Until They Sail

1957
A
1h 34m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

During WWII, unmarried New Zealand women meet and marry American soldiers who are fighting in the Pacific theater.During WWII, unmarried New Zealand women meet and marry American soldiers who are fighting in the Pacific theater.During WWII, unmarried New Zealand women meet and marry American soldiers who are fighting in the Pacific theater.

Director
- Robert Wise
Writers
- Robert Anderson
- James A. Michener
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

1.7K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Robert Wise
Writers
- Robert Anderson
- James A. Michener
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Photos53

+ 48

More like this

6.7

6.2

6.7

6.5

7.2

6.8

7.1

6.7

This Could Be the Night

5.8

6.5

6.9

6.9

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Aspen Pictures, owned by Mark Robson and Robert Wise, bought two stories from James A. Michener's anthology "Return to Paradise." After Robson filmed one of the stories as Return to Paradise (1953) with Gary Cooper, they ran out of funding and had to sell the rights to the other story, "Until They Sail" to Burt Lancaster. Although the two films' plots differ greatly, some modern sources attribute Until They Sail (1957) as a remake of the earlier film, also set in World War II South Pacific. Some years later, it ended up with Charles Schnee at MGM. At one time, MGM wanted Glenn Ford for lead Marine. Later, Wise was at Metro and he asked to film the property as his last film of his contract with the studio.

Goofs
At the start of the film, set in 1939, the four sisters put up a map of the world to keep track of the soldiers' locations, but the map is contemporary from the year the film was made (1957), showing numerous nations that did not exist in 1939, for example: Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (which would have been French Indochina in 1939), Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies), Thailand (called Siam in 1939), and Pakistan (which was part of British India), among other countries.

Quotes
Barbara Leslie Forbes: [Last lines] If my father could read the history of his daughters...
Capt. Jack Harding: He'd understand.
Barbara Leslie Forbes: As they say, to understand is to forgive. Or is it, to understand is not to forgive? I can never remember.

Connections
References Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Soundtracks
Until They Sail
Music by David Raksin
Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Sung by Eydie Gormé

User reviews44

Review

Featured review

Touching, inusual and sprawling war movie

As I wrote in the summary, this is NOT your typical war movie full of action and battles with fire-arms scenes; so, if you want to see something similar to THE LONGEST DAY or BATTLE OF BRITAIN, this movie it's not for you!

Now I am not saying that UNTIL THEY SAIL it's bad. I am saying that this movie, instead of focusing on the war actions, it focuses on the women left behind waiting their husbands from the war and their woes and all the differences between them. And, even though it's not a must-see movie, it's actually pretty good.

Visually, this movie is beautifully shot, and the locations (in New Zealand) are simply a delight to watch; the soundtrack, even though it's not outstanding, it's also pretty good. And the pace, although it dragged half-way, it's measured.

The performances are all good: Paul Newman (in one of his first movies) it's charismatic and cool as always; Joan Fontaine, Piper Laurie and Sandra Dee are credible and give heart-felt performances, and Jean Simmons, like Newman, gives a deep and touching performance. And it's directed by Robert Wise, another great director of the 1950s-1960s.

The story is very realistic and never gets over the top despite the setting and subject explored. In substance, even with a few flaws, it's well done and worth-watching.