Guy Hamilton (director)
Network On Air (studio)
PG (certificate)
89min (length)
23 February 2015 (released)
04 March 2015
Trevor Howard and Elsa Martinelli quite literally set a tramp steamer ablaze with their unlikely passion. This BAFTA-nominated melodrama from Bond director Guy Hamilton is a cleverly written piece in which two lost souls find one another – only to lose each other again.
Trevor Howard is James Prothero, the middle-aged and booze-loving skipper of the aforementioned tramp steamer. Fed up with carting goods back and forth across the globe, he decides that the current trip from South America to Britain is one of his last. And it will be, because this time round he is about to lose his ship along the journey! At first all seems fine when the steamer has left the port, but trouble lures in the shape of Manuela (Elsa Martinelli), a native girl smuggled aboard the ship by Mario Constanza (Pedro Armendáriz), the first mate who is besotted by the exotic beauty. As Mario’s advances become ever more passionate it transpires that the manipulative enchantress only used him as a tool to get a free trip into a hopefully better future. The ensuing quarrel attracts the attention of some of the crew and unfortunately Prothero is amongst them. The angry skipper punishes Mario and informs the desperate young woman that he will have her removed from the ship at the first opportunity. But Manuela has her ways… especially with the male of the species who one after another fall prey to her alluring charms. Or should that be games?
Before he’s fully aware of what has happened, Prothero, a man not usually interested in the female sex, is besotted by her too. So much in fact that within no time the two are involved in a whirlwind love affair, much to the disappointment of the beaten Mario who is still obsessed with the girl but is too afraid to take on his new rival. Meanwhile, Prothero enjoys newfound emotions that so far had been alien to him – in short, he is head over heels in love! The happiness comes at a heavy price, however. Prothero neglects his responsibilities to the extent he fails to notice his skipper has caught fire!
When Prothero and Mario make up again in the lifeboat, the two men admit to their own foolishness for having fallen for Manuela. Meanwhile, Prothero is scolded by the ship’s stern preacher Evans (Donald Pleasance) for having neglected his duties and consequently brought on the disastrous situation the crew is now in. Manuela was put in a different boat after the fire broke out, with the instructions to bring her safely to the nearby shore. But it is not the last that Prothero has seen of the girl…
Elsa Martinelly with her striking looks and playful girlish charm is simply wonderful in the title role, a young woman torn between youthful frivolity and the realisation that despite her many admirers she is lost and lonely. Trevor Howard as the grumpy and experienced middle-aged skipper does not seem an immediate candidate to allow himself to be bewitched, but his shift in tone and display is convincing.
The DVD, part of the British Film Collection, has the following SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Alternate Ending
• Italian theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Instant play facility