- Film Review
- Reviewed By Tony Sloman
-
5 out of 5
This wartime propaganda film is a thinly disguised take on the maritime exploits of Lord Mountbatten. Co-directed by the debuting David Lean and Noël Coward, it has matured to become a paean to a lost world. Told in flashback, as a group of stranded sailors await rescue after the sinking of their ship, the film is immensely moving, and contains definitive performances from Coward himself (his speech about his ship, the HMS Torrin, is a classic) and Celia Johnson, all chintz, beauty and stoicism in her film debut. Watch out, too, for screen bows from Richard Attenborough, Daniel Massey and an 11-week-old Juliet Mills. A box-office hit in its day, the film was awarded a special Oscar, to Coward for his "outstanding production achievement".
Plot Summary
Second World War drama starring Noël Coward and John Mills. HMS Torrin is lost after being dive-bombed in the Battle of Crete. However, the memories of her surviving crew re-create the inspiring story of the ship, and those who served in her.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Captain "D"
- Noël Coward
- O/S "Shorty" Blake
- John Mills
- CPO Walter Hardy
- Bernard Miles
- Alix Kinross
- Celia Johnson
- Mrs Hardy
- Joyce Carey
- Freda Lewis
- Kay Walsh
- Number One
- Derek Elphinstone
- Edgecombe
- Frederick Piper
- Joey Mackridge
- Geoffrey Hibbert
- Mr Blake
- George Carney
- Mrs Blake
- Kathleen Harrison
- Uncle Fred
- Wally Patch
- Colonel Lumsden
- Walter Fitzgerald
- Lavinia Kinross
- Ann Stephens
- Bobby Kinross
- Daniel Massey
- "Flags"
- Michael Wilding
- Maureen Fenwick
- Penelope Dudley Ward
- "Guns"
- Robert Sansom
- "Torps"
- Philip Friend
- Doctor
- James Donald
- Engineer commander
- Ballard Berkeley
- Pilot
- Hubert Gregg
- Young stoker
- Richard Attenborough
Crew
- Director
- Noël Coward
- Director
- David Lean
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