This week’s mystery movie was the 1960 MGM / Andrew and Virginia Stone Production of “The Last Voyage,” with Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, George Sanders, Edmond O’Brien, Woody Strode, Jack Kruschen, Joel Marston, George Furness, Richard Norris, Marshall Kent, Andrew Hughes, Robert Martin, Bill Wilson and introducing Tammy Marihugh.

Photography by Hal Mohr, music arranged and conducted by Rudy Schrager, edited by Virginia L. Stone, assistant director and production manager Harrold A. Weinberger, special effects A.J. Lohman, sound mixer Philip N. Mitchell, sound by Ryder Sound Services.

Written and directed by Andrew L. Stone.

“The Last Voyage” is available on DVD from Warner Archive.

I picked this week’s mystery movie without noticing that it was airing on TCM. Fortunately, only one person also spotted our mystery film among all the other movies about disasters at sea.

“The Last Voyage” got a rave review from Film Bulletin (Feb. 1, 1960), which said:

From the first exciting moments when fire breaks out in the boiler room of an overage luxury liner until the final scene when the once proud ocean queen sinks into the Pacific, this MGM Metrocolor release provides 91 minutes of realistic, suspenseful sea melodrama. The husband-wife production team of Andrew and Virginia Stone have guaranteed this by shooting almost the entire film aboard the French liner Ile de France during its systematic destruction and the result is solid entertainment for the family and action markets.

The film was shot off the coast of Japan aboard the Ile de France. The old ship was sold to a Japanese salvage firm, which is how Andrew Stone got access to the liner after searching for several years for a suitable one to destroy. Stone told the New York Times that he had to agree not to mention the ship’s actual name, remove any signage in French and not to use any actors with French accents.

Bosley Crowther, writing in the New York Times (Feb. 20, 1960):

It isn’t very often that an actress is called upon to perform the better part of a whole picture pinned immobile beneath a piece of steel. But that is the desperate situation assigned to Dorothy Malone in Andrew L. Stone’s suspense-thriller “The Last Voyage,” which came to the Capitol yesterday.

Early along in this drama involving a disaster at sea, in which an over-age ocean liner goes slowly but spectacularly to a watery grave, Miss Malone as one of its passengers is caught in a stateroom beneath that piece of steel when a boiler room explosion rips a yawning hole through the decks. And there she lies in physical torment and a great deal of mental agony until the last couple of minutes of the picture, when she is providentially freed.

For Monday, we have a mystery guest. And I know this will come as a great shock, but he does not approve of such goings-on.

Update: This is George Furness, an American lawyer with a practice in Japan, where the film was shot.

Tuesday’s mystery guest also does not approve of such goings-on.

Update: This is Joel Marston.

Brain Trust roll call: Jenny M. (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery guest) and Dan (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery guest).

Our mystery girl for “Hm Wednesday” shows that one is never too young to disapprove of such goings-on. Come to think of it, this week’s mystery movie is nothing but people disapproving of such goings-on. It’s rather remarkable, really. (And yes, there are better pictures of our mystery girl but they are plastered all over Google image search and I disapprove of such goings-on).

Update: This is Tammy Marihugh.

Brain Trust roll call: Jenny M. (Tuesday’s mystery officer).

And for “Aha Thursday,” we have these two somewhat but not terribly mysterious gents.

Update: This is Woody Strode and Edmond O’Brien.

Brain Trust roll call: Howard Mandelbaum (mystery movie and Monday’s and Wednesday’s mystery guests) and Jenny M. (Wednesday’s mystery girl).

For Friday, we have this extremely calm mystery captain.

Update: This is George Sanders.

Also this non-mysterious couple.

Update: This is Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack.

Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (mystery movie and Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s mystery guests), Floyd Thurby (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery star athlete), Tucson Barbara (mystery movie, Wednesday’s mystery girl and Thursday’s mystery guests), Chrisbo (mystery movie, Wednesday’s mystery girl and Thursday’s mystery star athlete), Michael Ryerson (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery guests), Benito (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery guests), Jenny M. (Thursday’s mystery guests), Sylvia E. (Thursday’s mystery guests), B.J. Merholz (mystery movie), Anne Papineau (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery guests), Thom and Megan (mystery movie and all mystery guests) and Howard Mandelbaum (Thursday’s mystery guests).