Directed by:
Muriel BoxScreenplay:
Sydney BoxCinematography:
Reginald H. WyerCast:
Glynis Johns, Robert Newton, Donald Sinden, Donald Pleasence, Walter Crisham, Ronald Lewis, Rosita Garcia, Michael Hordern, Andy Ho, Michael Mellinger (more)Plots(1)
This second film version of Somerset Maugham's Vessel of Wrath. The first starred Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. This second version is quite entertaining. Robert Newton stars as Honorable Ted, a slovenly, bibulous South Sea Island beachcomber. The black sheep of a prominent British family, Ted is paid an annual salary to stay as far away from England as possible. Prim-and-proper missionary Martha (Glynis Johns), the sister of heathen-hating Welsh minister Owen (Paul Rogers), takes it upon herself to reform the intractable Ted. The script then goes off on a tangent not found in the Maugham original. Due to illness, Owen is unable to travel to a native village in an attempt to halt a cholera outbreak. So he sends Martha, with a reluctant Ted along as interpreter, to the village in his stead in an attempt to cure the tribal headman's daughter. After they fail, they and an intern are sentenced to a horrible death by the angry villagers. Despite the radicial differences in their separate acting styles, Robert Newton and Glynis Johns make a copacetic screen team. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Glynis Johns
South Africa
Best movies:
The Great Manhunt (1950)
Mary Poppins (1964)
The Court Jester (1955)
Robert Newton
UK
Best movies:
Donald Sinden
UK
Best movies:
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Balto (1995)
Doctor in the House (1954)
Donald Pleasence
UK
Best movies:
The Great Escape (1963)
Watch Out, We're Mad (1974)
Jesus of Nazareth (1977) (TV movie)
Walter Crisham
USA
Best movies:
Moulin Rouge (1952)
They Met in the Dark (1943)
Ronald Lewis
UK
Best movies:
Taste of Fear (1961)
Billy Budd (1962)
Friends (1971)
Rosita Garcia
Uruguay
Best movies:
Michael Hordern
UK
Best movies:
Gandhi (1982)
Shogun (1980) (series)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Andy Ho
Singapore
Best movies:
The World of Suzie Wong (1960)
Yesterday's Enemy (1959)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Michael Mellinger
German Empire
Best movies:
Gladiator (2000)
The Password is Courage (1962)
Jonathan Creek (1997) (series)
Ronald Adam
UK
Best movies:
Lust for Life (1956)
The Man Who Never Was (1956)
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951)
Paul Rogers
UK
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
Our Man in Havana (1959)