Until They Sail (1957)

Director:

Robert Wise

Writers:

James Michener (story) and
Robert Anderson (writer)

Release Date:

27 February 1958 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama | History | Romance | War

Tagline:

They Couldn't Have The Love They Wanted, So They Took The Love They Could Get!

Plot:

Four sisters in New Zealand fall for four U.S. soldiers en route to the Pacific theater in WWII

Plot Keywords:

WWII | Soldier | Alcohol | Murder | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Jean Simmons	...	Barbara Leslie Forbes
Joan Fontaine	...	Anne Leslie
Paul Newman	...	Capt. Jack Harding
Piper Laurie	...	Delia Leslie Friskett
Charles Drake	...	Capt. Richard Bates
Sandra Dee	...	Evelyn Leslie
Wally Cassell	...	Phil Friskett aka Shiner
Alan Napier	...	Prosecution Attorney
Ralph Votrian	...	Max Murphy
John Wilder	...	Tommy
Tige Andrews	...	US Marine, Store Customer
Adam Kennedy	...	Andy, Delia's Lover
Mickey Shaughnessy	...	US Marine, Store Customer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Patrick Macnee	...	Pvt. Duff (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) | Perspecta Stereo | 4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

New Zealand

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Sandra Dee's Debut.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: At the start of the film, set in 1939, the four sisters put up a map of the world to keep track of the soldiers' locations, but the map is contemporary from the year the film was made (1957), showing numerous nations that did not exist in 1939, for example: Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (which would have been French Indochina in 1939), Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies), Thailand (called Siam in 1939), and Pakistan (which was part of British India), among other countries.

Movie Connections:

References Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Soundtrack:

Until They Sail

An early indication of what Piper Laurie could do

For a "woman's picture," "Until They Sail" is surprisingly effective. The acting is generally first-rate, but Piper Laurie is a stand-out. This was possibly the first time she was able to overcome that silly flower-eating publicity gimmick that Universal foisted on her and then proceeded to condemn her to swashbucklers and other junk while she was under contract to them. It's too bad that she couldn't have started with a studio that would have known what to do with her and was interested in filming more than mindless fluff.

Jean Simmons was also great in a somewhat rare opportunity at a role with some depth--anyone remember most of the dreck she miraculously survived in her RKO period?

Even Joan Fontaine was less arch than she usually was in her later films (even the shark was better in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea").