One More River was a play by Beverley Cross, first staged in 1958 at The New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool, produced by Anna Deere Wiman and Sam Wanamaker, directed by Wanamaker and designed by Robert Clatworthy. The original cast was as follows:
JOHNNY CONDELL, the bosun Norman Wooland
SEWELL, the mate Robert Shaw
FINCH, a carpenter Dudley Foster
POMPEY, a seaman: ex R.N. Norman Mitchell
SMITHY, a seaman George Street
TRIM, a greaser, a West Indian Thomas Baptiste
CHINA, a seaman Brian Pringle
ROSS, an apprentice Christopher Cruise
MICK, a greaser Michael Caine
JACKO, a young seaman Dudley Sutton
DANNY, the deck boy Robert Petters
DUFFY, the cook Ben O’Loghlen
The play transferred to The Duke of York’s Theatre, London on 6 October 1959, directed by Guy Hamilton and featuring David Andrews, Patrick Connor, Tommy Eytle, Dudley Foster, Percy Herbert, Bennet O’Loghlen, Bryan Pringle, Paul Rogers, Danny Sewell, Robert Shaw, Brian Smith and Dudley Sutton.
It also ran for three performances at New York’s Ambassador Theatre, 18-19 March 1960, Produced by Mary K. Frank, directed by Windsor Lewis, designed by George Jenkins. The cast was as follows:
JOHNNY CONDELL, the bosun Lloyd Nolan
SEWELL, the mate Alfred Ryder
KELLY, a carpenter John McLiam
POMPEY, a seaman: ex R.N. Harry Guardino
SMITTY, a seaman Don Gantry
TRIM, wiper Lance Taylor
COLUMBUS, a seaman Al Lewis
ROSS, cadet Thomas Hawley
MICK, wiper Buck Kartalian
JACKO, a young seaman Robert Drivas
DANNY, the deck boy David Winters
LOUIS, the cook Louis Guss
My paperback copy of the play was published in 1958 by Rupert Hart-Davis.
It is a play in three acts, set on New Year’s Eve from 8pm until midnight, on the after-deck of a freighter on a river in West Africa. (That the nearest large settlement is Port Harcourt allows us to deduce that we are in Nigeria and on the Bonny River).
ACT I
We learn that the boat’s Skipper is dead and that the Chief Engineer and the Second Mate have gone ashore to report on the suitability of Sewell, the Mate, to replace him. Sewell, left in charge, has been using the time to have the men spruce up the boat, working them hard. He is ambitious, not liked by the crew, and is particularly in conflict with Condell, the bosun and most experienced man on board. Resentful at Sewell’s treatment of them and in need of something with which to celebrate New Year’s Eve, the men steal some bottles of gin from the cargo. Off-stage Sewell seems to have assaulted Danny, the deck boy, by throwing boiling water in his eyes. The act ends with the men resolving to make Sewell answer for his actions.
ACT II
A kangaroo court is in session with Cordell as judge. A couple of the crew allege that Sewell had exhibited homosexual tendencies in the past. Sewell tells them that the half-caste boy he’d been seen with was his son to his West Indian wife, in spite of his well-known racism, and that a pretty boy he’d beaten up on a passenger vessel was the subject of his hatred because the boy was over-privileged. He offers to forget that the men have convened a kangaroo court and offers to give them all a bonus and Danny compensation for the injuries he says were caused by accident. As the men are bringing in their verdict, which looks as if it will be split, the cook, who had been looking after Danny, comes to tell them that the boy has died. All of them vote guilty. They hang Sewell.
ACT III
Sewell’s body has been consigned to the river and the men have their cover story agreed. Then evidence emerges that Sewell’s claim that Danny was injured by accident was true. Condell is put in charge but when he is required to steer the boat up the river at night without a pilot he funks it and Ross, the young apprentice, who has been sleeping this whole time, is put in charge.
It’s a very macho piece, very sweaty with much racist language, undercurrents and outbreaks of violence, and the odd suggestion of repressed homosexuality. It would probably have made for a pretty decent, tense movie.
According to The Encyclopedia of Hammer Films, Hammer announced the film in October 1960 with a start date of 2 January 1961 with Val Guest due to direct from Beverley Cross’s adaptation of his own play and Van Heflin starring. According to Hammer Complete, it was to be part of Hammer’s Columbia deal and filmed in HammerScope.
Sounds a bit like Lewton's Ghost Ship.