Ships in Movies
 

On Film 4 tonight was a film made in 1961 called: 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.' I was 14 when I first saw it at the local fleapit, and at the time thought it was the bees knees.

Tonight however I couldn't help but laugh, especially at one line near the end as the submarine was about to save the world. The admiral (Walter Pidgeon) is calling the 'power room' after many explosions and burned out controls:

"Power room, power room, what happened to the reactors ?"
"Dunno sir, they just quit."

You just don't get engineers like that anymore ... :big_tongue:

That film eventually spun off a TV series as I remember it, and the glass nosed submarine went on to save the world many times over. :wink:

No doubt Bob, you remember scifi movies (usually black and white) where the sophisticated electronics included things like Lodestone DFs - ideal for comms when on FTL vessels.

A film I saw a couple of weeks ago on TV called "The Mouse that Roared" A barmy film with Peter Sellers, had a couple of very short but good quality clips of the Queen Elizabeth and another of the smaller Cunarders of the Saxonia type at speed deep sea. A shame the clips weren't longer.

I quite often spotted old bits of test gear in some of those B movie scifi flicks. And there was always an oscilloscope with a lissajous figure on the screen, I think that was the anti-matter relief valve :big_tongue:

I remember that film 'The Mouse that Roared.' There was another one back then called 'Assault on a Queen' in which a gang of crooks recovered an old U Boat and decided to pull a heist on the Queen Mary at sea. I'm not sure if they used the actual ship for any of the footage .. !!

I was on the Canberra when bits of "Diamonds are Forever" was filmed, in Southampton. It was supposed to be LA.

There was another film set on a ship, with Richard Harris and Omar Sharif, about a bomb placed on a passenger ship, can't remember the title. Seem to remember seeing it on a trip via Walport much to the amusement of the crowd. :sweat:

A recall a film called 'Ghost ship' (?)- I think remake of original which was in B&W.

The most amusing part(s) of the film were the external shots of the hull;
Welded plates with portholes, welded plates without portholes, riveted plates with and without portholes.
and the height of the hull varied quite alarmingly from shot to shot.

The most realistic for me without any doubt, was the film The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, starring Kris Kristofferson and Sarah Miles.
Some of it was filmed aboard the Blue Funnel ship Bellerophon, renamed Belle for the film and there are glimpses of the crew at work, including the bosun, The Ghoul, at the head of the gangway,

When I was a kid I was made up with the film version of Moby Dick starring Gregory Peck as Ahab. The other sea going film that impressed me was 'A Night to Remember' about the Titanic. Of course, being a kid and living the Midlands at the time I didn't know sh*t from a biscuit about ships, but I've seen both those films since and I'm still impressed by them.

I was terrified by 'Moby Dick, in particular the character Queequeg whose tattoos were so frightening I ducked down behind the seats whenever he appeared on screen. Must have been nine at the time.

(And no I didn't remember that name, looked it up a few minutes ago!)

I think that was "Juggernaut" which used MAXIM GORKIY.

That's the one. :D

You missed the James Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me" starring the Shell tanker "Liparus" which was on yesterday.

Parts of 'The Captain's Table' (1959) were filmed on 'Orsova' at Tilbury Docks. John Gregson, Peggy Cummins, Donald Sinden and Nadia Gray - among many other well-known names of that era.

Mike

What was the film where (allegedly) John Wayne read the Lat/Lon straight off the sextant ? I think he was Captain of a cargo ship somewhere in the Pacific.

'THe Sea Chase' (?) where he wants to burn the lifeboats for fuel , and the crew aren't best pleased about it.

I think that was Frank Sinatra and the Ratpack.

The film "The Bedford Incident," used a model to portray the USS Bedford, but on board scenes were filmed on HMS Troubridge, and near the start of the film, there are scenes showing HMS Wakeful. I think even the most unobservant viewer would have noticed the differences.

