The film consists almost entirely of a merchant navy captain's first voyage in charge of a ship with a passenger on board. How that voyage turns out - and it lasts about thirty days - makes for gripping viewing, as passions run high on several issues, by no means only on account of the comely female passenger. There are many well-known British actors on duty here, and they turn in solid performances.
7 Reviews
Captain Efficiency shipwrecked by beautiful woman
Moor-Larkin2 December 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I approached this film with some trepidation. I was only watching it to glimpse an early McGoohan film performance. However Peter Finch was in it so it couldn't be all bad, I hoped.
Finch,in truth, sleepwalks the part but the stand-out performance is from Bosun Ike, played by Geoffrey Keen. He is the disciplinarian peacemaker who keeps the ship running. As a short stocky man, Keen looks physically improbable as the man to keep the crew in line but it is a tribute to the actor and stunt co-ordinator that you believe he does!
The plot of the movie is that an elderly Finch is retiring (his make-up is spookily accurate as to his eventual appearance in his sixties). He is given a framed painting of one of his first ship commands, as a retirement present. This sparks the remembered story of that voyage. It involves Diane Cilento as a fragile blonde governess being evacuated by the unwilling Captain. She is so sweet that Finch inevitably falls helplessly in love with her. The movie revolves around the crew's reactions to their stern captain's emotional dissolution in the face of feminine charm. All the performances are good, particularly the cynical, but obsequious steward, who can observe the skipper closely.
McGoohan makes brief appearances but his first line is 'immortal'. He delivers it with just the right level of insubordinate wit: "Try talking about the potatoes", he says to the officer. You'll have to watch the movie to understand the importance of the humble spud in this voyage.
The voyage ends with storms all round. The nice Second Mate gets the girl and the tragic Skipper accepts his life will be professionally successful but personally lonely. This final point is emphasised at the end of the movie when we return to the retirement party. Finch leaves alone, in a taxi. A strangely un-aged Cilento watches him depart, with a sad expression, before returning to the arms of her husband, Anthony Steel. Sadly the skilled make-up applied to Finch is not replicated on Steel. His ageing process leaves him looking somewhat akin to one of Romero's zombie-dead!!
Finch,in truth, sleepwalks the part but the stand-out performance is from Bosun Ike, played by Geoffrey Keen. He is the disciplinarian peacemaker who keeps the ship running. As a short stocky man, Keen looks physically improbable as the man to keep the crew in line but it is a tribute to the actor and stunt co-ordinator that you believe he does!
The plot of the movie is that an elderly Finch is retiring (his make-up is spookily accurate as to his eventual appearance in his sixties). He is given a framed painting of one of his first ship commands, as a retirement present. This sparks the remembered story of that voyage. It involves Diane Cilento as a fragile blonde governess being evacuated by the unwilling Captain. She is so sweet that Finch inevitably falls helplessly in love with her. The movie revolves around the crew's reactions to their stern captain's emotional dissolution in the face of feminine charm. All the performances are good, particularly the cynical, but obsequious steward, who can observe the skipper closely.
McGoohan makes brief appearances but his first line is 'immortal'. He delivers it with just the right level of insubordinate wit: "Try talking about the potatoes", he says to the officer. You'll have to watch the movie to understand the importance of the humble spud in this voyage.
The voyage ends with storms all round. The nice Second Mate gets the girl and the tragic Skipper accepts his life will be professionally successful but personally lonely. This final point is emphasised at the end of the movie when we return to the retirement party. Finch leaves alone, in a taxi. A strangely un-aged Cilento watches him depart, with a sad expression, before returning to the arms of her husband, Anthony Steel. Sadly the skilled make-up applied to Finch is not replicated on Steel. His ageing process leaves him looking somewhat akin to one of Romero's zombie-dead!!
Somewhat overlong, interesting cast
Marlburian4 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I've just watched this film on the Talking Pictures TV channel and was very impressed with the cast list, full of names that I recognised. (It was interesting to see Patrick McGoohan in his first film.) It did drag on a bit and some scenes could have been shortened. Diane Cilento seemed to bring on board not much luggage but a goodly range of smart dresses, but I was impressed with her scene (again a bit extrapolated) when she was out on deck during the storm and enduring a prolonged drenching and rolling around on a heaving deck - no signs of stand-ins that I could see.
Given what a miserable fellow Ryland was, it was surprising to see his long-serving steward getting sentimental before his farewell ceremony and also Vosper and Ruth turning up for it. It didn't ring true that she seemed concerned about him despite the brutal way that he'd attacked her; it would have been more convincing had he just made a pass and pleaded a bit and nobly accepted rejection.
Given what a miserable fellow Ryland was, it was surprising to see his long-serving steward getting sentimental before his farewell ceremony and also Vosper and Ruth turning up for it. It didn't ring true that she seemed concerned about him despite the brutal way that he'd attacked her; it would have been more convincing had he just made a pass and pleaded a bit and nobly accepted rejection.
dark and brooding
guyfawkes160018 June 2000
The ol' man and the sea .... The grumpy captain(well acted by finch) is a lech and a drunk in this obscure film - one guaranteed not to be memorable. Diane cilento must have had an inkling of whats to happen being the only female(and a good looking one at that) on board .Overlong ,unbelievable and doldrummic.
