"Yangtse Incident" ("Battle Hell" is a dreadful alternate title) is an excellent account of the Amethyst Incident. Although little-remembered today, the incident made international headlines at the time for the courage, resourcefulness and determination of the crew of the beleaguered British frigate, HMS Amethyst. It also marked the end of a century of foreign nations exercising "gunboat diplomacy" along the inland waterways of China. Although the issue is barely touched upon in the movie that circumstance, imposed upon China by numerous foreign powers through unequal treaties, was a one which all the Chinese, and not just the Communists, had been coming regard as increasingly intolerable over the years.
However, it is not the political situation that is the central focus of the film, but the actions of the beleaguered British seamen who found themselves caught up in a desperate situation not of their own making. In that regard, "Yangste Incident" is comparable to "Zulu", another fine British film based upon a real historical event in which a small detachment of British soldiers also found themselves, through circumstances beyond their control, having to fight their way out of an impossible situation.
Of course, as is usually the case in movies of this kind, much has been left out. For example, many years after the fact, I actually met a man who had served on the Amethyst during the Yangtse Incident. At that time he held the rank of "Boy, First Class". He had much to say about Lt. Cmdr. Kerans, the officer who assumed command of the ship after the captain was killed. One thing I recall was his pointing that Kerans' post at the time, that of Assistant Naval Attache, was actually considered to be a dead-end job for an aspiring professional naval officer, and that Kerans was actually an officer who was considered to have very little future in the Navy. Needless to say, his conduct during the Yangtze Incident completely turned that situation around for him.
Although British films frequently featured American actors in order to attract American viewers, in "Yangtse Incident" all the leading roles are played by British actors. The only "American" actors in evidence are Akim Tamiroff, and Keye Luke, both of whom are cast as Chinese "baddies". Akim Tamiroff had previously portrayed a Chinese General in "The General Died At Dawn, so the role was not new to him. Of course, Keye Luke portrayed Chinese characters throughout his long career, most famously during the 1930s as Charlie Chan's "Number One Son" and, decades later, as "Master Po", the Shaolin Sage in "Kung-Fu".
Another, and perhaps more glaring, omission, is any mention of "Simon". The film provides only a brief, fleeting glimpse of Simon, and no mention whatever is made of him, or his remarkable part in the story. Badly wounded by shrapnel in the initial attack, Simon, the Amethyst's cat, was not expected to survive. However, he not only recovered. but resumed his duty as the ship's rat-catcher, which proved an invaluable service considering the limited amount of food available to the crew on board the ship. Afterwards, when Simon's story became known, his heroism was recognized by the award of the "Dicken Medal", the highest award for valor for animals, sometimes referred to as the "Animal's V.C".
However, perhaps the real centerpiece of the film is the presence of HMS Amethyst herself, as the filmmakers used the actual ship as the movie set. That sort of verisimilitude is simply not possible using CGI special effects.
