Drama - Merchant Marine A - L
Abandon Ship!
Columbia (UK)
Director: Richard Sale
Screenplay: Richard Sale
Other Titles: Seven Waves Away.
Seven Days From Now.
Cast: Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan
97 minutes - 1957
Ship's officer finds himself in command of a lifeboat full of survivors of a sunken luxury liner.
Action in the North Atlantic
Warner Bros (USA)
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Screenplay: John Howard Lawson
Source: Guy Gilpatric (story)
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale
126 minutes - 1943
An American tanker is sunk by a German U-boat and the survivors spend eleven days at sea on a raft. They're next assigned to the liberty ship Sea Witch bound for Murmansk through the sub-stalked North Atlantic
The African Queen
United Artists (USA)
Director: John Huston
Screenplay: John Huston ; James Agee
Source: C. S. Forester (novel)
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley
105 minutes - 1951
Tramp river steamer in WWI
All the Brothers Were Valiant
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA)
Director: Richard Thorpe
Screenplay: Harry Brown
Source: Ben Ames Williams (novel)
Cast: Rod Taylor, Stewart Grainger, Ann Blyth
101 minutes - 1953
Sea-faring saga of two brothers and the woman they both love. Set against South Pacific islands, this love triangle pits the good brother against the bad as they squabble over the woman and a bag of pearls on the floor of a lagoon; the bad boy redeems himself, however, by helping fend off a mutiny
Assault on a Queen
Paramount (USA)
Director: Jack Donohue
Screenplay: Rod Serling
Source: Jack Finney (novel)
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Tony Franciosa
106 minutes - 1966
A group of adventurers refloat a WWII German submarine and prepare to use it to pull a very large heist; The Queen Mary which they plan to rob on the high seas
Billy Budd
United Artists (USA)
Director: Peter Ustinov
Screenplay: Peter Ustinov ; DeWitt Bodeen
Source: Louis O. Coxe & Robert H. Chapman (play) ; Herman Melville (story)
Cast: Terence Stamp, Robert Ryan, Peter Ustinov
123 minutes - 1962
When a new seaman, Billy Budd, is pressed into service from a passing merchantman, his innocent, happy-go-lucky attitude quickly endears him to his messmates as well as the ship's officers. However, his charismatic naivete bothers Claggert, whose perverse depravity makes him resent Billy's good-natured purity
Black Sea
Focus (USA)
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Screenplay: Dennis Kelly
Cast: Jude Law, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn
114 minutes - 2014
In order to make good with his former employers, a submarine captain takes a job with a shadowy backer to search the depths of the Black Sea for a submarine rumored to be loaded with gold
Blood Alley
Warner Bros (USA)
Director: William A. Wellman
Screenplay: A. S. Fleischman
Source: A. S. Fleischman (novel)
Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Becall
110 minutes - 1955
His ship seized by the Chinese Communists, American Merchant Captain Tom Wilder languishes in prison but Chinese villagers help him escape to sail them to Hong-Kong
Action in the North Atlantic
Warner Bros (USA)
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Screenplay: John Howard Lawson
Source: Guy Gilpatric (story)
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale
126 minutes - 1943
An American tanker is sunk by a German U-boat and the survivors spend eleven days at sea on a raft. They're next assigned to the liberty ship Sea Witch bound for Murmansk through the sub-stalked North Atlantic
Captain Phillips
Columbia (USA)
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenplay: Billy Ray
Source: Richard Phillips & Stephan Talty (book)
Cast: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi
134 minutes - 2013
The hijacking of the Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates. "Look at Me. I'm the captain now."
