The Decks Ran Red
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
The SS Berwind is a rusty old ship chartered by the line to meet high demand. The captain of the Berwind has died and the coroner wants an autopsy due to the suspicious circumstances of the death, which has caused several crew members to leave the ship. In need of a captain, Vic (Harlan Warde) and Mr. Adams (Jonathan Hole) meet with the "White Fleet" USS Mariposa First Officer, Edwin 'Ed' Rummill (James Mason) and his wife Joan (Katharine Bard) to offer him the Berwind. Ed has applied for captain vacancies for five years but has little chance of getting one of the main ships of the line. He is warned of the recent problems by Vic, but agrees--against the emotional pleas of his wife--to join the Berwind in New Zealand.
Henry Scott (Broderick Crawford) and Mace (David Cross) work in the loud and hot engine room of the Berwind. Scott says he's upset that the Berwind's current First Officer, Mr. Moody (Hank Patterson), hasn't been offered the Captain's position (due to his old age of 76). In fact, Scott intends to use this decision to rile the crew as he puts into action his plan of mutiny. While the ship's deceased captain noted in the log that Scott is an "Exemplary Seaman," Mace knows that Scott has been responsible for stirring up problems among the crew several times.
Scott says he needs a second partner who is good with a gun, to assist him and Leroy Martin (Stuart Whitman) in a mutiny plan he has been working on for years while researching maritime history and law. Letting Mace know he has found out his secret--he's an ex-con who robbed a liquor store last year--Scott traps him into being the third partner. Scott lays out his plan to make a million dollars by “steaming up” the crew into a mutiny, killing the officers (and eventually the entire crew) to make it look like they abandoned a sinking ship, thus leaving the partners in possession of a ship which they can sell off for salvage value.
Scott and Leroy proceed to foment anger among the crew due to Moody being overlooked for promotion. The new captain arrives to find a poorly kept ship, an unhappy Moody and a lack of key crew that have left the ship. In need of a cook and steward, the captain hires a local Māori couple--Pete (Joel Fluellen) as the cook, and his beautiful wife Mahia (Dorothy Dandridge) as the steward.
Setting out to sea Capt. Rummill is optimistic, while Scott and Leroy force Mace to choose between joining the partnership or being thrown overboard. In the officer’s saloon, officer Alex Cole (Jack Kruschen) warns Rummill about the devious nature of Scott and Leroy. Moody dies early in the journey, of what is believed by the crew to be a broken heart, further inflaming the crew against the new captain.
One day Scott enrages Pete by letting him overhear that his wife (Mahia) will be seduced by Leroy. A butcher-knife-wielding Pete confronts Leroy while he is attacking Mahia, knocking out Leroy causing Pete to be confined to his cabin. Mace continues to be distraught over being part of the conspiracy and is still having nightmares that cause him to sleep-talk about the plan. Having warned Mace to never do this again, Scott and Leroy honor their threats and throw Mace overboard, making him the first known victim. After the officers discover that Mace is missing, Scott shows a gun he says he’s found to the captain, warning that a mutiny may be afoot and that Mace may have been murdered.
Due to concerns over what is going on, the captain moves Mahia to a cabin across from him, allowing her access to his cabin to borrow a book to read. Scott uses this event to launch the mutiny plan he's waited nine years to enact. Scott and Leroy try to convince the captain that the crew will mutiny because Mahia has been seen in his room and it is believed the captain has locked up Pete and moved Mahia near him so he would be able to attack her.
Trying to uncover what is going on, the captain questions several crew members but this doesn't reveal any concerns of which Scott warned. Scott then convinces the crew to set Pete free. With tensions mounting and no bullets for the gun Scott found and gave to the captain, one officer says he’s brought aboard an old German Luger with a few rounds.
Scott and Leroy call the crew together to convince them to mutiny against a captain who Scott says needs to be turned into the Line for taking advantage of Mahia. The crew begins to suspect Scott has been lying to them all along, then a crewman reveals that he heard Mace's screams and that he believes Scott and Leroy killed Mace. The planned mutiny having backfired, Scott convinces Leroy they must kill the whole crew before the crew can join the officers against them.
Hearing a sound, the officers rush to find the ship's radio has been destroyed. Scott and Leroy uncover their hidden stash of a rifle and handgun while the officers have only knives and the Luger. In the meantime, the crew follows previous orders by locking Pete back in his cabin; showing that they will not mutiny. Taking their rifle to the loud engine room, Scott kills a crew member at point-blank range and forces Leroy to kill the second. Seeing this, another of the crew attempts to warn the others, only to be killed by Scott. Not hearing the shots, the fourth engine room crewman is murdered by Scott.
