The Sea Shall Not Have Them

I watched this film from a muddy looking print currently on YouTube. I hope there are better quality copies out there.

This movie is about an air-sea rescue crew in action during WWII. A plane is shot down over the North Sea. What makes this one particularly important is that an agent on board is carrying super- important secrets about the German rocket program. Because of this, an all-out search is conducted by the Brits. The film bounces back and forth between the downed crew on a life raft as well as folks in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy as they try to locate them despite lousy weather and a HUGE search area.

This film is probably not one with wide commercial appeal. While it excels at realism, this also makes for a relatively dull film. Despite this, the film has nice production values and some very nice acting (including the likes of Dirk Bogarde and Michael Redgrave). Probably of most interest to war film buffs. Regardless, though the pacing and style is a bit dull, it does, fortunately, end with more energy and emotion.

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.

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.

I found this movie to be much better than some of the reviews here would suggest..... there are a lot of big names and well known faces acting in this movie..... most of the cast were big and or well known at the time of making and for that reason alone this movie should be watched..... as some others have said this is a similar subject to the movie Those in peril.... however, for me this movie is much better... What I enjoyed most was recognising how patrol routine and patrol duty generally is in the most part about boredom and trying to pass the time until the boat gets back to base.... and how that boredom or rather lack of action can allow individuals to not be as diligent as they should, like for example the engineer/fitter in charge of the engines who cut corners to save time during a routine engine repair and how this decision effected the efforts of the boat crew to find lost or downed pilots, the movie portrays this lapse in crew members responsibilities and highlights just how such small details overlooked or ignored can seriously effect and have consequences for people involved across the whole operation. From the head of the search operations at base, or the crew of the downed plane and the important passenger they were carrying when they were downed and the extremely vital information that passenger had recovered from occupied territory in Europe and that must be got back to England ASAP to help prevent new versions of the V1 and V2 missiles that the German scientists had designed to increase damage and destruction across England and strategic locations as well as targets of civilians and more Importantly their morale.... (a suggestion to the Super Weapons that Hitler kept believing would at the very least allow for a truce and a peace settlement without surrender to the allies)....

I think some reviewers are missing what this movie is trying to portray..... for me anyway..... that is the continuous monotony for many, especially so close to the end of the war, of such sea rescue patrols.... this for me is highlighted or more obvious from the scenes involving the Entertainment Officer at the base and his discussions with the CO responsible for finding and retrieving the vital information and the important passenger before the Germans do.... whilst the CO is under pressure from the powers that be and his own personal determination to find and rescue the downed crew... he is being asked to approve somewhat irrelevant and mundane plans such as preparing and informing service personnel for civilian life and dealing with small issues like petty theft or rather theft by finding (as it was called)

I think most veterans from all arms of the military would recognise what this story is most focussed on.... it is neither about any one individual in the cast or about providing the viewer with wild excitement and action.... there is both in this movie but the main plot for me is about the way monotony and routine can influence the individuals decision making and the consequences for that on others...!

I am still surprised at just how many well known (at the time)..... Budget wise the cast salaries would be enormous comparatively to the level of this movie... so I do ask myself if favours were called in or if there was some kind official patronage say from the military or some other person or organisation....

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.