Abandon Ship!, last released on home video in the U.S. on VHS, has finally been given a proper upgrade. Skipping both DVD and standard Blu-ray, Sony has made the film available on 4K UHD Blu-ray only.

The film is a haunting look at life and death survival at sea in the wake of a sunken ocean liner allegedly based on a true story.

Tyone Power starred in the 1957 film, his third-from-last film released before his death the following year. In it, he plays the second in command officer of the ship ordered to take command by the dying captain (Laurence Naismith) on the raft meant to carry no more than 14 people but already overpopulated.

There were initially 27 survivors among the 1,600 passengers and crew. Some of them died on their own, but when there proved to be more survivors than could reasonably fit on the raft, Power is forced to choose who will live and who will die. It’s not survival of the fittest, but survival of the strongest for which he is forced to make some horrific choices that will lead to a trial of murder once the ordeal is over.

Among the survivors are Mai Zetterling, the ship’s nurse and Power’s fiancé, Lloyd Nolan as a dying shipmate, Stephen Boyd as Power’s subordinate officer, Moira Lister as a woman of questionable virtue, James Hayter as a cook, Marie Lohr as a former opera star, Finlay Currie as an old man, and David Barry, who is still acting at 83, as a boy who is forced to stay on the raft despite wanting to be cut loose with his physically weak father and ill mother.

Written and directed by Richard Sale (Stange Cargo), the film is reminiscent of both Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat in that it takes place in small quarters, and as Jason A. Ney, the film’s commentator reminds us, its 1957 contemporary, 12 Angry Men in that it is about people forced to make decisions about life and death. The difference is that in 12 Angry Men, the decision is made by twelve, while in Abandon Ship! , it is made by one.

The film is presented in two versions, its U.S. release version, and its international release version with its U.K. title of Seven Waves Away. The U.K. title, for some reason, has been subsequently changed to Seven Days from Now. Ney’s commentary is only on the U.S. version.

Interviewed shortly before his death, Power revealed that there were only three other films and this one that he was proud of in his long career. The others were Blood and Sand, Nightmare Alley, and his last released film, Witness for the Prosecution.

The third of four generations of actors with the name Tyrone Power, he made his acting debut on the stage at the age of 7. With a screen career that was going nowhere at 21, he sought an interview with Henry King who had directed his father in a 1923 film, asking him to consider him for a small part in his next film, 1936’s Lloyd’s of London based on a bestselling novel of the day. King not only hired him but gave him the lead over the objections of 20th Century-Fox studio head, Darly F. Zanuck who wanted Don Ameche for the role.

Power and Zanuck later became friends and soon he was cast over Ameche in two big hits, In Old Chicago and Alexander’s Ragtime Band followed by Power’s loan out to MGM for Marie Antoinette opposite Norma Shearer and MGM’s loan out of Myrna Loy to star opposite Power in Fox’s The Rains Came. In between the two films, he was cast over Henry Fonda in Jesse James while Ameche was cast over Fonda in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell.

By 1940, Fonda had become to go-to star for Fox’s prestige films like The Grapes of Wrath while Ameche would become the go-to star for musical comedies such as Down Argentine Way and Power would become the star of the studio’s most important action films such as The Mark of Zorro and Blood and Sand.

At the outbreak of World War II, Power refused a company engineered cushy job in the U.S. Army and joined as a private, training for flight school where he excelled in more than 1100 hours of combat.

Returning to Fox after the war, Power was cast in two prestige films, The Razor’s Edge and Nightmare Alley, but there was new competition now, mostly from Gregory Peck who was given the most prestige films of the era including Gentleman’s Agreement and Twelve O’Clock High while Power was again relegated to starring in action films like Captain from Castile and Prince of Foxes.

The early 1950s provided Power with strong career opportunities in such films as I’ll Never Forget You, a remake of Berkeley Square opposite Ann Blyth; King of the Khyber Rifles set in India opposite Terry Moore, The Long Gray Line John Ford’s biography of West Point’s Marty Maher opposite Maureen O’Hara in which he ages 50 years, and The Eddy Duchin Story in which he played the famed pianist and band leader opposite Kim Novak and Victoria Shaw.

In 1957, he was at another career peak with three major films, Abandon Ship! , The Sun Also Rises and Witness for the Prosecution.

In Abandon Ship!, he is in total command of both the raft and the film. In The Sun Also Rises he more than holds his own against inveterate scene stealers Ava Gardner, Errol Flynn and Eddie Albert. In Witness for the Prosecution he has top billing but Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, and Una O’Connor, also in her last film, do some of the best work of their storied careers, while Power is merely there.

Power tried his best with Solomon and Sheba but the physical requirements for the role were too much for him. He was too tired to go on in a swordfight with George Sanders and collapsed on the set, dying of a massive heart attack an hour later. He was only 44.

The film was completed with Yul Brynner in Power’s role.

Happy Viewing.