The S. S. Claridon is scheduled for her five last voyages after thirty-eight years of service. After an explosion in the boiler room, Captain Robert Adams is reluctant to evacuate the steamship. While the crew fights to hold a bulkhead between the flooded boiler room and the engine room and avoid the sinking of the vessel, the passenger Cliff Henderson struggles against time trying to save his beloved wife Laurie Henderson, who is trapped under a steel beam in her cabin, with the support of the crew member Hank Lawson.
Practical Effects
Full-scale ocean liner built and destroyed—no miniatures, no fakery.
Direction
Stone demanded dangerous live stunts; actors nearly drowned for real.
Acting
Dorothy Malone's trapped terror is genuinely claustrophobic viewing.
Director
Andrew L. Stone
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The S.S. Claridon was a decommissioned French liner named Île de France; the production bought it for $400,000 specifically to destroy. Insurance companies refused coverage.
Stone's marketing invented the 'S.Q.' (Suspense Quotient) gimmick—audiences took 'stress tests' before entering, making anxiety part of the spectacle. The film's poster asked what you could 'take,' not what you'd 'enjoy.'
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