The officers realize that no one can be contacted in the engine room, and go to find the bodies and that the engine is slowing due to the ship taking on water as part of Scott's plan to make it appear that the crew abandoned a sinking ship. The sinking is stopped, and the captain warns that the crew not be informed so they won't try to go for the lifeboats and be also killed.
The officers order the remaining crew to assemble in the saloon, where it's revealed that three crew members are missing and that Pete and Mahia were told to stay in their cabins. The captain orders new First Officer Jim Osborne (Guy Kingsford) to stay with the lone pistol in the salon to protect the crew while the ship's Chief, "Bull" Pringle (John Gallaudet), goes to find Pete, and the captain searches for Mahia.
Scott, armed with the rifle, intends to start at the bridge and work his way down to kill everyone while Leroy stays on deck with the handgun. Finding Mahia in bed asleep, Rummill warns her of the killings. After Mahia dresses they flee from a pursuing Scott only to be saved at the last second by a covering shot from Osborne. Bull attempts to evade Leroy to make it to Pete, not knowing Pete has already joined the crew in the saloon. Hearing a shot that Leroy has taken while wounding Bull, Pete grabs his butcher's knife to go to Bull's aide. While protecting Bull, Pete is killed by Leroy, allowing Bull time to escape. Bull, making it back to the saloon, reveals Pete and two other crewmen (including Elliott) are dead. Mahia tells the captain he is a coward to not pursue Scott and Leroy, and the captain tries to settle a panicking crew.
With Mahia having gone for her husband and the crew taking to the lifeboat, the captain orders three officers without children to stay to fight. Before the escape, though, Scott traps Mahia on deck. Having Mahia in his sights, Scott gives the officers and crew 60 seconds to get in the lifeboats and leave.
Knowing that alone on sea in a lifeboat the crew will all surely die, and with seconds to act, the captain hatches a risky plan. He realized that Elliot, who was last known to be taking a reading of the ship's speed using a Chip log, may have been killed before he pulled in the log and its line floating behind the ship. The captain surmises that he could abandon ship, but then use the line from the log to climb back aboard. He orders the crew to abandon ship, with Scott and Leroy planning to keep Mahia aboard with them. With the lifeboat away, Scott and Leroy return to the engine room to restart the engines and continue their plan of partially sinking the ship. Scott then goes to the bridge to pilot the ship, leaving Leroy to run the engines.
Having rowed a distance from the ship, the captain and officer Pringle then fight the cold water to swim back to the stern of the ship. Pringle, though, is unable to keep up and eventually drowns, as the captain must leave him in order to have any chance of making it to the ship before Scott and Leroy get it underway again. Rummill makes it to the log line just as engine pressure is restored. With the propeller now turning below, he must make an impossible climb to the deck. Once aboard, though, Rummill finds Mahia and takes a knife from the kitchen since his wet gun is now not reliable.
Mahia advises the captain to try to kill the weaker Leroy first with the knife before going after Scott on the bridge. She convinces Rummill of her plan to put Leroy off-guard down in the engine room by claiming Scott has attacked her. Mahia tells Leroy that Scott has promised her half the money, and that Scott will eventually kill Leroy. Mahia convinces Leroy they can be together instead, and as they begin to kiss she takes Leroy's handgun from his back pocket and shoots him twice, leading to his slow death.
Scott, still on the bridge, steers the ship towards the lifeboat to kill the remaining crew. When he is not able to contact Leroy to change the ship's speed, he rushes unarmed to the engine room where he is confronted by a knife-wielding Rummill. Seeing Leroy's handgun on the engine room floor below, Scott leaps for it and fires at Rummill; only to realize the gun is empty. Rummill then leaps on and fatally stabs Scott, while in the sea the crew evades the ship bearing down on them.
With ten crewmen now dead, the movie ends with those remaining on the lifeboat cheering their rescue by Rummill, who is now back in command.

Review: Brisk if uninspired old dark house story set aboard a freighter.
The Decks Ran Red flaps as the title under which sets sail a tense and focused movie that takes place aboard a freighter.
The Berwind sails into port in New Zealand because its captain has mysteriously died.
