Assault on the Queen Mary
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Assault on the Queen Mary |
| Original title | Assault on a Queen |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 106 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jack Donohue |
| script | Rod Serling |
| production | William Goetz |
| music | Duke Ellington |
| camera | William H. Daniels |
| cut | Archie Marshek |
| occupation | |
| |
Assault on Queen Mary is a 1965 American thriller directed by Jack Donohue starring Frank Sinatra , Virna Lisi , Anthony Franciosa and Bergman star Alf Kjellin . The story is based on the 1959 novel Assault on a Queen by Jack Finney .
action
For years the Italian Rosa Lucchesi and her American partner Vic Rossiter have been on a treasure hunt in the Bahamas . But instead of a galleon filled with gold doubloons and precious objects , the two only come across a German submarine from the time of the Second World War that sank off the coast . It is decided, with the help of the German submarine ex-officer Eric Loefson (in the original: Lauffnauer and in the German dubbing an American) as well as the former naval officer Mark Brittain and his friend Linc Langley, who are both owners of a bankrupt charter boat company to raise the submarine and get it afloat again. Soon someone comes up with the absurd idea of secretly approaching the RMS Queen Mary with the recovered submarine, if one has not found any treasure, boarding the passenger steamer that is crossing the Atlantic and, one hopes, robbing the overfilled ship's safe . To get the submarine going again, another person is brought on board for this daring undertaking, the machine expert Tony Moreno, who can finally repair the drive of the boat.
The submarine sets course for the Queen Mary and can approach the ocean liner unnoticed. Brittain, Rossiter and Loefson establish radio contact with the ship. Under the pretext of being an American submarine on a secret mission, they convince the ship's crew to stop the steamship's engines and let them come on board. Shortly afterwards, they reveal their true intentions to the horrified captain of the luxury liner and bluntly threaten to torpedo his ship from the submarine if he does not open the ship's safe and hand over its contents to the three men. While the safe is being emptied, the Queen Mary sends an SOS to an American coast guard boat. The gangsters then flee hastily. Rossiter is shot by a crew member while attempting to tear a valuable ring from a passenger's finger, and Brittain and Loefson lose their prey. Back on the submarine, it turns out that the submarine has working torpedoes, which Loefson was the only one to know, while the other participants assumed that one wanted and could only bluff with a torpedo. Loefson now wants to torpedo the rapidly approaching US coast guard boat in order not to be caught. When Moreno tries to prevent this, the white-blonde German shoots him. Brittain then pounces on the killer, but Loefson's torpedo is fired anyway. However, this misses its goal. Rosa, Mark and Linc flee in a panic from the submarine in a rubber dinghy, while the coast guard boat rams the submarine, causing it to explode and sink. Loefson dies in the process. While the Queen Mary continues her voyage, the remaining three ship robbers row out to sea, heading for South America.
Production notes
Assault on the Queen Mary was shot off the Florida coast in 1965 (exterior shots), partly on board the real Queen Mary , and premiered on June 15, 1966 in Philadelphia. The German premiere took place on January 6, 1967, the German TV first broadcast was on ARD on January 29, 1977 at 8:15 p.m. In January 2019 the film was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD.
The cameraman William H. Daniels also worked here as production manager. Paul Groesse created the film structures, John P. Austin the equipment. Wally Westmore oversaw the makeup and masks. Edith Head was responsible for Virna Lisi's costumes. Farciot Edouart designed the rear projection .
The film, co-produced by Sinatra's own film company Sinatra Enterprises, primarily served as a classic star vehicle, which was intended to highlight the singing and acting star, who had fallen into disrepute over the years due to his various underworld contacts, as a cool he-man.
Reviews
The very conventionally designed and not very ambitious star crime thriller rarely met with approval from domestic and international criticism. Here are a few examples:
Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times : “What's good about it? The really great title, two good daring performances, the color, and a distance or two shots of the gorgeous ocean liner. (…) The film is totally predictable, front and aft, with the usual tensions before the robbery and the bickering. Virna Lisi, the platinum wonder, longs for Mr. Sinatra, who is of course the strong boss of the gang. Tony Franciosa plays a sarcastic hothead. Errol John does very well as the hero's sidekick. And Alf Kjellin and Richard Conte, as two other conspirators, are both okay. "
The Movie & Video Guide stated that the story was just a "sloppy Sinatra vehicle".
The lexicon of international films reads: “Imaginative adventure entertainment with criminal suspense; the exciting big band music by Duke Ellington is outstanding. "
Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be “an exhausted, robbery film that doesn't know whether to be a drama or a thriller, and doesn't achieve one thing or the other. The special effects are not convincing either. "
"As exciting as plastic tubs in the bathtub."
Individual evidence
- ^ Review in The New York Times, July 28, 1966
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 59
- ^ Assault on the Queen Mary. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 1, 2019 .
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 56
Web links
- Attack on the Queen Mary in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Assault on a Queen at the American Film Institute