In this, his first starring role in a movie during the course of a remarkable acting career that would span no less than seven decades, John Mills is perfectly cast as a plucky young sailor. This was the first of many heroic rolls that Mills would subsequently fill. In fact, for a while Mills played so many heroes that it was jokingly asserted that Britain could not have won World War II without him.
Originally entitled "Brown on Resolution", this movie is based upon a story by C. S. Forester, the author of the famous Horatio Hornblower novels. However, Like "The African Queen", which was also written by Forester, this naval yarn is set in the early days of World War I.
John Mills plays Albert Brown, a young Royal Navy seaman, the illegitimate son of a Royal Navy Officer who is not actually aware that he has a child at all. Assigned to an antiquated British cruiser in the Pacific, Brown's ship is sunk by a more powerful German warship early in World I. Rescued by the enemy warship, which puts into a lonely Pacific island for repairs, Brown steals a rifle and escapes ashore in an effort to keep the Germans pinned down long enough for his own Navy to arrive on the scene.
This is the sort of old-fashioned "Ripping Yarn" in which the lone hero pits himself against overwhelming odds for reasons of loyalty, duty and honor that would seem incomprehensible to people nowadays, but which struck a deep chord with audiences back then.
Incidentally, this film is also notable to naval history buffs due to the fact that the British Admiralty allowed the producers to use real warships that were in commission at the time. Among those are the battleship HMS Iron Duke, which was the flagship during the 1916 Battle of Jutland, and which was then still in service as a gunnery training ship. Also featured is one of five British light cruisers of the Leander class, all of which subsequently distinguished themselves during World War II, most particularly HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles, which would famously battle the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. Also of note, although for a very different reason, is the WW-I vintage light cruiser cruiser HMS Curacoa, which portrayed the German cruiser in the film. On the night of 2 October 1942 HMS Curacoa was sunk in a tragic collision with the passenger liner Queen Mary. The 80,000 ton liner literally sliced the elderly cruiser in half, like a hot knife through butter. However, the Queen Mary was unable to stop to help the survivors because she was transporting 10,000 badly-needed U.S. Army troops to Britain. For obvious reasons the tragedy had to be hushed up until after the war was over, even the 10,000 troops who were on board the Queen Mary at the time being sworn to secrecy. Although 101 crew members were eventually rescued by other escorting warships, 337 went down with HMS Curacoa,
