Death Cruise (1974)

Sadly Over-hyped

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Several couples are given free passage on a cruise ship. Little do they know that the company in the letter with the tickets doesn't exist and it's just a murderer's pretext to get them in one place so he or she could kill them! As for the couples, they all are screwed up. One has a husband who is a philanderer (Richard Long and Polly Bergen), another a husband and wife who don't know what to do with their marriage now that the kids are grown (Tom Bosley and Celeste Holm) and the other is arguing about whether or not they'll have children (Edward Albert and Kate Jackson). You also see quite a bit of Dr. Burke (Michael Constantine) and the Captain (Cesare Danova). But what's the connection between all these people?! As for the doctor, he fancies himself to be an amateur detective and investigates! The plot, when you think about it, is really very much like "The Love Boat" combined with "Diagnosis Murder"! The set-up for the story was good and the film could have worked. So why did I give it only a 3? Well, the writing was spotty and there were way too many ridiculous moments. First, the killer was easy to figure out because it was obvious they were in a costume. Second, when the crew figured out someone was trying to kill the couples, why didn't they put all the surviving people in a room together with guards? Instead, they gave them ample opportunities to separate themselves and get killed. Why would they continue to allow people to skeet shoot aboard the ship (common back in the day) once they knew a killer was among them? Why would the doctor confront the murderer all alone--without backup and with a gun? And, how could someone at a great distance so easily shoot one man and avoid hitting another only a few feet away? This is NOT an easy shot! There were more inconsistencies and mistakes...but these things SHOULD have been worked out before shooting the script. I can only assume it was hurried into production.The film's interior shots were done aboard the Queen Mary--an old cruise ship permanently anchored in Long Beach, California (near Hollywood). I was shocked by the rooms, as they were HUGE!

It's About Time "Kate Jackson" got her credit for this film.., i can remember watching it & trying to understand it on TV.., my grandmother lay in bed dying from cancer & i was barely 15. i didn't find out till years later that Richard long had died tho.., i miss him on the other shows/movies he was in.I have a copy of the VHS tape still but it's NOT "CC'd" or Closed Captioned for the Hearing Impaired & thats the ONLY flaw in the movie that i can remember or know of to date.., i haven't been able to find a DVD or VHS copy that has sub-titles in English even. If someone out there knows of either copy on VHS or DVD thats CC'd or has English sub-titles please let me know.thanks - Cofffeenut

When did 'Made For TV' movies begin? Hundreds of mini-masterpieces are going to be lost unless some bright spark begins to preserve and restore each and every print.This little 1974 'tv gem' has a delicious cast succumbing to a hackneyed Agatha Christie plot. Can you spot the killer(s) before it becomes obvious? Jackson is both gorgeous and fascinating... she spent so much of her career trying to cover her neck and throat (Charlie gave her so many scarves and polo-necks), yet amidst the halter-necks and scarves here, some scenes show a lovely (and perfectly normal) neck. Am I missing something? Also, an agent or personal manager with more smarts might have suggested she was SUPERB at playing hard-faced beauties... she should have been the QUEEN of gorgeous villains!Did I spoil the plot?

I saw this when I was twelve. It was the movie that made me understand what a good mystery really was. I had read the entire Happy Hollisters children's mystery series and they were about a family of child sleuths who always got their man. But we the readers were not in a position to solve the mystery along with them. This movie showed me that a good mystery is that which makes the viewer/reader, at the end, say, "OH!!!!! OF COURSE!!!!!!!"