Sailor of the King

Jeffrey Hunter sparkles in this film. I only wish it were on DVD! From the moment he appears on the screen he has the audience in his pocket. Strangely, the film has two endings - one happy, the other sad. Audiences were asked to vote for which one they liked best. I am astonished that this fine actor has fallen out of public favour and so little of his work is available on video. He had real charisma and charm. And he could act. It's about time someone presented a Jeffrey Hunter season on TV.

I watched this film with no previous knowledge of its content or style and I was delighted to discover that it was a curiously interesting work. Very well acted by Jeffrey Hunter. A man who was often wasted in Hollywood. Surprised me the interplay Hunter has with Bernard Lee. It is quite mature and they play very well and with great sensitivity the part of father and son figures as the only survivors of a ship sinking. This was greatly helped by a very finely crafted dialogue. Instead, Michel Rennie and Wendy Hiller are quite stilted and their characters appear to be badly drawn and unidimensional. Today I saw this film with TWO endings. After the first ending a card appears on the screen telling the audience that this is an experiment. They'll show a second, different,ending and will distribute cards in he lobby of the cinema (I saw it on TV!) for a vote of which one was the favourite. Great!

I have always admired the work of C.S. Forester. Some of his most enduring books are about English Captain Horatio Hornblower who served during the French Napoleonic and revolutionary War. In this movie called "Sailor of the King" my favorite actor Jeffrey Hunter plays Signalman Andrew Brown who is aboard H.M.Ship Ansley when it is sunk by a German Crusier. Another favorite actor Michael Rennie who is well remembered as Klatuu from 'The Day the Earth stood still' plays Capt. Richard Saville who longs to do battle with the German navy. In Forester's original work, he had Brown as Saville's son even though neither know of the other. In the movie it is only hinted that both men are related even when both are brought before the King to be decorated and knighted. The movie itself is well directed by Roy Boulting and if you look closely, you'll see Bernard Lee who later became James Bonds' boss at MI6. This is a fine movie and one which is listed as a early Classic in the annals of Military movies. Easily recommended for all. ****

Excellent British naval war movie with Jeffrey Hunter. There are few movies of this type --as this is centered on sea action. I think of the movie "Pursuit of the Graf Spree" when watching this movie. This movie takes awhile to get going but is worth the wait.

A fine film, with good acting and excellent pacing-it never drags. This film will appeal to a wide audience, as the romantic and heart-breaking portions will appeal to one group, while the great action shots will appeal to a different audience.

One thing that is almost unique is that this is one of the few films that shows the crews donning flash suits. Flash suits are made of white fire-resistant material to prevent burns from firing the large guns in such close proximity, and fires caused by enemy action. In most naval movies the crews don't the flash suits. For the main actors, there is an obvious reason- you can't see their faces, but in this film all the British crews don the suits (though they don't wear the hoods that cover the face and neck). This makes this film more accurate than almost all WWI and WWII naval films.

Da Worfster, a previous reviewer, made the following comment: "Of course the ships are way to modern to be WWII vintage craft "-This is incorrect. The ships used in the film are HMS Glasgow, HMS Cleopatra, and HMS Manxman, and all three served during WWII, the Glasgow for the entire war, while the other two joined the war in 1941.

One last historical note: British and German ships used different optical rangefinder systems. The German system was more accurate, but lost accuracy from the concussion of the gun firing during battle. The British system was not as accurate, but more rugged and better in dim light. The result of this is actually shown during this film, with the German shells straddling the British with the first shots, but then losing accuracy as the battle progressed, while the British shooting got better as they 'got the range'.

All-in-all, a fine film, well made, and with better accuracy than most. Recommended.