Under Ten Flags

A thoroughly enjoyable movie with real ships and lots of original wartime footage, which make it a refreshing change from some of the slick but unconvincing modern offerings. More than a few of the usual, expected stereotypes are depicted, but the plot chunters along at a cracking pace, interspersing furious naval action with some well-observed 'stiff upper lip' screenplay, some nerve-wracking espionage work and any number of amusing little character studies.

Honour, death, determination, courage, childbirth, duplicity, fear and humour are dealt with in turn and all acted out in a thoroughly workmanlike manner. Van Heflin is superb as the captain of the German ship and the unutterably delectable Mylene Demongeot is stunning as a perky nymphette who, obviously fearing her looks would fade before the end of the film, seemed desperate to hook a guy (any guy) before the end credits! As might be expected, the entirely dependable Charles Laughton did a sterling job of playing Charles Laughton - in a Sailor Suit! Without exception the rest of the supporting cast were top notch - all the way down to the brave little kids being winched aboard ship in a cargo net!!

As it is based on true events, this movie is all the more worth watching by anyone who enjoys naval warfare stories and is heartily recommended!

An 8 out of 10 without hesitation for me....

It has been many years since I saw this film but I remember it to be interesting with a differant view of the war through the eyes of the captain of the german raider, Atlantis. He is shown to be compassionate in saving as many lives as he can from the ships that he sinks and is not at all in agreement with Hitler's policies but his country is as war and so he obeys his orders. It is a shame that this film is not available on tape or otherwise as it depicts the other side of German officers not in "lock step" with Hitler.

Sadly, this movie has not been commercially available for many years. It is story about a rarely mentioned weapon of WWII, the German Surface Raider. They were ordinary merchant ships lined with amour plating and medium-sized navel guns. Unlike the famous U-boats which could hide beneath the sea, Surface Raiders relied on disguise to blend in with normal shipping traffic until they could find a lone ship they could surprise and sink.

This is the story of the hunt to find and destroy the best of them, the ship Atlantis. It is a story of bravery and ingenuity on both sides as the British Admiralty is caught up in a vast game of hide-n-seek with a clever adversary.

I choose to write this review largely because I have, over the years read a few rather poor opinions expressed about it. I can't wait for it to reappear somewhere, someday. My only explanation as to why someone who is a fan of naval war films would not thoroughly enjoy this one is the fact that the last three times I saw it over fifteen years ago the reels of the movie were in the wrong order! (I swear). That dampens the suspense considerably and gives it a very muddled, confused look. But even mixed up it beats a lot of movies I've seen.

I have not seen this film in more than 30 years. I can't imagine why it is not available on vhs or dvd. I saw it originally in the theaters and it made quite an impact on me. I love sea tales and this is one of the finest.

Under Ten Flags..Is in my opinion one of the best acted and directed movies dealing with world war II. It depicts a man's duty to country.. his personal honor to himself in up-holding honest and humanitarian beliefs even when required to do his duty and kill the enemy. The lead is by veteran actor Van Heflin.,who plays the captain of the German Raider "Atlantis".,this is based on a true story and facts of the german surface raider "Pacas" during world war two. This type of war movie needs to be returned to the screen to show our younger generation that although war is brutal and even unavoidable man can still win or lose with dignity and honour. I would like to see this movie made available on Video and returned to TV.