Indie writer/director Andrew Stone, with his co-producer/editor wife Virginia Stone, made two of their signature frugally budgeted ‘suspensers’ with James Mason in ‘58. THE DECKS RAN RED, an unusual story, with documentary leanings, about a ship’s captain fighting to keep control of his boat, and before it, this far less unusual hostage drama. Rod Steiger, overwrought but effective, is the sadistic, controlling blackmailer (backed by Neville Brand, Angie Dickinson & Jack Klugman) who dupes Mason into making a small but powerful bomb which is then planted on a commercial airplane. Holding Mason, wife Inger Stevens & child as hostage, the air-carrier has to pony up half a mill to Steiger & Co. or one of their planes will explode in the sky. The cast certainly comes thru (Dickinson particularly vicious & cold-blooded), but the storyline is by-the-numbers stuff. And Stone's storyline has no place for the clever cost-free production value items he often uses to bump up slim budgets into something that might pass for an A-pic.
DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, DECKS, probably Stone’s best, with its surprising cast (Mason; Dorothy Dandridge; Broderick Crawford; Stuart Whitman) and real ‘Down Under’ Aussie flavor.
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