THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE

 

The British/American co-production THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE (1959), has an impressive pedigree both in front of and behind the camera. This no-nonsense adventure thriller co-stars two of the screen's greatest "manly" actors, Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. For Cooper, WRECK marked his next to last film. THE NAKED EDGE (1961) was his last but production on WRECK was halted several times due to Cooper's ill health. For Heston, WRECK was one of two films he made in 1959, the other being BEN-HUR.

The source material is the novel of the same name by British adventure scribe Hammond Innes with a screenplay by Eric Ambler, the king of realistic spy thrillers. And director Michael Anderson (who could make good films and very bad ones), here does a very good job of orchestrating the narrative. Anderson's other credits include THE DAM BUSTERS (1955), the Best Picture of the Year Oscar winner AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) (which earned Anderson a Best Director nomination), OPERATION CROSSBOW (1965), THE QUILLER MEMORANUDM (1966), DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF BRONZE (1975), LOGAN'S RUN (1976) and the JAWS ripoff, ORCA (1977).

WRECK is the story of two men, Captain Gideon Patch (Cooper) and salvager John Sands (Heston), thrown together under extraordinary circumstances. The first act finds Sands boarding what appears to be a deserted ship, the Mary Deare. He finds only Patch onboard and it's clear that the man is hiding a secret about the damaged vessel. Patch eventually runs the ship aground on some reefs in the English Channel and asks Sands to remain quiet about the affair until after an official inquiry can be held.

The second act is centered on the inquiry, which does not go well for Patch. His opponents in the courtroom include the owners of the Mary Deare, their insurance company and a ruthless first mate, Higgins (Richard Harris).

A race against time takes up the third act as Patch and Sands try to get to the wrecked ship and reveal the truth before the Mary Deare can be sunk, taking it's secrets to the bottom of the sea. 

WRECK is helped tremendously by some first rate model work, great water tank action sequences and tense underwater scenes. Cooper is tight lipped and stoic throughout while Heston plays second fiddle without going over the top. 

WRECK was originally planned to be an Alfred Hitchcock production. The plan was for Hitchcock to direct with Cooper starring. Hitchcock and screenwriter Ernest Lehman worked on the script for weeks but couldn't solve the problem of such a large chunk of the action taking place in a courtroom. The men eventually abandoned the project and began working on what became NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959).

It's fun to speculate on what a Hitchcock and Lehman version of WRECK would have looked like but alas, that must ever remain in the realm of unwrought things. As it is, the version of WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE that we do have is a first rate adventure film.

Recommended.