Into the Blue (1950 film)


Into the Blue is a 1950 British comedy film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Michael Wilding, Odile Versois and Jack Hulbert. It is also known as Man in the Dinghy. In the film, a couple hire a yacht for what they hope will be a relaxing cruise to Norway, but instead become involved with smugglers and end up going up the River Seine to Paris.

Plot

Mr and Mrs Fergusson are relaxing on board a chartered yacht taking them to Oslo, Norway, but after leaving England discover they have a stowaway, who is on the run from the police. He was asked to take two suitcases to Monte Carlo, but on examination at the airport they contained stolen watches, so he grabbed the cases and ran. All attempts by the couple to remove him from the yacht fail, and they end up going to Rouen, Paris, and finally Monte Carlo. In the meantime, romance has blossomed between Nicholas the stowaway, and Jackie, the young niece of the skipper. They plan to get married, but first Nicholas decides to confront the smugglers, then turn himself in to the police. Unknown to him, the police have been tailing him ever since he left England, and follow him to the hotel, where they overhear him talking with the head of the smugglers, whom they have been trying to nail for years. The smugglers get a prison sentence, while Nicholas receives a caution, and he is free to catch up with the yacht, now on its way back to England.

Cast

In The New York Times Bosley Crowther wrote, "Let's be truthful about it: Herbert Wilcox has never been renowned for qualities of wit and humor in his eminently proper British films. And his "Man in the Dinghy," which became beached at the Sixtieth Street Trans-Lux yesterday, will do nothing to enhance his reputation in this particularly tough and ticklish line. It is a dismally unfunny fable about the pains to which a man and wife are put by a repulsively debonair fellow who stows away on their vacation yacht"; whereas more recently, TV Guide wrote, "There's nothing new about this film, but it's ample entertainment"; and Allmovie wrote, "Into the Blue is enhanced by the presence of two veteran British movie favorites. Jack Hulbert and Constance Cummings...the film's real strong suits are its stars and its location photography."