Another adaptation from Alistair MacLean and one of the best slices of hokum in months. Not much of it makes any sense but the pace never stops. The story is aboard a ship peopled with characters so cardboard they could fall over at a touch: the intrepid first officer (Richard Harris), the mystery woman (Ann Turkel) who won't talk, the tycoon (David Janssen) who drinks too much, the captain (Robert Flemyng) whose lip juts with determination, the faded blonde (Dorothy Malone), the gambler (Burgess Meredith) with a foolproof system, the good doctor (Gordon Jackson) who won't take arms (but naturally does). The list is as long as a yardarm, with Michael Howard scoring briefly as a steward who gets killed off early on - for scene-stealing, one presumes. On the technical side, cameraman Ken Higgins turns in a first rate job in this hugely enjoyable film.

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