SEVEN WAVES AWAY

UK, 1957, 100 minutes, Black and white.
Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, Stephen Boyd, Moira Lister, James Hayter, Marie Lohr, Finlay Currie, John Stratton, Victor Maddern, Eddie Byrne, Gordon Jackson.
Directed by Richard Sale.

Seven Waves Away is similar to Hitchcock’s Lifeboat. A luxury liner sinks and a young man finds himself in charge of a lifeboat full of survivors – however, the lifeboat will not contain all the survivors in the rough seas and some have to be sacrificed.

The film is grim, gets audiences to identify with the passengers in the situation, the desire to stay alive, the issues of self-sacrifice for others.

Tyrone Power is the officer and Mai Zetterling is the nurse. There is a strong cast of British character actors as well as Stephen Boyd in an early role.

The film was directed by Richard Sale, novelist and screenwriter who made a number of films in the 1950s, light films including A Ticket to Tomahawk, Half Angel, Gentlemen Marry Brunettes. The film was remade in 1975 for American television, a much shorter version with Martin Sheen in the Tyrone Power role and a strong supporting cast of American actors who made their mark mainly in television films. This film was adapted by Douglas Day Stewart (who achieved some fame in the 1980s with his screenplay for The Blue Lagoon and, especially, An Officer and a Gentleman) and was directed by Lee H. Katzin, a prolific director of television movies during the 1970s.

1. How interesting a film, how serious, entertainment? Its overall impact, message?

2. The indication of the title? An alternative title was 'Abandon Ship'. The atmosphere of the sea, the ship, disaster, survival and decisions?

3. The use of black and white photography, the moods and atmosphere of the sea? The contrast between the ship, the lifeboat? The musical score far the atmosphere of the disaster?

4. Audience response to disasters and accidents? Identifying with the situation, with the survivors, particular types in the lifeboat?

5. The theme of survival and man's wanting to live desperately? The people in the lifeboat, the people hanging on? The significance of life? The overwhelming fear? Motivations, greed, selfishness?

6. How interesting was the cross-section of people, the varying types, good and bad, selfish and selfless? Crew and passengers, men and women?

7. Were the survivors types or were they dramatised characters? Did they represent issues and values? Did they typify various responses to dangers and fears?

8. Tyrone Power as the hero? How heroic was he by temperament and character? His role on the ship, in the lifeboat? As a person, doing his duty? The questions of conscience, emotions? The difficulty of his decisions? The
criteria for people who were to die? His motives? The effect of these decisions on himself, on the various people? How well did the film offer pros and cons for his decision? Did some people have to die?

9. The presentation of the people? The situation of the dog and the indication of what was to follow? Those who stayed? Those who had to go, those who decided to go? The bonds of fear?

10. The significance of Julie and her support of Holmes? Her place on the lifeboat?

11. The character of McKinley? and the clash with Holmes? A legitimate point of view? Fear? Orders and duty?

12. The significance of Kelly, his words of advice, the impact of his death?

13. How important was the dialogue, the interaction of the characters revealing themselves and their attitudes, especially Edith with her background, her sarcastic way of speaking? Her spurning of her lover? Her rising to the occasion?

14. Other minor characters and the way they were presented? The playwright, elderly couple?

15. The impact of the rescue ship arriving? The survivors? Holmes changing from hero to villain and the fickle aspects of human nature in the survivors turning against him?

16. The purpose of making the film? Entertainment? A serious story? Insight into human nature and themes of conscience?