The Sea Shall Not Have Them

During the Second World War, an RAF transport is shot down over the North Sea. Four men are on a dinghy, hoping for rescue as they drift closer to occupied Holland. Back at headquarters of the RAF Search and Rescue Force, the work is being coordinated. Meanwhile, one of the launches taking part in the search has mechanical problems.

That rarely happens under ordinary circumstances in the movies, right? Things work until the actual battle begins, and then the engineer - invariably Scottish - puts things together with string and old cutlery. This is not that sort of movie. It's pacing is odd. It's crisis and routine, and nothing gets done, until the last minute, just like in real life. People talk oddly. Dirk Bogarde, one of the downed fliers, is shrill.

Unfortunately, this ambitious way of telling a story doesn't really work to maintain interest. The characters are either blanks, like Michael Redgrave, who holds the Maguffin, or unappealing. It's an interesting experiment, but like many of them, it doesn't prove its worth.

Good cast, though.

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.

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.

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.

This is a surprisingly efficient rendering of one of many rather unknown but important operations in the second world war, the rescuing of stranded air pilots shot down by Germans and landed in the North Sea. Sea Otters and boats had to search for them in bad weather and stormy seas amid mine fields and over vast areas, and sometimes some could be rescued, even if snatched right out of the claws of the enemy almost getting at them first. This film in addition features some excellent actors in leading roles, like Nigel Patrick as the almost bullying leader of the rescue crew, bu he just had to be like that, Michael Redgrave as custodian of state secrets at peril stranded in a dinghy in the middle of nowhere in the North Sea, with Dirk Bogarde in a critical role as a major security risk among the shipwrecked. The film is partly unbearable, as it doesn't hesitate to give a very intimate insight into the conditions of the stranded on board the dinghy in hard weather night and day on the threshold of death, but it is well worth waiting for the finale. Let's see if you have any nails left after that.