Francesco De Robertis is an important predecessor of neorealism whose modest but very real contribution is maddeningly ignored. He was 'disappeared' from the history books due to a couple kinds of inconvenience. He was a patriotic naval officer who followed Mussolini into the Salo regime. He was an important mentor of Roberto Rossellini whose tutelage of and collaboration with the more familiar name created potential embarrassment after the war, as well as some possible demystification as to who really established many of the hallmarks of his student's style.
A pity, but if you really want to know more, De Robertis'es officially 'lost films' are actually largely in circulation via the Italian newsstand route on video and DVD or on TV reruns.
A VHS tape from a magazine series was how I found this title. It's nothing mindblowing, but a very proficiently made movie about a couple of true to life non-actor delinquent kids with a longing for the sea, pleasing as low key naturalistic naive kitchen sink drama in the first half, a good documentary about life on military-shipboard once they stow away amongst much bigger people they look up to and hide from, a moderately thrilling action film in the clinch with a nice rousing, sentimental conclusion, a very good, basic, honest humble entertainment.
