrews	...	US Marine, Store Customer
Adam Kennedy	...	Andy, Delia's Lover
Mickey Shaughnessy	...	US Marine, Store Customer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Patrick Macnee	...	Pvt. Duff (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) | Perspecta Stereo | 4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

New Zealand

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Sandra Dee's Debut.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: At the start of the film, set in 1939, the four sisters put up a map of the world to keep track of the soldiers' locations, but the map is contemporary from the year the film was made (1957), showing numerous nations that did not exist in 1939, for example: Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (which would have been French Indochina in 1939), Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies), Thailand (called Siam in 1939), and Pakistan (which was part of British India), among other countries.

Movie Connections:

References Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Soundtrack:

Until They Sail

I never thought cynical love could be so charming.

I don't know how big a star Newman was at the time, but his "cool-hand" cynic is amazing in this film. The pairing with Jean Simmons (some one I'd always thought of as a bit prim and cold) worked perfectly. Though superficially a hackneyed romance, Until They Sail really works because the central couple are so mature and dismissive of the war romances they see around them. The New Zealand setting was unexpected and charming. I'd love to see this in a double bill with the technicolour lushness of The Revolt of Mamie Stover: Full of passionate women fighting repressive 50s social attitudes.