The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Having thought that the mid 1970s was something of a golden era where American TVMs were produced I gave DEATH CRUISE the benefit of the doubt when I saw the relatively high rating on this page and expected more than something you'd get on the Hallmark channel but to be honest it seems like I wasted my time The plot summary on the main details gives away the premise a bit too quickly . This is indeed how the plot unravels but there's far too much screen time dedicated to the characters all of whom are crashing bores . I've always got the impression these exotic cruise ship passengers are invariably badly dressed yawn merchants who quite literally suck the life out of everybody around them and this is exactly how they are portrayed in this TVM The murderer in the midst isn't the most obvious person you'd think off and it does have some unintentional funny moments such as two characters finding a fellow passenger has gone overboard and the female character blurting out " Darling I want to have a baby " but if you're watching a film that feels like THE LOVE BOAT mixed in with MURDER SHE WROTE you'll find yourself not only siding with the murderer but feeling he hasn't murdered enough passengers

When did 'Made For TV' movies begin? Hundreds of mini-masterpieces are going to be lost unless some bright spark begins to preserve and restore each and every print.This little 1974 'tv gem' has a delicious cast succumbing to a hackneyed Agatha Christie plot. Can you spot the killer(s) before it becomes obvious? Jackson is both gorgeous and fascinating... she spent so much of her career trying to cover her neck and throat (Charlie gave her so many scarves and polo-necks), yet amidst the halter-necks and scarves here, some scenes show a lovely (and perfectly normal) neck. Am I missing something? Also, an agent or personal manager with more smarts might have suggested she was SUPERB at playing hard-faced beauties... she should have been the QUEEN of gorgeous villains!Did I spoil the plot?

This is a pretty decent movie of the week from the Spelling-Goldberg production house. This movie is pretty much like Murder, She Wrote, which came out ten years later. Michael Constantine does a pretty decent job as the ship's doctor, who also happens to be an amateur detective and the cast, which is made up of many of the top stars of the small screen at the time did a pretty credible job playing the victims. Also, this happens to be one of the final appearances of Richard Long, who would die a few months later.

Seems to me there have been more than enough movies (or episodes on TV shows) wherein a mystery killer picks off a group of people one by one, and then crosses their faces with a big 'X' on a group-photo where everyone is smiling and happy. The theatrical film "The Last of Sheila" used a group-photo as a red herring, but "Death Cruise" doesn't have time for subtlety. It's a telefilm, short on time and short on budget. A would-be "Ten Little Indians", the cast is littered with has-beens (Richard Long), should-have-beens (Edward Albert), and one fresh face (Kate Jackson, giving off some enchanting, mysterious charisma). It's a cross between "The Love Boat" and "Murder, She Wrote", yet it does predate both and was fairly intriguing for its time. Seen today, it's a tacky hoot, although there is a neat twist at the finish line. As TV-movies go: ** from ****