The Sea Shall Not Have Them

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.

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.

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.

During the Second World War, an RAF transport is shot down over the North Sea. Four men are on a dinghy, hoping for rescue as they drift closer to occupied Holland. Back at headquarters of the RAF Search and Rescue Force, the work is being coordinated. Meanwhile, one of the launches taking part in the search has mechanical problems.

That rarely happens under ordinary circumstances in the movies, right? Things work until the actual battle begins, and then the engineer - invariably Scottish - puts things together with string and old cutlery. This is not that sort of movie. It's pacing is odd. It's crisis and routine, and nothing gets done, until the last minute, just like in real life. People talk oddly. Dirk Bogarde, one of the downed fliers, is shrill.

Unfortunately, this ambitious way of telling a story doesn't really work to maintain interest. The characters are either blanks, like Michael Redgrave, who holds the Maguffin, or unappealing. It's an interesting experiment, but like many of them, it doesn't prove its worth.

Good cast, though.

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.