***SPOILERS*** Seeing this cargo ship on fire and adrift in the stormy English Channel salvage tugboat Captain of the "Sea Witch" John Sands, Charlton Heston, decided to get on board and investigate to see if anyone is still alive on the boat. To his shock and amazement Sands is attacked, from out of nowhere, by this wild eyed and hysterical man who claims that he's the ship's only survivor! The what seemed like crazy man turned out to be the ship's third mate Gideon Patch, Cary Cooper,and the ship he's now in charge of is the "Mary Deare".
Wih the "Mary Deare" taking on water and Sands stranded on it it's now up to Patch to steer it to the safely of the nearest French port. For some strange reason Patch beaches the "Mary Deare" on the treacherous Minquiers, or Minkies in English, coral reef off the Channel Islands! Patch is keeping what he knows about the "Mary Deare" secret planning to reveal what he knows at a naval court of inquiry. What's even more bizarre about Patch's actions he want's the totally ignorant Sands, who just went along for the ride, to play along with him! Even if by doing that would cost him his master ticket to be a ship captain! As we, and Sands, later find out there is a method to Patch's madness in his paranoia of what the purpose behind the "Mary Deare" string of accident that started when it left port in Rangoon Burma. ***SPOILERS***It secretly switched its cargo of jet aircraft engines to another cargo ship docked there. That ship just happened to belong to the Peoples Republic of Communist Red China!
Patch knows that as long as the "Mary Deare" remains in tact he can prove that there was a plan by it's owner Grunderson, Peter Illing, to sell its cargo of airplane engines to the Communist Red Chinese and then have the ship sunk by a series of staged accidents by it's officer in charge Captain Taggart. The fact that Patch prevented that from happening has put him on the hot seat for being an incompetent sea captain as well as a possible accomplice, in Captain Taggart's mysterious death, to murder. The only way he can clear his name is have the ship-the "Mary Deare- checked for its cargo that which Patch, by having it stranded on the Minkies, has everyone thinking that it's at the bottom of the English Channel. By having the ship being investigated by a naval board of inquiry would prevent Grunderson's paid off goons lead by Higgins, Richard Harris, from making sure that it, and its missing cargo of jet engines, never get to see the light of day!
P.S Even though at first intimidated by his co-star in the film Gary Cooper, whom he idolized, Charlton Heston held his own and in some scenes even eclipsed the legendary two time Academy Award winning actor. The movie turned out to be one of the last films the great Gary Cooper would ever make. Not knowing it at the time Gary Cooper was suffering from the early stages of terminal cancer that would eventually take his life two years later in May 1961 at the age of 60.
Wih the "Mary Deare" taking on water and Sands stranded on it it's now up to Patch to steer it to the safely of the nearest French port. For some strange reason Patch beaches the "Mary Deare" on the treacherous Minquiers, or Minkies in English, coral reef off the Channel Islands! Patch is keeping what he knows about the "Mary Deare" secret planning to reveal what he knows at a naval court of inquiry. What's even more bizarre about Patch's actions he want's the totally ignorant Sands, who just went along for the ride, to play along with him! Even if by doing that would cost him his master ticket to be a ship captain! As we, and Sands, later find out there is a method to Patch's madness in his paranoia of what the purpose behind the "Mary Deare" string of accident that started when it left port in Rangoon Burma. ***SPOILERS***It secretly switched its cargo of jet aircraft engines to another cargo ship docked there. That ship just happened to belong to the Peoples Republic of Communist Red China!
Patch knows that as long as the "Mary Deare" remains in tact he can prove that there was a plan by it's owner Grunderson, Peter Illing, to sell its cargo of airplane engines to the Communist Red Chinese and then have the ship sunk by a series of staged accidents by it's officer in charge Captain Taggart. The fact that Patch prevented that from happening has put him on the hot seat for being an incompetent sea captain as well as a possible accomplice, in Captain Taggart's mysterious death, to murder. The only way he can clear his name is have the ship-the "Mary Deare- checked for its cargo that which Patch, by having it stranded on the Minkies, has everyone thinking that it's at the bottom of the English Channel. By having the ship being investigated by a naval board of inquiry would prevent Grunderson's paid off goons lead by Higgins, Richard Harris, from making sure that it, and its missing cargo of jet engines, never get to see the light of day!
P.S Even though at first intimidated by his co-star in the film Gary Cooper, whom he idolized, Charlton Heston held his own and in some scenes even eclipsed the legendary two time Academy Award winning actor. The movie turned out to be one of the last films the great Gary Cooper would ever make. Not knowing it at the time Gary Cooper was suffering from the early stages of terminal cancer that would eventually take his life two years later in May 1961 at the age of 60.