Awarded his first command, James Mason flies in to take over as skipper of the troubled ship.
He finds a slovenly and insubordinate crew, and his officers tell him that mutiny may be in the wind.
Since some of the hands have jumped ship, Mason has some holes to fill.
The only cook available will sign on only if he can bring his wife, Dorothy Dandridge (as a Maori whose command of the English language encompasses even the future-perfect tense).
This sultry native, the only woman on board, doesn't cool down the smouldering unrest, but the arsonist is Broderick Crawford, who fuels the fires in order to advance his own half-baked scheme: To murder all the crew but a few henchmen, making it look like desertion and mutiny, then scuttle the ship and sell it and its cargo as salvage for $1-million.
It's basically an old dark house story taken to the high seas, with murders aplenty and the briny deep to swallow up the corpses.
And, despite Mason, Crawford and Dandridge, its production values are not those of The Titanic.
Still, it sails brisky along (slackening a bit toward the stretched-out ending) under Andrew Stone's competent if lackluster direction.Stone and his wife Virginia were Hollywood's answer to the mama-papa candy store: He wrote and directed, she produced and edited.
Their long career resulted in many forgettable films and some embarrassments as well (Song of Norway, for one).
But there were a few modest successes, too: Highway 301, The Night Holds Terror, Blueprint for Murder.
The Decks Ran Red can join them as a decidedly not luxurious but still seaworthy vessel..
The Cast Ran Ragged.....
Whether it actually is or not, this claustrophobic suspense yarn seems like a 'B' picture.
Though Mason and Dandridge were in the midst of their best years career-wise, this seems like a step down...like something that one would do if there was no more quality work.
The story (supposedly based on fact) concerns a ship Captain's (Mason) attempt to thwart a murder for riches scheme envisioned by Crawford and Whitman.
The pair of thugs plan to make the crew seem like they're planning a mutiny so that it will be entered into the Captain's log.
Then they will kill the crew, pretend to be the only survivors and bring the ship in for salvage worth over a million dollars.
Crawford lumbers through the film with his usual style, but does present a threatening persona.
Whitman struts around and poses in the world's clingiest jeans, his hair all '50's Bryll cream.
It's hard to believe he was just three years away from a Best Actor nomination.
Mason is believable as a Captain, but not as an action hero as he is later forced to become.
A dash of feminine sex appeal is supplied by Dandridge who plays the wife of the ship's cook.
She feels the need to serve the men on the boat while wearing snug dresses with deep necklines, which causes it's share of problems.
Eventually, the opposing sides must play a cat and mouse game while running all around the ship.
(And since it is a black and white film, the decks run grey!) The film has going for it some surprisingly stark moments of violence (for that time) and some creative camera-work in the confined bowels of the ship.
Drawbacks include the bland settings, the fact that there's too much talk about what's happening in the story rather than letting the audience see it (crewmen keep coming back to the saloon to tell what's happening outside!) and a feverish, unintentionally hilarious performance by Cross as a third party in the scheme.
Also, Bard, as Mason's wife, gives a bizarre performance, nervously looking at the floor through most of her brief scenes and swallowed up in an ugly coat.
Still, it's a fairly tight little film with some degree of interest.
TV fans may recognize old salt Patterson from "Green Acres"..
Pretty brutal for its time..
These two merchant sailors -- Broderick Crawford and Stewart Whitman -- get a crazy idea aboard a freighter.
They're going to kill every officer and man aboard, waterlog the ship, radio for help, claim there was a mutiny and everyone left the ship but them, and claim the ship, worth a million bucks, for salvage.Granted, the idea is slightly askew, but these guys are snipes, working down in the engine room and the temperature there runs around 116 degrees and sounds like the deepest pits of hell.
That environment will drive anyone nuts.
Besides, it's like the old joke.
"How's your wife?" "Compared to WHAT?" If you put Crawford and Whitman next to the Manson Family or al Qaeda they look like paragons of rationality.
So, okay, let's leave them some leeway, so to speak.I'll skip the plot, I guess, because it doesn't require much in the way of explanation.
The dialog lacks verve and credibility.
"Anything can happen!" "Whoever destroyed the radios must have had a PURPOSE." And when the officers find three corpses in the engine room, someone says to Mason, "Do you realize the ENORMITY of this?" The acting doesn't require much comment either.
Everybody involved delivers about what you'd expect.
Mason is smooth, Crawford plays a junk man, Whitman is a little ratty, and none of the others stand out -- except Dorothy Dandridge.
