Seagulls Over Sorrento

How can a torpedo be so exciting? It's a dead thing, and still it keeps the whole film constantly growing in suspense and expectation, and whatever you expect, you will not be disappointed. Gene Kelly makes a very unusual role for a change, no dancing and singing here but only totally matter-of-fact science and technical expertise. They are testing torpedos on a remote base laboratory on an island outside Scotland, and the film begins with a disastrous failure with an irreplaceable casualty, the expert who finished the job and made the new torpedo technically perfect, and then something went wrong, and everything exploded. The expert in charge survived but not for long and took his possible secrets with him. In his place Gene Kelly is procured. It's a chamber drama only beteen men, but it never gets claustrophobic although they are strictly confined. Instead a very special drama keeps developing concerning the topredo and its increasing problem complex. The Boulting brothers only made extremely interesting films for their concentration on human factors and human imperfections, and although highly specialised and restricted to science and technics, this is no exception. The húman factor takes over the show with a vengeance.

TCM has shown this film twice in the last week, both times at 5 AM, for some unknown reason they bill it as a comedy, probably because it has Sid James as one of its stars, or possibly because it was directed by the Boulting Brothers, and though it did rely a lot on coincidence, and most of the time the music was fair, even top musicians have off days, the actors carried out their parts well. Even so, this is not one for DVD, unless you could add lots of out-takes from Sid and Gene, who knows??

Fine performances by Gene Kelly, David Orr and Bernard Lee (The original "M" from 007) cannot save this dull melodrama. Kelly plays an American Lt./Scientist, trying to determine why an experimental British torpedo carrying a new explosive warhead blew up four seconds after release, killing both the British scientist and torpedoman. It's pretty heavy stuff (no women, desolate island), unleavened by attempts at lame humour (Sidney James, doing his best with the material). The film fails at drama, because the subplots require too much coincidence. The film fails as mystery because the plotting require both Navy scientists to violate the most basic rule of fault isolation to forward the story. Once the solution is found, the film continues with some phony "derring do" which creates zero tension. Even the cinematography and score (by the usually reliable Miklos Rosza [BEN HUR, THE POWER]) are subpar. The score in particular is inappropriate and sounds like leftovers from better movies (BEN HUR, in particular).

For Gene Kelly fans looking for something different...

The first thing I thought when I saw the webpage for this on IMDB was "Is THAT Gene Kelly and why does he look so tough?!". Yes, despite his pretty dancing boy image, sometimes Kelly made other films...tough films such as "The Black Hand". "Pilot #5" and this one, "Seagulls Over Sorrento" (also known as "Crest of the Wave"). I do appreciate how he didn't allow himself to be typecast....but did this abberation work?

This film was set in the present day...and it took me a bit to realize it was not a WWII picture. Some British submariners are working on a new explosive for their torpedoes and there is an explosion...killing their expert. Since no one else in the British Navy knows about this explosive, an American officer (Lt. Bradville....played by Kelly) is stationed on the Scottish island where the work is being done. He brings along two assistants....though some of the sailors seem taken aback with them...and it's a case of US versus THEM (much like in the film "The Devil's Brigade").

Despite being a military film, because there's no war going on, it's not an especially exciting movie. Now this is NOT to say it's bad in any way...but it's not action-packed and is much more cerebral than you'd likely expect. Well made and interesting.

I would love to have seen the looks on faces of cinema goers as they came out from watching this film back in 1954 - I suspect it would have been a mixture of wonderment at why the film was made, amazement that Gene Kelly couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, curiosity to know if a contract has been taken out on the script writer, and suicidal depression at having spent time and money going in the door in the first place. I have given this one point above the worst possible score as I am sure it had honorable aspirations i.e. to reflect the commitment of brave men during the war. But to be sure, this was no Dam Busters!!