This rather alarming film stars a young Gene Hackman in as about as bad a performance as he ever gave. Of course, his character -- a self-described "renegade" preacher -- is about the most arrogant, pretentious, bullying nitwit ever passed off as an adventure hero. The preacher's bellowing hostility and vicious emotional manipulation might have been something interesting and different if the script didn't seem so unaware that the character is, well, a jerk. The other male characters are pretty much stock types, though the always-reliable Roddy McDowall as a hapless ship worker is dignified and touching.
The women do even worse than the men -- among them are a bitchy ex-hooker, a starry-eyed teenager with a crush on the boorish preacher, and a hot-pantsed halfwit of a lounge singer who frequently becomes paralyzed with terror and has to be comforted in the manly arms of Red Buttons.
The single female character with any depth at all is Shelley Winters' sweet Jewish grandma, whose swim through the flooded propellor room ultimately makes it possible for the others to be saved. A generation of unkind jokes aside, her sensible, brave performance is the best thing in this very silly movie.
The women do even worse than the men -- among them are a bitchy ex-hooker, a starry-eyed teenager with a crush on the boorish preacher, and a hot-pantsed halfwit of a lounge singer who frequently becomes paralyzed with terror and has to be comforted in the manly arms of Red Buttons.
The single female character with any depth at all is Shelley Winters' sweet Jewish grandma, whose swim through the flooded propellor room ultimately makes it possible for the others to be saved. A generation of unkind jokes aside, her sensible, brave performance is the best thing in this very silly movie.