The Wreck of the Mary Deare

A cargo ship is found apparently abandoned in the Channel. When the salvage crew boards her there is one man aboard, her first officer. What happened before she was scuttled is the rest of the film. It is not interested in the shipwreck. It is interested in reputation: the man wants to defend himself at sea before he does so in court, which means looking for his evidence aboard a sinking ship. The form splits in two: a dark, near-silent exploration of the vessel, then a hearing in a court of inquiry. The tension of the first half drains out of the second. The best-known thing about the film is the version that was never shot. MGM offered the novel to Alfred Hitchcock and assigned Ernest Lehman to the screenplay. After several weeks the pair concluded that it could not be filmed without turning into a boring courtroom drama. When Lehman said he could not crack it, Hitchcock told him they would do something else; asked what about MGM, Hitchcock said they would not tell them. That something else became North by Northwest. Michael Anderson took over as director, with Eric Ambler on the screenplay. The source is Hammond Innes's 1956 novel. Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston star. Who it is for: viewers who like sea adventures and fifties studio suspense. Who it is not for: anyone expecting one consistent register. Once the film leaves the ship for the courtroom it becomes an entirely different picture.