The Sea Shall Not Have Them

This tribute to Air Sea Rescue is mainly remembered now for Noel Coward's bad taste observation when contemplating a poster for this film "I don't see why not, everyone else has!" There's certainly very few women in it (which must have suited Dirk Bogarde just fine), although somehow Joan Sims is in it.

Like Hitchcock's 'Lifeboat' the cast are cast adrift in an open boat with Michael Redgrave in the Miss Froy part (the MacGuffin taking the form of a attaché case filled with "formula blue-prints and so on").

Nigel Patrick is cast against type as a rasping flight sergeant who snarls at new boys "I eat blood and drink rivets!". The music of course is by Malcolm Arnold, who never seems to be taking things as seriously as the cast.

As far as i am aware there are really only 2 British films about Air-Sea rescue ,this film and For Those In Peril.I believe that the earlier film is superior not just because it stars David Farrar who is far better than Anthony Steel,but it has a far more realistic feel.This film is hurt by its inept process work.Nearly every scene featuring Anthony Steel and most of those in the dinghy are clearly shot either on a sound stage or the studio tank and in my view this severely detracts from the realistic feel the film needs to impart.Also at the climax we have the rather strange effect of the boat being shrouded in fog and then in a blazing sun.Quite odd.We have all the usual banter of the lower ranks with some fine performances from a great cast.Incidentally Bonar Cellano who plays an airman and Michael Balfour ,an engineer,were great friends in real life.Alas they had a car crash,Balfour survived but Cellano did not/A real loss to the British cinema as he had made his home here.

The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954) -

This wasn't the film that I thought it was going to be, especially not based on the synopsis that the TV had provided. I was expecting to hear all the stories of the various individuals depicted as they waited to be rescued or to rescue. Reminiscences of days gone by and confessions of naughty things, because they thought that death was coming for them, but it was much more basic than that.

And it had a lot of similarities to 'In Which We Serve' (1942), which I thought was actually the better of the two films overall.

The whole thing was quite drawn out, but oddly, I couldn't see where it could be altered to give it a better pace. Although, having said that, the editing and film quality in general was poor and that was a shame because it really wasn't that bad a story, if a bit of a repetition of others available, with it's theme of being stranded in a lifeboat and dangerously close to the enemy, whilst aircraft strafed the water around them with bullets.

There were moments and characters that stuck out more than others.

For instance, I was surprised by Air Craftsman Milliken and the fact that he wasn't in prison for being a blatant homosexual, but I suppose during the war they took all the willing help that they could get and I'm all for diversity in the forces, I just couldn't believe how obvious they were making it with his character in this film from 1954, way before the change in the law in 1967.

I liked Michael Redgrave as Waltby, but had to wonder if Birk Dogarde always played such a wet weekend? His role of MacKay was hot and cold, sometimes literally, I couldn't work out if he was a brave airman or a craven whiner.

And unlike the equivalent American films, where they are all so tough and determined to survive or to go down fighting, this bunch seemed to be happy to give up easily, bar the odd few with a bit more gumption (Redgrave) and most of the rest of them didn't even want to be there in the first place.

So in some ways I thought that it didn't represent the Brits as well as they had hoped it would.

All in all it was a fair piece of work, but I didn't think that it was wholly realistic or delivered with the best production values.

434.22/1000.

When much was made of the R.A.F.Squadrons flying countless missions against the enemy, and rightly so, it is refreshing that `The Sea Shall Not Have Them' shows the work done by the R.A.F. Air Sea Rescue crews. Anthony Steel plays the skipper of 2561, a M.T.B. assigned to locate and rescue a Hudson bomber that has crash landed in the north sea. On board the plane along with the rest of the crew, is a V.I.P. with vital German rocket secrets. The film then follows two strands, one showing the air crew ( including a young Dirk Bogarde) slowly freezing on the escape dingy, and the M.T.B. crew fighting bad weather, engine failure, and in one incredible scene, a new crew member sets fire to the galley. The ending although predictable ,is nevertheless gripping, and the film will rank along ,with the best of the war movies made in the 50's.

Just a little note to add some local interest to this excellent movie - the action takes place at an unnamed Air Sea Rescue station - I am sure most of the interior shots were taken in the studios but the exteriors are from Felixstowe where there really was a real life A/S Rescue station during WWII. The German guns were actually at Landguard Fort, which was just around the spit or point from the A/S Rescue station itself. The shots of the railroad station are likewise taken in what was then Felixstowe Town station. The area where the A/S Rescue station was is now part of the Container Port and I am sure nothing remains of the hangars and docks, but Landguard Fort is still there, minus the guns.