Seven Waves Away [Abandon Ship!] *** (1957, Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, Stephen Boyd) – Classic Movie Review 12,492

Director Richard Sale’s 1957 British adventure film Seven Waves Away [Abandon Ship!] is a well-made, powerful and involving drama with solid acting by Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, Stephen Boyd and many others, carefully controlled direction, and a crafted script with a bravely downbeat tone and many gripping scenes.

Survivors of a sunken liner, the Crescent Star, huddle together on a lifeboat and executive officer Alec Holmes (Tyrone Power) has to face a number of uncomfortable choices. It centres on his agonising decision on his overcrowded lifeboat.

Notable among the good company aboard, Mai Zetterling plays the ship’s nurse Julie White, and Lloyd Nolan and Stephen Boyd are other officers, Frank Kelly and Will McKinley.

Richard Sale adapts the script from his 1938 short story Seven Waves Away, originally published by Scribner’s Magazine, with a similar plot to the real-life sinking of the American ship William Brown in 1841.

It is produced by Ted Richmond and Tyrone Power for their company Copa Productions.

Also in the cast are Moira Lister, James Hayter, Marie Lohr, Moultrie Kelsall, Noel Willman, Gordon Jackson, Finlay Currie, John Stratton, Victor Maddern, Eddie Byrne, Robert Harris, Clive Morton, David Langton, Ralph Michael, Orlando Martins, Danny Green, Laurence Naismith, Sheila Manahan, Clare Austin, Jill Melford, Ferdy Mayne, John Gray, Meurig Wyn-Jones, Austin Trevor, Derek Sydney, and Colin Broadley.

Ted Richmond died in Paris at the age of 103 in 2013. His most noted films are Bachelor in Paradise (1961) and It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963), Return of the Seven (1966), Villa Rides (1968), Red Sun (1971) and Papillon (1973).

He produced the early starring vehicles of Audie Murphy. He made The Mississippi Gambler (1953) with Tyrone Power and then formed Copa Productions together. They made Count Three and Pray (1955) and Nightfall (1957), both without Power in the cast, and Abandon Ship! [Seven Waves Away] (1957) and Solomon and Sheba (1959) with him. But Power died during the filming of Solomon and Sheba in Spain.

The cast are Tyrone Power as Executive Officer Alec Holmes, Mai Zetterling as Julie White, Lloyd Nolan as Frank Kelly, Stephen Boyd as Will McKinley, Moira Lister as Edith Middleton, James Hayter as “Cookie” Morrow, Marie Lohr as Dorothy Knudson, Finlay Currie as Mr. Wheaton, John Stratton as Jimmy “Sparks” Clary, Victor Maddern as Willy Hawkins, David Langton as John Hayden, Eddie Byrne as Michael Faroni, Noel Willman as Aubrey Clark, Moultrie Kelsall as Daniel Cane, Robert Harris as Arthur J. Middleton, Gordon Jackson as John Merritt, Orlando Martins as Sam Holly, Clive Morton, David Langton, Ralph Michael, Danny Green, Laurence Naismith, Sheila Manahan, Clare Austin, Jill Melford, Ferdy Mayne, John Gray, Meurig Wyn-Jones, Austin Trevor, Derek Sydney, and Colin Broadley.

It was released by Columbia Pictures on 3 December 1957 (London) and 17 April 1957 (New York City).

Running time: 97 minutes.

It was originally titled Seven Waves Away but the alternative US titles are Abandon Ship! and Seven Days From Now.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,492

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