If I'm being honest there really isn't enough story here for a feature film - it doesn't go for much longer than 80 minutes as is, and there's a bit of padding: the opening prologue involving Brown's mother, setting up the big battle, the big battle... almost an hour has clocked in before Brown gets on the island with his rifle taking pot shots at the Germans, and this bit doesn't go for very long. To be fair, I couldn't see how much longer it could go - the action as it is works out logically (the Germans try big guns, then a boat crew, then have to bail because the British are coming). I think the material was suited more to an anthology series.
Having said that, I did like it. It's professionally handled by Roy Boulting, the navy stuff seems real to someone who knows very little about the Navy (e.g. the battle sequences, terms used), there's some good performances from Wendy Hiller (proper girl who's up for five days constant shagging), Michael Rennie (all craggy dignity and that great voice), Peter Van Eyck (the German captain) and Bernard Miles (the lower decks sailor who along with Brown is the only survivor of the sunken ship and conveniently speaks German).
Jeffrey Hunter isn't that great - he seems like such a nice chap and made all those John Ford films, I want to like him more than I do, but the fact is he's bland. He runs around without a shirt for most of the movie, as if the filmmakers were aware of this and wanted to ensure they at least got some teen girls along. It doesn't help he plays yet another Canadian in the British army (yes, I know there were some, but there were South Africans, Aussies, Kiwis, Indians, etc too).
The Germans come out of this fairly well - they're not sadistic, Van Eyck is reasonable and doesn't torture Hunter, an officer tells the Brits about Hunter being on the island, Hunter's guards are friendly to him, the doctor looks after Bernard Miles even though he's injured, etc.
There are two endings - the copy of the film I saw actually had one ending after another. The first one involves Hunter dying and Hiller posthumously receiving a VC - the second one has him surviving. The second one is much better - it felt really mean to kill him off after all he'd been through.
No comments:
Post a Comment