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.