She can't act very well, but -- wow!
What a dish.
I don't know about "a million bucks" but Dorothy Dandridge could start a genuine mutiny alright.
I vaguely remember seeing this when it was released and, it may be hard for a contemporary viewer to understand but, like "The Sniper," which was released about the same time, it was shocking in its brutality.
The theater suddenly went kind of quiet when Crawford deliberately picked off one of the crew members from a few feet away with a high-powered rifle.
The sexy Dandridge was memorable too, although I don't recall that she quieted down the audience.The Perrys, who produced, had a habit of using real locations for their shoots.
"Cry Terror," another suspenser with James Mason, made good use of New York locations.
And they actually sunk a liner for one of their movies, something like, "The Last Voyage." I'm glad they never made a movie about the end of the world.The story isn't really a grabber and the acting is no more than routine but this is worth seeing, if only because it gives you a chance to feel what it's really like to be on a ship, not a mockup of the kind that John Wayne sails through with such ease.
The ship, by the way, is pretty ship shape and not at all a rust bucket.
She's also high in the water because she's carrying no cargo..
Forget the advertising tagline!.
Forget the advertising tagline (although Dorothy Dandridge is beautiful to look at)!
This is a crisp little thriller, apparently fact-based, about a couple of malcontent seamen (Crawford and Whitman) who try to foment a mutiny against new captain Mason as a cover for a scheme to kill the entire crew and bring in the ship as salvage.
Except for a rather abrupt ending, nicely done by the Stones..
Would like to know what ship(s) were used in the filming..
First time watching and I was captivated throughout.
I'm not sure why attention was given to Dorothy Dandridge as hers seemed like a small part.
Very brutal but believable plot given that anything could happen on the open sea.
I especially liked the scene of the ship intending to ram the lifeboat.
It was a great camera angle and one actor uses sailor jargon like, "she's really got a bone in her teeth".
I was also amused by the hip lingo used by the actors.
Crawford reminds me of a ratpacker no matter what film he is in.
I was wondering if anyone could tell me what ship(s) was used in the film for the interior and exterior shots?
It looks like a Liberty Ship I took a cruise on, the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien..
Low-key actioner evokes visceral response.
I agree with the previous comments 100%, but I just wanted to add something about the magnificently evil Broderick Crawford and Stuart Whitman (!!).
When Stuart gets his hands on Dorothy the second time, the suspense was so strong that I involuntarily started screaming homicidal epithets at the small screen.
Be sure to watch this one alone so you can let it all hang out without being embarrassed..
Lame, predictable, except for Dorothy Dandridge.
Lame and predictable film with James Mason incredibly miscast as captain of the ship.
you know immediately that Broderick Crawford will be the instigator of trouble as he always was and the outcome shows no surprises.The best part of the film is the voluptuous Dorothy Dandridge who displays her charms that would make any crew mutiny for her.
As as the custom in the 50's, she is married to a man who is twice her age which also makes the film sadly lacking.
Better to see James Mason in his other films in which he portrays a much more realistic person..
Striking Violence and Visuals at Sea. This B-Movie has a Few Things Going.
First it is Off Beat and Surprisingly the Violence is Up Close and Disturbing for a Fifties Film.
The On Location and On Board Filming is Authentic and Adds to the Realism.
Director Stone seems to be Warming Up for His Masterpiece, The Last Voyage (1960) as it has the Same Setting and Crisp Camera Work and Hypertension.The A-Listers James Mason and Broderick Crawford, along with Sexpot Dorothy Dandridge (revealing Her charms more than typical for the Era), are OK, but the Rest of the Cast from Stuart Whitman on Down do some Pretty Bad Acting.This is a Film that is Stark and Quite Different in Tone than Most of the Films from the 1950's and has an Atmosphere of Dread that Works and there are some Scenes at Sea that are Extremely Well Done.
Worth a Watch as a Tense Low-Budgeter and to See James Mason doing some Slumming and Swimming.
Great Title..
Hideous.
Despite Oscar winner Broderick Crawford and nominees James Mason, Dorothy Dandridge, Stuart Whitman, and Jack Kruschen, this 84 minute amateurish production is excruciatingly long and dull and badly acted.
This may be based on a real story but this production is among the worst films I've ever seen---and I've seen thousands of films.
And all the acting is dreadful.
It seems like they're making is up as they go along.
