Wreck Of The Mary Deare (1959)

A small ship discovers what appears to be an abandoned freighter called the Mary Deare in the English Channel. But when one of the crew (Charlton Heston) boards the vehicle, he finds one man (Gary Cooper in his second to last film) still on board. A court of inquiry is held and the mystery of why the Mary Deare was abandoned and her secret will eventually come out. At one time scheduled to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay by Ernest Lehman, they bolted the project to do NORTH BY NORTHWEST when Hitchcock felt the story was turning into a rather dull courtroom drama. I'm not going to argue with Hitchcock's assessment but the first two thirds of the film is a pretty decent mystery until falling apart in the last third. Directed by Michael Anderson (LOGAN'S RUN), the film manages to hold one's curiosity and both Cooper and Heston have enough star power to own the screen. With Richard Harris, Michael Redgrave, Virginia McKenna, Alexander Knox, Terence De Marney, Emlyn Williams and Cecil Parker.