Corvette K-225

The unsung contribution of the Royal Canadian Navy in providing escort service for Atlantic convoys gets its tribute in Corvette K-225. The film is very similar to the Humphrey Bogart classic Action In the North Atlantic.

I checked with a military buff friend of mine to be sure, but the Corvette was the Canadian name for a ship that would be classified as a destroyer escort and that's what their function was, escorting American and Canadian supplies to the European theater.

Randolph Scott stars as the stalwart captain who as the film opens has just lost a ship, but is anxious to get back in the fight. And of course those of the crew who survived want to return to action with him.

But Scott has a lot of newbies on board including mostly new officers among them James Brown whose brother was lost on Scott's previous ship. Scott also has taken an interest in Ella Raines who is Brown's sister.

That's the romantic portion which is strictly second fiddle to the war action. Though we get a good amount of flag waving here, the film given its time is surprisingly free of overblown heroics. For that reason it holds up well today.

Such familiar people as Barry Fitzgerald, Andy Devine, and Fuzzy Knight are in the crew filling out their stereotypical roles. Don't blink or you will miss Robert Mitchum in a very small role as one of the crew.

Corvette K-225 is a fine tribute to our Canadian allies whose contributions to Allied victory in World War II is often overlooked.

I hadn't seen this movie for many years, and when I watched it again recently I was amazed at the surprising realism for a 1942 era war propaganda movie. Veteran skipper Randolph Scott is forced to put to sea in a new corvette (a very small ship) with almost no other experienced crew members, and virtually no time to train the new crew. The horrid living conditions aboard ship are realistically portrayed: the tiny ship tosses about on the ocean while water cascades over and through every part of the ship. On top of this there are also German U-boats to contend with. Of course all of this was done on sound stages and model sets, but they are amazingly realistic for the period. I am ready to watch it again!

****I checked with a military buff friend of mine to be sure, but the Corvette was the Canadian name for a ship that would be classified as a destroyer escort****

I certainly agree with your assessment of the movie, but I'm going to "split a hair or two" about how a Corvette compares to other navy ships.

Actually, a Corvette was quite a bit smaller than an American Destroyer Escort. Corvettes were about 1000 tons and had one engine and screw. DEs had twin screw propulsion and were 1500 tons or more.

A Destroyer Escort was closer to what the Royal Canadian Navy called a Frigate, which was larger and had twin screws. A typical smallish convoy would have a Frigate and 4 Corvettes as its navy escort.

My dad served in the RCN doing convoy duty on HMCS Arnprior, a castle-class Corvette. He always felt that the depiction of a Corvette rolling in heavy seas as shown in the movie was spot on. The RCN joke was that "a Corvette would roll on wet grass".

A corvette, I learned from this picture, is a type of small warship. Randolph Scott is captain of such a ship, assigned by the Canadian navy to escort a convoy of ships and war supplies headed across the Atlantic.

The journey is fraught with dangers that include both storms and Nazi submarines. Like other action movies made right during the war, this one is full of patriotism and adventure; Randy Scott and crew demonstrate courage, loyalty, and determination in the face of brutal difficulties.

The first half of the picture features Ella Raines as the sister of two young officers—one just commissioned, one recently killed in action. She and Scott strike up a friendship that begins with her expressing bitterness toward his apparent hard-heartedness but develops into a mutual respect—and possibly something more—for the challenges each of them faces. Raines is appealing in her film debut...she's certainly the sister or girlfriend you'd love to have waiting back home.

James Brown is fine as the brother on his first mission. It's a fairly routine role—he chafes under Scott's demanding leadership but eventually toughens up—but fits unobtrusively into the overall story. The rest of the crew includes familiar character actors like Barry Fitzgerald, Fuzzy Knight, Noah Beery, Jr....solid and good-humored, as you'd expect. A young Robert Mitchum has a small role as a sailor (and gets the film's best line, right at the end).

The exciting battle scenes are quite impressive. It's a top-notch production that does a fine job of fulfilling its mission: it entertains while paying tribute to those fighting a war whose outcome was still very much in doubt.

Though this takes place on a warship, it bears resemblance to WB's Action in the North Atlantic also of 1943 which is set on a merchant ship. Randolph Scott is the sheriff uh captain of the named ship,among the crew is a young Robert Mitchum. Mr. Scott delivers but not until the postwar period will he develop in my mind the seriousness that saved him from the wooden Indian junk heap. The final duel between the U Boat and the corvette is exciting and (very rare in films of this era)the enemy are portrayed as formidable foes.

A pretty good not great action film if say this film and the Magnificent Seven or the Tall T came on different channels would opt for the others with a switchback to watch the ship to sub duel.