'THE DECKS RAN RED'......JAMES MASON GOES CRUISIN' FOR A BRUISIN'........

 The Decks Ran Red (1958)........but lucky for us, director Andrew L.Stone, shot it in black and white,...

          The only red you'll see?  The crimson blazing of the word 'red' in the main title.....

           If Stone, a dedicated practitioner of no-fakery filmmaking, had shot it color, it might have ended up looking like Herschel Gordon Lewis's "Blood Feast"......

             For the total BQ lowdown on Andrew Stone, check out our posts on his previous trim little thrillers,  1956's "Julie"  (4/4/17) and 1958's "Cry Terror!" (8/17/19).

             Aided by his film editor wife Virginia, once again Stone hurls you into a boiling hot melodrama, filmed on actual locations.......(you will never, ever see a rear projection background in a Stone film.)

             The film deploys James Mason, who last matched wits with raging psycho Rod Steiger in "Cry Terror". This time the always smoothly urbane Mason is First Officer on a cruise ship. Looking to move upward, he unwisely accepts a captaincy position on a cargo ship anchored in New Zealand.

              This grungy tub, the S.S. Berwind is a hotbed of hate, populated by angry, disgruntled crew members.....

               Even worse, two of them (Broderick Crawford, Stuart Whitman) plan to slaughter all the crew members, claim the crew abandoned ship in a mutiny and then return the boat by themselves in order to pocket a huge salvage payoff for their efforts.

               What else can we say?

               The decks run red......(on in this movie's photography, dark chocolate).

                Nothing much else to say here other than to mention that along for the ride is that charismatic, star-crossed starlet Dorothy Dandridge, playing the va-va-voom wife of the ship's cook.  We could only watch with sadness knowing that outside of her starring roles in African American epics like 'Carmen Jones' and 'Porgy And Bess' , Hollywood would relegate this powerhouse actress to mere window-dressing roles. 

                  The rest of the movie is on a par with the other 'live-as-it-happens' Andrew Stone melodramas as the desperate Mason and his surviving crew play cat-and-mouse with the predatory Crawford and Whitman. 

                  You won't be bored, that's for sure. So climb aboard by all means.......this voyage features at least as much danger, angst, misery and death as a typical Carnivale Cruise vacation. 3 stars (***)