Several couples are given free passage on a cruise ship. Little do they know that the company in the letter with the tickets doesn't exist and it's just a murderer's pretext to get them in one place so he or she could kill them! As for the couples, they all are screwed up. One has a husband who is a philanderer (Richard Long and Polly Bergen), another a husband and wife who don't know what to do with their marriage now that the kids are grown (Tom Bosley and Celeste Holm) and the other is arguing about whether or not they'll have children (Edward Albert and Kate Jackson). You also see quite a bit of Dr. Burke (Michael Constantine) and the Captain (Cesare Danova). But what's the connection between all these people?! As for the doctor, he fancies himself to be an amateur detective and investigates! The plot, when you think about it, is really very much like "The Love Boat" combined with "Diagnosis Murder"!
The set-up for the story was good and the film could have worked. So why did I give it only a 3? Well, the writing was spotty and there were way too many ridiculous moments. First, the killer was easy to figure out because it was obvious they were in a costume. Second, when the crew figured out someone was trying to kill the couples, why didn't they put all the surviving people in a room together with guards? Instead, they gave them ample opportunities to separate themselves and get killed. Why would they continue to allow people to skeet shoot aboard the ship (common back in the day) once they knew a killer was among them? Why would the doctor confront the murderer all alone--without backup and with a gun? And, how could someone at a great distance so easily shoot one man and avoid hitting another only a few feet away? This is NOT an easy shot! There were more inconsistencies and mistakes...but these things SHOULD have been worked out before shooting the script. I can only assume it was hurried into production.
The film's interior shots were done aboard the Queen Mary--an old cruise ship permanently anchored in Long Beach, California (near Hollywood). I was shocked by the rooms, as they were HUGE!
The set-up for the story was good and the film could have worked. So why did I give it only a 3? Well, the writing was spotty and there were way too many ridiculous moments. First, the killer was easy to figure out because it was obvious they were in a costume. Second, when the crew figured out someone was trying to kill the couples, why didn't they put all the surviving people in a room together with guards? Instead, they gave them ample opportunities to separate themselves and get killed. Why would they continue to allow people to skeet shoot aboard the ship (common back in the day) once they knew a killer was among them? Why would the doctor confront the murderer all alone--without backup and with a gun? And, how could someone at a great distance so easily shoot one man and avoid hitting another only a few feet away? This is NOT an easy shot! There were more inconsistencies and mistakes...but these things SHOULD have been worked out before shooting the script. I can only assume it was hurried into production.
The film's interior shots were done aboard the Queen Mary--an old cruise ship permanently anchored in Long Beach, California (near Hollywood). I was shocked by the rooms, as they were HUGE!