| Donald A. Stanwood's original novel used the Titanic tragedy as its launching pad. This made-for-TV adaptation of Stanwood's book moved the action up some 27 years, motivating its plotline with the torpedoing of an Athenia-type luxury liner, called the Queen Anne, in 1939(I.E. Goliath Awaits). The film flashes forward to 1961: millionaire Ralph Bellamy, who lost his wife,Claire, when the ship went down, hires writer Robert Foxworth (a discredited ex-cop) to investigate the sinking. Bellamy's grown daughter Natalie Wood (in her last TV movie), who'd survived the ordeal, seems to hold the secret, but she's been in a near-lunatic state for over twenty years. When several other survivors of the sinking are murdered, it becomes all the more crucial to unlock Wood's pent-up memories. In the tradition of Brian De Palma's "Obsession", Natalie Wood not only plays the title role of Eva Ryker, but also Eva's ill-fated mother. Producer Irwin Allen returned to one of his favorite film locations, the RMS Queen Mary, to film the "Queen Anne" scenes and augmented his sinking shots with footage from "The Last Voyage" Shown on CBS, May 7th, 1980 |
