Seven Waves Away (1957)

Directed by

Richard Sale

Genre

drama film

Country

United Kingdom, United States

Runtime

1h 40m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 25 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

After a cruise ship sinks, a surviving officer must decide who stays in an overcrowded lifeboat. His choices lead to a moral crisis and a later trial.

tensemoralslow-burnsuspensefulstarkthought-provokingclaustrophobic

What happens

Seven Waves Away (alternate U.S. titles: Abandon Ship! and Seven Days From Now) is a 1957 British drama directed by Richard Sale and starring Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, and Stephen Boyd. After his cruise ship hits a mine and with the captain dead, an officer has to make an agonizing decision on an overcrowded lifeboat. Richard Sale adapted the film from his 1938 short story of the same name, originally published by Scribner's Magazine. The plot has similarities to the real-life sinking of the American ship William Brown in 1841. The William Brown hit an iceberg 250 miles off Newfoundland and lost 31 of its 65 passengers. Two boats with 17 crewmen and the remaining passengers escaped the wreck, but more than a dozen passengers were sacrificed from the crowded longboat. Though there is no direct acknowledgment by the filmmakers, the film ends with a voice-over stating, "The story which you have just seen is a true one. In real life, Captain [sic] Alexander Holmes was brought to trial on a charge of murder. He was convicted and given the minimum sentence of six months because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the incident." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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