The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Michael Anderson

Writers:

Eric Ambler (screenplay)
Hammond Innes (novel)

Release Date:

6 November 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The Saga of the Derelict, Mary Deare... the strange secret she carried... the desperate voyage and plot to sink her!

Plot:

A disgraced merchant marine officer elects to stay aboard his sinking cargo ship in order to prove the vessel was deliberately scuttled and, as a result, vindicate his good name.

Plot Keywords:

Salvage | Merchant Marine | English Channel | Minquiers | Sabotage

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Gideon Patch
Charlton Heston	...	John Sands
Michael Redgrave	...	Mr. Nyland
Emlyn Williams	...	Sir Wilfred Falcett
Cecil Parker	...	The Chairman
Alexander Knox	...	Petrie
Virginia McKenna	...	Janet Taggart
Richard Harris	...	Higgins
Ben Wright	...	Mike
Peter Illing	...	Gunderson
Terence de Marney	...	Frank
Ashley Cowan	...	Burrows
Charles Davis	...	Yules, Quartermaster on Mary Deare

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:G | USA:Approved (certificate #19326) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Finland:K-12

Filming Locations:

Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Blaustein-Baroda

Trivia:

Richard Harris hated making the film so much that he refused to return to Hollywood for five years.

Quotes:

Gideon Patch: I have to ask you to trust me just for a few days until the inquiry.
John Sands: Give me one reason. Why should I, Captain?
Gideon Patch: You've trusted me already. When you were dangling on the end of a rope over the side of the Mary Deare, you trusted me!
John Sands: I haven't forgotten.
Gideon Patch: Well, now I'm on the end of a rope. You can haul me in or let me drown!
Gideon Patch: [after a long silence] Do I have to beg, Mr. Sands?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Destination Hitchcock: The Making of 'North by Northwest' (2000) (V)

Piling the Ship On the Minquieries

The Wreck of the Mary Deare was the next to last film of Gary Cooper and it pairs him with Charlton Heston who was fresh off his Oscar from Ben-Hur. Between the two of them they were the heroes of six sound Cecil B. DeMille films. And this film does have some special effects old C.B. DeMille might have enjoyed.

Salvage tug captain Charlton Heston based in the UK comes across an abandoned freighter named the Mary Deare. Only Gary Cooper, sporting a head injury, and acting very mysterious is on the vessel. When raging seas prevent Heston from reboarding his ship, Cooper saves his life by hauling Heston on board when he can't hold on to the rope.

In the meantime Cooper completes his objective which was to beach the ship on a series of jagged rocks in the English Channel named the Minquieries. He's doing this because he suspects skullduggery from the crew and the late captain of the Mary Deare.

Americans Cooper and Heston are given good support by a cast of players from the UK such as Emlyn Williams, Michael Redgrave, Alexander Knox, and Mary Ure. The villain of the piece is second officer Richard Harris in one of his early and acclaimed parts before he became a star.

The Minquiries have a lot of legend about them. They are the top of an Atlantic based plateau. None of them are big enough to rate being called an island. Smugglers and pirates in centuries passed piled many a ship on them and looted the contents. Today the only thing on them are small fishing huts. They are a well known hazard to navigation.

The scenes involving the wrecking and salvage of the ship are well done. Many years ago I saw a picture of MGM's special effects man Buddy Gillespie inside the tank with the model of the Mary Deare. It was an interesting insight into the special effects game on the high seas.

Fans of both Cooper and Heston will like this film. I suspect C.B. DeMille regretted not having a chance to direct his two favorite leading men in a joint project.