LAST VOYAGES

Saw this news item on 'cnn.com' this morning...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/01/14/3queen.ships.ap/index.html

I have long been a fan of ocean liners, and as such would loved to have been in Lower Manhattan (NYC) yesterday to observe Cunard's big three docked together: The Queen Victoria, Queen Mary 2, and the forty year old magnificent Queen Elizabeth 2.

When I was in Portsmouth, England, a few years ago I was standing with a pack of tourists one sunny afternoon looking across the water. I heard a voice; "it's the QE 2!" There she was, miles in the distance, sliding towards the Isle of Wight. Coming out of Southampton, no doubt.

There is something about big machines that automatically makes them cinematic. Among the finest examples are the ocean liners. A certain film was released to boffo box office ten years ago. It was about the ill-fated RMS Titanic. It was really the love story what captivated audiences, but the ship itself had something to do with it... and its role in a different time.

James Cameron's Titanic is not the best film made about the famed ship -- in my opinion that goes to 1958's A Night To Remember, hands down -- but it is certainly the most recent example of a movie featuring an ocean liner to such a degree.

Another example of a big passenger ship is Irwin Allen's 1972 production of The Poseidon Adventure. Still another, and a good film itself, is The Last Voyage (1960)... starring Robert Stack (there's that guy again). The film's producers rented the decommissioned SS Ile de France, of the French Line, and gave it a controlled sinking -- featured in the final reel of the film. It is freaky seeing Stack, Dorothy Malone, and some other souls step into the sea from the bow of the slowly submersing vessel.

I love the ocean and love ocean liners, but I don't know if I would have agreed to that stunt...

Of course I would have!