offbeatlen-1

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.

It has been many years since I saw this film and it does not appear to have ever been released in home-viewing format. From my memory the action takes place on a river in Eastern England (the Orwell in fact) at a small village (Pin Mill) and concerns the usual good guys and bad guys in a sailing race aboard barges. The plot is not unusual with anticipated cheating and other shenanigans, but the good buys win the race and all live happily ever after. Made soon after the end of World War II, this was a pleasant Sunday afternoon at the cinema allowing the citizenry of U.K., who were still under some rationing even in 1950, a little escapism. It did the job admirably. I would love to find a copy, somewhere, somehow.