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Movies Based on Books: The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)

Ships have been setting sail for centuries and either never reaching their intended destination or never returning home. Time passes and the reasons why they vanished remain lingering question marks. Sometimes the vessels are located or what’s left of them. But even if the revelation of what really happened is totally reasonable and makes perfect sense you are still left with the thought that – the people who were there didn’t get to tell the real true unfolding of events. If you happen to be an extremely talented British novelist with a flair for thrilling adventure and suspense, you could write a book. If you’re a really good author, your book may be adapted to film.

The Mary Celeste is a real ship. Its captain, Benjamin Spooner Briggs set sail heading for Genoa, a seaport in Italy. This Atlantic mystery has been unfolding since January 3rd or 4th, 1885, when … when … let’s just say that using all of the facts, information and possible plausible explanations gathered, she has earned a reputation as being “the most famous ghost ship”.

The Mary Deare is the name of a ship in a work of fiction written by Ralph Hammond Innes (1913 – 1998) titled “The Wreck of the Mary Deare”, published 1956; which was later adapted to film by the same name, released 1959, which starred two of my favorite actors, Gary Cooper (1901 – 1961) and Charleston Heston (1923 – 2008). It’s now in the collection of Turner Classic Movies. Thank you, Ted Turner, for preserving these precious moments in cinematic history.

The fictional Mary Deare is eerily similar to the real-life Mary Celeste. Similar or not, it’ hard to pass on an old movie with two powerhouse American actors like Cooper and Heston.  They’re icons!

The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)

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