Hijos del mar

I saw this film when it first came out just after the war started and enjoyed it for what it was - a schoolboy adventure story (I was then thirteen). I next found it in Singapore showing at the Cathey cinema in 1945; it was reputed to have been found on the premises after the Japanese surrendered, having survived the occupation in the manager's custody.

Since I sensibly recorded it one afternoon I have found it a "once a year" nostalgic one-off. The scenes of the RNC Dartmouth are absolutely genuine and the local settings a good historical record. The Dartmouth Railway station is still there today: it never had a railway line, passengers had to cross to Kingswear on the ferry to catch a train. Finally - the police sergeant's role was played by my actor uncle, but IMDb was no record!

I stumbled across this film while flicking through the TV channels this morning, the BBC were giving it an airing on BBC2. I'll be honest I was about to move on as the acting struck me as pretty dreadful when the scene changed to an outdoor shot of Portsmouth like I'd never seen it before. Period cars in new condition and vibrant colour!

I'd thought from the indoor scene that first on that this was some 1950s film and was shocked to discover that it was a colour film made in 1939! Looked up the details on the IMDb here and was fascinated to learn about the film's unique history.

It's a shame that the story and the acting is not better, but for curiosity value alone this film is worth digging out. The colour has lasted very well and it provides an invaluable record of an England that no longer exists.

Sons of the Sea was screened recently on BBC2 and I was pleased I taped it. This is a rare early British colour movie from 1939.

The Captain of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth is murdered and and his replacement fears he was the intended target. With the help of his son who is at the college, he tries to find out what exactly happened. Also, there is an agent from the Secret Service staying at the college and the professor at the local observatory isn't acting normal either. Strange goings on...

This movie was filmed on location at the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth and as a regular holidaymaker in this area at Paignton, I have visited several of the locations filmed in this, including Dartmouth and Kingswear. The railway scenes were shot on what is now the preserved Paignton and Dartmouth Railway. Not a lot has changed since 1939.

The cast includes Leslie Banks, Kay Walsh, Cecil Parker and Nigel Stock. Good parts from all.

Sons of the Sea is worth a look at if you get the chance. Very enjoyable.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

I actually enjoyed this film a good deal more than anything I'd read had given me to expect. I suppose in retrospect it's (very literally!) a schoolboy story of a pre-war Britain where murder is the preserve of dastardly foreign agents, a naval career is the highest pinnacle to which any right-thinking boy can aspire, and even the enemy is honourable -- but then I always enjoyed those tales on their own terms, and the murder-mystery here, while not deep, is skilfully told. The culprit is fairly obvious from an early stage, despite a trailed red herring of truly clumsy proportions, but the focus shifts imperceptibly from 'who' to 'who next?', and there's a real tension in the sunlit afternoon that leads up to the events of the final part of the plot.

Given what is evidently a low budget or a high sensitivity threshold for gore and explosions -- the body count is all off-screen -- this story of murder and espionage adopts a detached and narrowly-focused viewpoint that perhaps inadvertently echoes the observer/telescope motif running through it: scenes are shown at face value, without a guiding detective figure to steer viewers' deductions, the villain declines the obligatory revelation of his true identity, motives and plans, and we learn of the boy Philip's fateful interview only at second-hand and piecemeal after the event, with no more certain knowledge of whose version to trust than the characters themselves. The result -- for me at any rate -- was a surprisingly understated and effective treatment of what is basically an Agatha Christie or W.E.Johns-type story, relying on the classic plot-lever of vital knowledge locked up in the head of one man. The slow-moving and potentially sentimental amnesia-scenes culminate in a genuinely chilling moment of breakthrough; and the 'flag-waver' finale caught this viewer, at least, into an unfeigned lump in the throat. For those with the requisite knowledge, there is also a wide range of naval melodies to be picked out of the sound-track!

I felt the only false note was Philip's sudden change of career plans by the end; not perhaps implausible as a reaction to events, but presented abruptly as a 'fait accompli' rather than as a revelation of self-discovery. This could have been more convincingly handled to achieve the desired outcome.

Otherwise, the film came across as an enjoyable little piece, and an unintended snapshot of its era with its boyish emphasis on honour, duty and service and its carefully non-specific foreign threat -- attractively photographed, with good use of its location, and well-judged touches of comedy and drama bringing to life the secret-agent-by-numbers plot. This is a Boys' Own adventure in the best sense of the term; not up there with "The Four Feathers" or "Beau Geste", but good lively matinée fodder.

The real star of this film (as it was in 1939), isn't an actor, but the then new Dufaycolor - full colour process. It is also possibly the first feature film to be shot using a single color negative (in contrast to the three b/w negatives needed for the three-strip Technicolor camera). In the case of Dufaycolor, the negative film was ruled with a mosaic of very fine red/green/blue lines. This is important to know when this film is viewed today as the colour is completely different from Technicolor. Because the film was shot with a conventional b/w camera, the restrictions of the bulky three-strip camera freed. This makes for some smooth, nimble camerawork. As a bonus, there are a good deal of clear, bright outdoor shots, the result of much filming around the cool blue seas and hamlets that stretch and cover the South coast of England. A landscape about to be changed by the approaching War. Even this film is intended to be a 'flagwaver' and a nod to Admiral Nelson is given in the final sequence. This is because, in this case, the Navy is honoured, including the Naval training college. The storyline is sadly, a conventional spy story. This is given depth by the always excellent Leslie Banks and the welcome appearance of Cecil Parker. The colour consultant on the film was the British colour film expert Adrian Clyne. He had good concepts for the way progressive colour films should look (which sharply differed with that of Technicolor's Natalie Kalmus). Even after 60 years, Clyne's composition is modern and vibrant. If Kalmus wanted pastels in 30s Technicolor, Clyne wanted effective colour compositions and wasn't afraid to use colour dramatically, but without the need to detract from the drama. In all, the film is an interesting experiment. No other Dufaycolor films were made. War shortages sealed the fate of this process. Viewed today, the drama is only average and anyone expecting a good spy story may be disappointed, however if looked at from the point of view as one of the few 1930s British films in colour (which has survived well) it is stunning.