Sea Wolf
writers_reign14 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This isn't so much a movie as a benefit for a crew of ho hum British actors who staffed between them 90% of the quota quickies of the time; Cyril Cusack, Duncan Lamont, Brian Forbes, Hugh Griffith, Anthony Steel, Gordon Jackson, Sam Kydd, Geoffrey Keen, Martin Benson, the list goes on. Interestingly both the leads, Peter Finch and Diane Cilento, were Australians who made careers in British films, with Cilento the sole woman in the cast, a governess stranded in South America who needs a passage back to the UK and finds it on the cargo steamer (cattle) captained by Finch who offers a cut rate Captain Queeg with potatoes standing in for strawberries. Some 70 years later there's a certain nostalgic appeal about these wooden actors which makes the film worth a watch.
A Long Way from Home
richardchatten24 September 2020
Set in 1931 (hence the portrait of George V on captain Peter Finch's cabin wall) and made back in the days when Hugh Griffith was clean-shaven and Michael Craig playing rough trade.
Talky and studio-bound until it livens up at the end. The extensive matte work of the sea doubtless provided cameraman Geoffrey Unsworth's with useful experience of process work ten years later when he took on '2001'.
Meanwhile the arrival of the almost supernaturally lovely young Diane Cilento among all these men with already frayed nerves has tragically inevitable consequences.
Talky and studio-bound until it livens up at the end. The extensive matte work of the sea doubtless provided cameraman Geoffrey Unsworth's with useful experience of process work ten years later when he took on '2001'.
Meanwhile the arrival of the almost supernaturally lovely young Diane Cilento among all these men with already frayed nerves has tragically inevitable consequences.
Criminally underrated British ship drama outclasses many a blockbuster
Leofwine_draca6 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
PASSAGE HOME is an unfairly forgotten, unfairly maligned, and utterly underrated British drama/thriller set on board a ship. The synopsis I saw advertised said "A ship's captain begins a doomed romance with a female passenger", which makes it sound like the most boring potboiler ever, and yet when I sat down and watched it I realised I was watching greatness. I suppose I should have expected as much from the reliable director Roy Ward Baker, but I had no idea that the film would be this good.
The story is told in flashback and involves a ship's passage from South America to Britain. The crew have to contend with rotten food, malcontent, and the vagaries of the Atlantic weather system, all of which are very typical story ingredients by genre standards, but where this film really excels is in the characters. These are real people up on screen, people you can identify with, recognise, and sympathise with. Scriptwriter William Fairchild, who also scripted THE SILENT ENEMY, does a fantastic job of bringing them to life, and the ensemble cast do a fantastic job of making them entertaining.
Peter Finch takes the headlining role of the captain whose alcoholism threatens to ruin his life, while Diane Cilento tackles the part of the woman whose presence is a catalyst to ruinous events. Filming must have been a hard slog for her but she's quite brilliant, especially at the climax. Of the supporting cast, as others have mentioned Geoffrey Keen is remarkably good and a real scene-stealer, while the familiar and young faces are endless: Robert Brown, Cyril Cusack, Hugh Griffith, Patrick McGoohan, Duncan Lamont, Gordon Jackson, Bryan Forbes, Michael Craig, Sam Kydd, Martin Benson, Michael Bryant, Glyn Houston, and George Woodbridge, the list is endless and nobody puts a foot wrong. This is probably the best cast I've ever seen outside of something like THE LONGEST DAY. PASSAGE HOME becomes as involving as rival big budget fare like A NIGHT TO REMEMBER while the climactic storm sequence easily outdoes the likes of THE PERFECT STORM and is one of the most horrifying things I've ever witnessed on the screen; the ferocity of those waves is something I'll never forget.
The story is told in flashback and involves a ship's passage from South America to Britain. The crew have to contend with rotten food, malcontent, and the vagaries of the Atlantic weather system, all of which are very typical story ingredients by genre standards, but where this film really excels is in the characters. These are real people up on screen, people you can identify with, recognise, and sympathise with. Scriptwriter William Fairchild, who also scripted THE SILENT ENEMY, does a fantastic job of bringing them to life, and the ensemble cast do a fantastic job of making them entertaining.
Peter Finch takes the headlining role of the captain whose alcoholism threatens to ruin his life, while Diane Cilento tackles the part of the woman whose presence is a catalyst to ruinous events. Filming must have been a hard slog for her but she's quite brilliant, especially at the climax. Of the supporting cast, as others have mentioned Geoffrey Keen is remarkably good and a real scene-stealer, while the familiar and young faces are endless: Robert Brown, Cyril Cusack, Hugh Griffith, Patrick McGoohan, Duncan Lamont, Gordon Jackson, Bryan Forbes, Michael Craig, Sam Kydd, Martin Benson, Michael Bryant, Glyn Houston, and George Woodbridge, the list is endless and nobody puts a foot wrong. This is probably the best cast I've ever seen outside of something like THE LONGEST DAY. PASSAGE HOME becomes as involving as rival big budget fare like A NIGHT TO REMEMBER while the climactic storm sequence easily outdoes the likes of THE PERFECT STORM and is one of the most horrifying things I've ever witnessed on the screen; the ferocity of those waves is something I'll never forget.
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