China Seas
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA)
Director: Tay Garrnet
Screenplay: Jules Furthman ; James Kevin McGuinness
Source: Crosbie Garstin (novel)
Cast: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Berry
87 minutes - 1935
When earthy Dolly Portland is rejected by Captain Gaskell in favor of a socialite, she aids Jamesy McCardle, in league with Malay pirates, in his plot to seize Gaskell's ship
Counterstrike
Lionsgate (USA)
Director: Jerry London
Screenplay: J. B. White
Source: Richard P. Henrick (novel)
Other Titles: Attack on a Queen
Cast: Rob Estes, Joe Lando, Rachel Blakely
96 minutes - 2002
When a peace summit upon the QE2 is attacked by terrorists, estranged brothers, one an ATF agent, the other a Secret Service agent, must come together to thwart the extremist's plans
The Decks Ran Red
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA)
Director: Andrew L. Stone
Screenplay: Andrew L. Stone
Cast: James Mason, Dorothy Dandridge, Broderick Crawford
84 minutes - 1958
A band of dishonest seamen plan a murderous mutiny aboard the S.S. Berwind
Down to the Sea in Ships
20th Century Fox (USA)
Director: Henry Hathaway
Screenplay: John Lee Mahin ; Sy Bartlett
Cast: Richard Widmark, Lionel Barrymore, Dean Stockwell
120 minutes - 1949
Whaling ship captain Bering Joy takes his grandson Jed on a whaling trip to teach him core life values while First Mate Dan Lunceford is tasked with tutoring Jed
ffolks
Universal (USA)
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Screenplay: Jack Davies
Source: Jack Davies (novel: Esther, Ruth and Jennifer)
Other Titles: North Sea Hijack ; Assault Force
Cast: Roger Moore, James Mason, Anthony Perkins
95 minutes - 1980
When terrorists take over two oil rigs, and threaten to blow them up if their demands are not met, an eccentric anti-terrorism expert volunteers his unique commando unit to stop them
Fire Down Below
Columbia (USA)
Director: Robert Parrish
Screenplay: Irwin Shaw
Source: Max Cato (novel)
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jack Lemmon, Rita Hayworth
116 minutes - 1957
The friendship between two tramp boat owners is threatened by the arrival of a beautiful and seductive passenger
Greyhound
Apple (USA)
Director: Aaron Schneider
Screenplay: Tom Hanks
Source: C. S. Forester (novel: The Good Shepherd)
Cast: Tom Hanks, Elisabeth Shue, Stephen Graham
91 minutes - 2020
Several months after the U.S. entry into World War II, an inexperienced U.S. Navy commander must lead an Allied convoy being stalked by a German submarine wolf pack
Hell Below Zero
Columbia (USA)
Director: Mark Robson
Screenplay: Alec Coppel ; Max Trell
Source: Hamilton Innes (novel: The Survivors)
Cast: Alan Ladd, Joan Tetzel
90 minutes - 1954
The captain of an Antarctic whaling ship falls overboard in mysterious circumstances and his daughter, aided by a sympathetic American, decides to investigate the accident
A High Wind in Jamaica
20th Century Fox (USA)
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Screenplay: Stanley Mann ; Ronald Harwood ; Denis Cannan
Source: Richard Hughes (novel)
Cast: Anthony Quinn, James Coburn
103 minutes - 1965
In 1870, a Jamaican colonial family sends its children to Britain for proper schooling but their ship is taken over by pirates who become fond of the kids
His Majesty O'Keefe
Warner Bros (USA)
Director: Byron Haskin
Screenplay: Borden Chase ; James Hill
Source: Lawrence Klingman & Gerald Green (novel)
Cast: Burt Lancaster
91 minutes - 1954
Adventurer after Yap copra circa 1880s
In the Heart of the Sea
Warner Bros (USA)
Director: Ron Howard
Screenplay: Charles Leavitt
Source: Nathaniel Philbrick (book)
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson
122 minutes - 2015
Wreck of the Essex
Juggernaut
United Artists (USA)
Director: Richard Lester
Screenplay: Richard Alan Simmons ; Alan Plater
Cast: Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, Anthony Hopkins
109 minutes - 1974
A blackmailer demands a huge ransom in exchange for information on how to disarm the seven bombs he placed aboard the transatlantic liner Britannic
The Last Voyage
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA)
Director: Andrew L. Stone
Screenplay: Andrew L. Stone
Cast: Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, George Sanders, Edmond O'Brien
91 minutes - 1960
After a boiler explosion aboard an aging ocean liner, a man struggles to free his injured wife from the wreckage of their cabin and ensure the safety of their four-year-old daughter as the ship begins to sink
Lifeboat
20th Century Fox (USA)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Jo Swerling
Source: John Steinbeck (story)
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, Hume Cronyn
97 minutes - 1944
Several survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the U-boat men who sunk it
The Long Voyage Home
United Artists (USA)
Director: John Ford
Screenplay: Dudley Nichols
Source: Eugene O'Neill (plays)
Cast: John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Barry Fitzgerald
105 minutes - 1940
In 1940, the motley crew of the British tramp steamer SS Glencairn prepares the ship for its perilous voyage from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England
Lord Jim
Columbia (USA)
Director: Richard Brooks
Screenplay: Richard Brooks
Source: Joseph Conrad (novel)
Cast: Peter O'Toole, James Mason, Curt Jürgens, Eli Wallach, Jack Hawkins, Paul Lukas
154 minutes - 1965
After being discredited as a coward, a seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself
Lord Jeff
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA)
Director: Sam Wood
Screenplay: James Kevin McGuinness
Cast: Freddie Bartholomew, Mickey Rooney, Charles Coburn
85 minutes - 1938
Geoffrey is sentenced to a reformatory where young men are trained to be sailors. He is befriended by a model in-mate but soon starts to get them both in trouble