Passage Home

Passage Home is a 1955 British drama film directed by Roy Ward Baker.

Passage Home
Diane Cilento with Peter Finch during the making of the film
Directed byRoy Ward Baker
Produced byJulian Wintle
Written byWilliam Fairchild
Story bynovel by Richard Armstrong
StarringAnthony Steel
Peter Finch
Diane Cilento
Music byClifton Parker
CinematographyGeoffrey Unsworth
Edited bySidney Hayers
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors (UK)
Release date
April 1955 (UK)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Captain Lucky Ryland (Peter Finch) is about to retire. There is a flashback of several years to a voyage on a ship he was captaining from South America. He is forced to give a lift to a British governess, Ruth Elton (Diane Cilento), who is returning home. Both Ryland and his second mate, Vosper (Anthony Steel), fall for Ruth. Ryland proposes to Ruth and when she turns down his offer he tries to rape her in his cabin but she is rescued by Vosper. The ship, crew and Ruth survive a very severe storm in which Vosper saves Ruth's life outside on deck after which Ruth and Vosper first realize that they are in love with each other.

After the voyage Ruth and Vosper are married and do not meet Ryland again until his Retirement Function. Ryland finally leaves his Retirement Function in a Taxi. The film ends with Ruth looking at Ryland in tears because she still has feelings for Ryland after all of the years and despite him once trying to rape her.

There is a subplot about the dissatisfaction of the ship's crew with the supply of rotten potatoes which Ryland has bought cheaply simply to save money. The potatoes are dumped overboard and Ryland is determined to find out who is responsible by offering the crew £5 for any information as to who did it. It turns out this was done by Shorty (Bryan Forbes) but Ike the bosun (Geoffrey Keen), who later dies and is buried at sea, covers for him saying that he did it because although always pretending to be a very hard bosun he actually cares very much about his crew.

Cast

Production

The film was based on a novel by Richard Armstrong that was published in 1953.[1]

It was Roy Ward Baker's first film after working several years in Hollywood. Baker's biographer would later write "although he [Baker] was disappointed in the eventual result Passage Home was the quintessential 1940s and 1950s Baker film - classical in style and melodramatic/generic in its basic structure... it conveys a quiet, pervasive sense of despair in its storyline, involving melancholy and sexual repression."[2]

The script was by William Fairchild who had written Morning Departure, alo directed by Baker. The director called it "a bomb in the bomb locker story... all pretty formula stuff. It's not very good... The whole film should have been set in 1885 on a sailing ship. It was sort of a Victorian film. It just didn't work as a modern day film."[3]

Baker felt the "only interesting thing about" the movie was it used a new form of back projection.[3]

Diane Cilento's casting was announced in September 1954.[4] She was cast after producer Julian Wintle had seen 60 people. Cilento had only recently appeared on stage in The Big Knife and signed a five year contract with Alex Korda.[5]

Her co star was Peter Finch, a fellow Australian.[6]

The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in November 1954.[7][8] It was the first film Finch made under a new five year contract with the Rank Organisation.[9]

It was also the first film Michael Craig made under contract to Rank. He said filming went for over three months and was impressed by the set, saying "the art department, if no one else, had one use proud."[10]

Reception

Filmink argued the movie would have been more successful if a war film.[11]

References

  1. {cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18368953 |title=REVIEWS IN BRIEF |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=35,994 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=2 May 1953 |accessdate=26 June 2020 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}
  2. Mayer, Geoff (2004). Roy Ward Baker. Manchester University Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780719063541.
  3. "Collected Interviews: Voices from Twentieth-century Cinema". SIU Press. 2001. p. 151. ISBN 9780809324170.
  4. "SHAKESPEARE TONED DOWN". Sunday Times (Perth) (2912). Western Australia. 26 September 1954. p. 9 (MAGAZINE). Retrieved 26 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  5. "MARIAN MARCH PAGE". The Advertiser (Adelaide). 97 (29, 987). South Australia. 23 November 1954. p. 16. Retrieved 26 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Australian Stars Team In New Rank Film". The Newcastle Sun (11, 308). New South Wales, Australia. 1 October 1954. p. 7. Retrieved 26 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Victor Valentine pays a visit to Australian Stars IN LONDON". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 22 January 1955. p. 46. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  8. "Peter Finch gets new offer". Sunday Mail. Queensland, Australia. 21 November 1954. p. 4. Retrieved 26 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Peter Finch gets new offer". Sunday Mail. Queensland, Australia. 21 November 1954. p. 4. Retrieved 26 June 2020 via National Library of Australia.
  10. Craig, Michael (2005). The Smallest Giant: An Actor's Life. Allen and Unwin. p. 66.
  11. Vagg, Stephen (23 September 2020). "The Emasculation of Anthony Steel: A Cold Streak Saga". Filmink.


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