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.

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....

Survivors from a crashed aircraft including a commodore holding top secret information (Redgrave) are adrift in the North Sea in a small dinghy. There only hope is the Air Sea Rescue service and Anthony Steele and his crew of likely British character actors set out to find them.

Enjoyable enough adventure which is at its best when focussing on the crew of the rescue boat, whilst the more intense dinghy, will they, won't they scenes are a little dull and repetitive. It's a solid British cast of familiar faces all nicely type cast as frightfully stiff upper lip upper or 'cor blimey guvnor' lower classes facing every conceivable mishap on the way, helped especially by Nigel Patrick, spot on as the tough but likeable flight sergeant and Anthony Steele as the man in charge.

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.

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.