Sons of the Sea

Proudly declaring itself under the sole direction of Maurice Elvey, the biggest mystery about this drama set at the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth during what seems to have been a glorious final summer before the war is how the murder was committed, since we're never told.

Meanwhile a dapper foreign agent (whose real name is revealed at the last minute to have been 'Muller') uses forged or stolen secret service credentials to enjoy the run of the place unchallenged; the 'MacGuffin' being "secret enemy minefields".

The real star of this film (as it was in 1939), isn't an actor, but the then new Dufaycolor - full colour process. It is also possibly the first feature film to be shot using a single color negative (in contrast to the three b/w negatives needed for the three-strip Technicolor camera). In the case of Dufaycolor, the negative film was ruled with a mosaic of very fine red/green/blue lines. This is important to know when this film is viewed today as the colour is completely different from Technicolor. Because the film was shot with a conventional b/w camera, the restrictions of the bulky three-strip camera freed. This makes for some smooth, nimble camerawork. As a bonus, there are a good deal of clear, bright outdoor shots, the result of much filming around the cool blue seas and hamlets that stretch and cover the South coast of England. A landscape about to be changed by the approaching War. Even this film is intended to be a 'flagwaver' and a nod to Admiral Nelson is given in the final sequence. This is because, in this case, the Navy is honoured, including the Naval training college. The storyline is sadly, a conventional spy story. This is given depth by the always excellent Leslie Banks and the welcome appearance of Cecil Parker. The colour consultant on the film was the British colour film expert Adrian Clyne. He had good concepts for the way progressive colour films should look (which sharply differed with that of Technicolor's Natalie Kalmus). Even after 60 years, Clyne's composition is modern and vibrant. If Kalmus wanted pastels in 30s Technicolor, Clyne wanted effective colour compositions and wasn't afraid to use colour dramatically, but without the need to detract from the drama. In all, the film is an interesting experiment. No other Dufaycolor films were made. War shortages sealed the fate of this process. Viewed today, the drama is only average and anyone expecting a good spy story may be disappointed, however if looked at from the point of view as one of the few 1930s British films in colour (which has survived well) it is stunning.

I first saw "Sons Of The Sea" during the war (circa "40/41) in Victoria and was struck by the vibrant color of the film. The story line was not memorable and I completely forgot what the story was about. The only actor who's name I remember was Leslie Banks. (That may have been partly because I associated him with the FIRST color film made in the UK, "Wings Of The Morning". (I was about 15 at the time.) In later years, as I became more involved in film (working in television and later in the National Film Board of Canada, in distribution), I kept looking for some mention of this title, but to no avail. I happened to mention to my son, just the other day, about this title, since we had been discussing "Wings..", its' color and its' female lead, Annabella. Today, he called me in to my computer, where he had located IMDb on the Internet, and there was my long lost film! I'm so happy to have found it again and learn more about ITS' history, from then to now. Has a DVD been released of this film? ..or a VHS tape (NTSC!) I'll be back to check soon. Thanks again for finding me!

An early British colour movie from the 1930's (the only others that spring to mind are The Divorce of Lady X and The Four Feathers) but sadly not as enjoyable as the other two. As has been mentioned, this showcases the Dufaycolour film process and it does good give results; making the 1930's colourful without overpowering the viewer with garish colours (compare with other early Technicolour movies). The shots of lovely Devon countryside are a bonus as well: As a recent visitor to Devon, I was amazed to recognise Dartmouth, Slapton and Brixham in this movie, all of which seems little changed to this day.

The plot is plodding and so so. The direction stilted and stiff and the acting is, at times, woeful but this is all balanced by a intriguing look, in colour, of an era long gone.

I actually enjoyed this film a good deal more than anything I'd read had given me to expect. I suppose in retrospect it's (very literally!) a schoolboy story of a pre-war Britain where murder is the preserve of dastardly foreign agents, a naval career is the highest pinnacle to which any right-thinking boy can aspire, and even the enemy is honourable -- but then I always enjoyed those tales on their own terms, and the murder-mystery here, while not deep, is skilfully told. The culprit is fairly obvious from an early stage, despite a trailed red herring of truly clumsy proportions, but the focus shifts imperceptibly from 'who' to 'who next?', and there's a real tension in the sunlit afternoon that leads up to the events of the final part of the plot.

Given what is evidently a low budget or a high sensitivity threshold for gore and explosions -- the body count is all off-screen -- this story of murder and espionage adopts a detached and narrowly-focused viewpoint that perhaps inadvertently echoes the observer/telescope motif running through it: scenes are shown at face value, without a guiding detective figure to steer viewers' deductions, the villain declines the obligatory revelation of his true identity, motives and plans, and we learn of the boy Philip's fateful interview only at second-hand and piecemeal after the event, with no more certain knowledge of whose version to trust than the characters themselves. The result -- for me at any rate -- was a surprisingly understated and effective treatment of what is basically an Agatha Christie or W.E.Johns-type story, relying on the classic plot-lever of vital knowledge locked up in the head of one man. The slow-moving and potentially sentimental amnesia-scenes culminate in a genuinely chilling moment of breakthrough; and the 'flag-waver' finale caught this viewer, at least, into an unfeigned lump in the throat. For those with the requisite knowledge, there is also a wide range of naval melodies to be picked out of the sound-track!

I felt the only false note was Philip's sudden change of career plans by the end; not perhaps implausible as a reaction to events, but presented abruptly as a 'fait accompli' rather than as a revelation of self-discovery. This could have been more convincingly handled to achieve the desired outcome.

Otherwise, the film came across as an enjoyable little piece, and an unintended snapshot of its era with its boyish emphasis on honour, duty and service and its carefully non-specific foreign threat -- attractively photographed, with good use of its location, and well-judged touches of comedy and drama bringing to life the secret-agent-by-numbers plot. This is a Boys' Own adventure in the best sense of the term; not up there with "The Four Feathers" or "Beau Geste", but good lively matinée fodder.