I took a break from the crazy vampire, gothic and monster movies of the 1960s and watched this made for TV mystery movie entitled Death Cruise which aired in 1974. It was a murder mystery that takes place on a cruise, so like many Agatha Christie stories, it's a "locked door" murder mystery and they are always fun.
I watched this movie for free on YouTube, but in the event it is taken down, here is a link to find the movie on JustWatch.
QUICK PLOT SUMMARY: This is a murder mystery that takes place on a cruise ship. Three couples realize that they all won a free trip on this cruise. Each couple has an issue or two that arises and one by one, the people start showing up dead.
There is a new doctor on board who has to figure out the connection between them all and why they were all brought together.
STORYLINE/PLOTLINE: The plot was a good one. It had a final twist and kept me guessing all the way. Unlike many made-for-tv-movies, it wasn't just a thrown together script with no substance. It was a well-planned out storyline that could have passed for an Agatha Christie movie. It was well executed and the final twist was a surprise.
ACTING: The story moved along and all the actors played good parts. No one was trying to steal the show or hamming it up. They all said their lines and the dialogue and chronology of the story was the meat and potatoes. So no one turned in an academy award winning performance, but they were all convincing and believable.
The acting was good enough where the actors used their entire bodies in acting. This is a good way to learn how to get your characters to move within your book scenes.
ATMOSPHERE/SCENERY: This took place on a cruise ship so the atmosphere was enjoyable. Being a made for tv movie, it was more about the relationships, but there were enough cruising scenes to enjoy the vacation aspect of the story.
COSTUMING: Some of the outfits and gowns were beautiful. Even thought this movie was shot and aired in 1974, the clothing and sets were not that dated. If anything was stuck in the 197os, it was the music. All these movies and shows all had the same type of music. It screams 1970s, but the fashions were not that dated. This made the movie more enjoyable.
MOVING THE STORY ALONG:
When focused on what an author can learn, this was a great story example were the plot is the star of the show. You learned a little bit about each of the three couples, as well as the ship's doctor, but all the information that seemed like passing information was crucial to the ultimate plotline and the twists.
HOW TO DROP CLUES AND HIDE CLUES:
This is a good movie to watch to learn how to drop information and clues and yet not lose sight of there needing to be some romance and intrigue as well. This would be a good movie to watch and then reverse engineer it to see how the clues were dropped. It also shows you how some information is given to the viewer and some is deliberately hidden, but you don't realize it's being hidden at the time you first watch it. So this is a good movie to watch to learn about dropping some clues and hiding others for final revelation.
REVERSE ENGINEERING:
Because there are a few twists and surprises in this plotline, this would be a good movie to watch and then reverse engineer it. It will teach you the mind of an author, how to think about how you want to end a book on a twist and how you will need to plan and plot around that final twist. I have another blog post about reverse engineering a plotline that you can read about here.
AUTHOR TERMINOLOGY:
Above is a list of words an author would need to know to write about a cruise ship. If you click on the puzzle, you will be taken to google drive where you can download the word find with the list of words.