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The Last Voyage (1960)

A gripping film with historical worth.

Viewers of "The Last Voyage" who have branded it a "cinematic turkey" are mislead, in my opinion. This film achieves a realism that is superior to the many disaster genre films that followed it. But more importantly, it is a visual record of one of the finest transatlantic liners ever--the French Line's Isle de France. I don't know of any motion picture that actually used a ship as a floating prop as extensively as Stone's film. The Isle de France represented an important departure in ship design. Earlier liners attempted to disguise the fact that they were ocean-going vessels. The "Isle de France" brought the new art deco and moderne styles to the high seas and utilized some of the finest French designers to craft this ship of state. When the later Normandie was lost, many of her furnishings were transferred to the Isle including furnishings by the famous designer Ruhlman. Here in this film are these exciting interiors for all to see for the last time prior to sending the Isle to the ship breakers. The film also heralds the very twilight of regularly scheduled transatlantic and transpacific liner service as the jet began to rapidly displace this very civilized way to travel.