In Indiana Jones The Last Crusade, the Venice boat chase was filmed in Tilbury Dock showing the cable ship JOHN W MacKAY.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsFxWM46ZZM

Now you've mentioned it the transition from Venice to Tilbury does jump out at you a bit ... :big_tongue:

Ode Indiana has an exciting life doesn't he ? Being chased about the place by a gang of psychopathic Tommy Coopers armed with broom-handle Mausers ? :wink::eek:

I think you woll find it was the "Wake of the Red Witch" from 1948.

Was that the film about a tiny country that invaded the United States, with a view to being defeated and then enjoying American occupation with all of its benefits?

Yes! That's the one. :)

Just turned on the TV and Speed 2: Cruise Control is on. What a load of bollocks it is. Must be the worst ever ship based movie ever.

I think even 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' was probably better than that film .... :big_tongue:

Could it be, perhaps, the film Juggernaut ?? Came out in 1974 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut_(1974_film)

Filmed aboard TS Hamburg...

Distinctly remember the film Juggernaut. I was down for my interview for P&O General Cargo Division and had many hours to fill in before my sleeper train back to Aberdeen that evening, so went to Leicester Square and watched Juggernaut in one cinema, then crossed the square when that film finished and watched The Odessa File in another place.
Bill

Well we've got two ships put forward for Juggernaut. As far as I can tell from IMDB both suggestions are correct. The ship was in the process of being sold from Germany to the USSR when the film was made. It isn't clear about both names though on the 'Trivia' section of IMDB.

Quite an impressive cast, but apparently the film flopped at the box office.

Location shots for Juggernaught were taken aboard TS Hamburg around a year after I took her anchored in Grassy Bay, Bermuda in 1971 as seen below. She was renamed Hanseatic 1973/74 before becoming Maxim Gorkiy in 1974, the same year Juggernaught was released. Therefore, as far as I am aware, she was not Maxim Gorkiy or indeed Hanseatic when the film was made.

The film The Poseidon Adventure, (another passenger liner disaster story,) was on release when Brittany Ferries began sailings from Plymouth with a chartered Stena Line passenger only vessel.

They named it Poseidon.

Also some may recall another ship disaster movie called 'The Last Voyage' for which if I remember rightly they partially sank an actual liner that was about to be scrapped anyway in order to get some of the deck scenes.

According to IMDB it was the French liner SS Ile de France which apparently horrified the former owners.

Quite right Bob. I have it somewhere on VHS. (Yes, it is that old!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4


Anyone remember this one?

(How old does he think we are ? ....) :big_tongue::eek::jester:

That film inspired me to go to sea Bob. Well, at least to go to sea in the bath with my plastic tugboat..:jump::jump::jester:

I've always thought going to sea was a bit of a Mickey Mouse way to make a living ...:jester:

(OK OK, I know that's bad, I'll put the groanometer on myself ....:rolleyes: )

The film A Taste of Honey, the ships the Manchester Shipper and Manchester Pioneer. The following is a quote from the IMDb review of the movie.....

"When the Manchester Shipper and Manchester Pioneer were chosen to star in Shelagh Delaney's novel "A Taste of Honey", it was not known that part of the plot involved a drunken seaman taking his girlfriend on board, and also involving a drunken first officer! When the premiere took place, the company had to take space in the programme to point out that Manchester Liners neither approved nor allowed such conduct."

I spent 6 months as a deck apprentice in the Shipper in 1967. Fantastic group of officers and a great crowd - learnt a lot about seamanship; steam winches, hatchboards and tarps, patching up holes in vents with chart paper and bandages, stripping down and sanding yards and yards of painted taffrails on the boat deck and the applying and re-applying oceans of varnish till you could see your own reflection. Great days.
Cheers
John

Uh huh......

Boom Boom! or at least Boom :)

Which of the Isle of Man Steam Packet boats was used in the Barbra Streisand movie Yentl? It was about the end of 1982.