Seven Were Saved (1947)

Shortly after WW2, a military transport plane carrying an assortment of passengers crashes into the South China Sea forcing the survivors to await their rescue into a life-raft.

Director:

William H. Pine

Writers:

Maxwell Shane (screenplay), Maxwell Shane (original story)

Stars:

Richard Denning, Catherine Craig, Russell Hayden

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Richard Denning	...	Captain Allen Danton
Catherine Craig	...	Lt. Susan Briscoe
Russell Hayden	...	Captain Jim Willis
Ann Doran	...	Mrs. Rollin Hartley
Byron Barr	...	Lt. Martin Pinkert
Richard Loo	...	Colonel Yamura
Don Castle	...	Lt. Pete Sturdevant
George Tyne	...	Sergeant Blair
Keith Richards	...	Smith / Philip Thompson
John Eldredge	...	Rollin Hartley

Storyline

A nurse is taking an amnesia victim, who was imprisoned by the Japanese during WW II, to the United States in a plane piloted by Richard Denning. The passengers include a Japanese colonel on his way to Manila to face war-crime charges, and a couple who were married on the day they were liberated from a Japanese prison camp. During the flight, the colonel breaks away from his guards, causes the plane to go out of control, and it crashes into the sea. The survivors get into a rubber boat and go through a minor-league version of "Lifeboat, with no Alfred Hitchcock sightings, until Air-Sea Rescue pilot Jim Willis rides to the rescue.

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Plot Keywords:

deception | consolidated pby 5 catalina | rescue | lifeboat | amnesia | 

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Taglines:

2 WOMEN, 6 MEN...ON A RAFT! (original print ad-all caps)

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.

User Reviews

Simple But Decent B-Movie

There is absolutely nothing fancy about this. It's a simple story with a simple set. While escorting an accused Japanese war criminal to his trial in Manila, an American air force plane crashes in the South China Sea, and the passengers and crew (including the Japanese war criminal) have to find a way to work together to survive until they're rescued. Along the way they face the sorts of things you would expect in the circumstances - a lack of food and water, injuries from the crash, tension around the presence of Colonel Yamura, shark attacks, etc. Almost the entire movie is set on the life raft, so the composite cast had to work together pretty well in order to make this interesting - and for the most part they succeeded. Catherine Craig and Richard Denning had the most significant parts as the two on the raft who seemed to be the most in control, and they did well with their parts. The basic bit of suspense in the movie is which seven are going to survive. The title tells us that there will be seven, but there are eight survivors of the crash, so it's a bit of a guessing game as to which one isn't going to make it.

This seems to be a bit of a tribute to American air and sea rescue forces, and it's interesting enough to see how they handle the rescue once the raft is discovered. It's a definite B-Movie, but it's not a bad one. (6/10)

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 March 1947 (USA)

Also Known As:

S.O.S. Rescue

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pine-Thomas Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

73 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1