A fun little exercise in atmosphere and paranoia. Ruth Bowman and her new husband are both off on a trans-Atlantic cruise. Ruth separates with her husband and badda-boom, he's gone. There's no trace of his luggage and no member of the crew can recall seeing Ruth with anyone. As Ruth begins to question her sanity, she comes under the wing of ship's doctor, Dr. Manning (Michael Rennie). Ruth is bound and determined to prove that her husband really exists and is trapped somewhere on the ship, but the rest of the crew views her as a lunatic and a nuisance, save Dr. Manning who seems to believe her.
This is a story that has been done many times before and since. The most recent permutations I can recall are "The Forgotten" and "Flightplan." Just as is the case with such films, you find yourself questioning the logic of the situation a hell of a lot, because some individuals clearly had conversations with Ruth's husband, but they claim to draw a blank when it comes to events that took place an hour ago. My only guess is that during cruises to the Caribbean and just floating around in international waters in general, drug use is a little looser with the crew, hence chronic short-term memory loss. Thus leads me to a fun film idea that just sprang to mind - a film noir parody of a storyline similar to this where the ultimate cause of all the mystery is not an elaborate scheme, but merely the fault of heavy pot use. However, upon writing that, I realize that I just described the plot to "Dude, Where's My Car?" So logic dictates that stoner comedies evolved from film noir? I just confused myself to the point that I can't remember who I last talked to now, so I'll stop while I'm behind. One item worth mentioning: I could listen to Michael Rennie read the dictionary, despite how emasculating such an admission sounds. Okay, this review's a mess. I'm stopping now.
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