Stupid dialog, ridiculous situations, and dumb characters make this a total waste of time.
Laughable from the very opening, this turkey goes on and on and on until the foolish ending.
I cannot believe such good actors as Mason and Crawford got stuck in this bilge.
Dandridge comes off like a cartoon and Whitman is witless.
David Cross, Hank Patterson, Barney Phillips, and Katherine Bard also appear to no advantage.
This project should have been scuttled before the cameras started..
Full Marks for Shipboard Authenticity, But Somewhat Less for Tension.
A new captain takes command of his first ship only to find himself confronted with numerous problems.
First there is hostility from his Chief Mate, who feels that he has been passed over for command, and from some of the crew who agree.
Then there is the inflammatory presence of a woman steward, signed on at the last moment to replace a crew member who jumped ship.
Worst of all is a somewhat ludicrous mutiny plot perpetrated by a couple of the engine room crew to murder the entire crew and take over the ship.
Although the plot is supposedly based on a true story the tension fails to the level that it might have done, which is probably attributable to the director rather than the cast.
However, give the film full marks for it's shipboard atmosphere, which is certainly highly authentic, thanks to the fact that it was filmed aboard a couple of real merchant ships.
The scenes on the bridge of Matson Line's old SS Mariposa are played pretty much as they would have been in real life, as are the subsequent scenes shot on board the freighter, which is almost certainly a Liberty Ship, of which many were still around at the time this film was made.
Perhaps the only detail of the freighter that doesn't ring true is the fact that she is riding much higher in the water than she normally would have been because, since the ship was being used as a movie prop, she was obviously carrying no cargo or ballast, and very little fuel..
Lame And Impossible, but Dorothy Dandridge Sizzles.
Andrew and Virginia Stone produced this low budget thriller that hung on an unbelievable premise and an impossible turn of events.
No way the good people in the plot should have survived and some didn't.James Mason stars as a professional merchant seaman and gets his first command after serving on passenger liners with the captaincy of a tramp freighter.
It's a beat up old tub with a surly crew and a sizzling Dorothy Dandridge the wife of cook Joel Fluellen who no way in God's green earth should have been on the ship.
Not too many could have controlled their hormones with Dandridge around.Broderick Crawford and Stuart Whitman don't even try to keep things in check and in addition they've got a truly horrible plot to seize the ship and are the instigators of unrest.
Whitman has it bad for Dandridge and he's claiming her as part of the salvage.As this situation is laid out when you watch I have no doubt that you will think it impossible that anyone could have survived.
And the sea would tell no tales.The Decks Ran Red is just lame and impossible, but Dorothy Dandridge is always worth watching.
James Mason didn't think much of this film according to The Films Of James Mason from the Citadel Film Series book on his work.
And Broderick Crawford must have really been on a bender to sign for this one..
audacious.
When the first officer of an ocean liner (James Mason) finally gets a chance to captain his own ship it turns out to be the one on which crew members Broderick Crawford and Stuart Whitman are plotting to kill the ship's entire crew and somehow collect a million dollars in insurance.
Entirely claustrophobic setting of the ship goes well with the plan to kill everyone.
The overall sense of cold-blooded cruelty is a natural fit for Crawford, but Stuart Whitman's character turns out to possess a surprising degree of sliminess.
How the great James Mason deals with this is but one of the great aspects of this under-appreciated masterpiece.
Dorothy Dandridge, the cook's attractive wife, should have never been on the ship in the first place, but her presence is just another bit of the film's overall audacity and quality..
Dreck.
This film is pure dreck.
Obviously made to be beyond the shock (or nausea) level allowed on TV thereby competing to get some viewers into the movie theaters and make the producers a few bucks.
There is no story, no plot.
Just some senseless slaughter that even one of the characters says is not necessary!Its too bad that tired lines like "these men are on the verge of mass hysteria" are typical.
Dorothy Dandridge gives a poor performance, tarnishing her Oscar-nominee status.
And this is definitely one of James Mason's all-time worst films.
His performance is wooden and the lines he is given are embarrassing.
His character is supposed to be courageous but really only calls for an actor (Mason) to feign desperation.
No real acting is required of Mason or anyone else in this.Former Oscar winner Broderick Crawford's role is as one-dimensional and predictable as any ever written.
His character is a cardboard caricature.
No wonder this helped nail the lid on the coffin of his career.A complete waste of your time if you choose to watch.
Don't bother.