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The following is a roundup of several different topics
which cinematically seem not to have generated a body of work
strong enough to stand alone - Convoys, Merchantmen, Torpedo
Boats, The Coastguard, Frogmen, The Civilian Connection and
so on.
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| Action in the North Atlantic (US, 1943,
127 mins) |
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| Said action taking place aboard a
merchantman during the battle of the Atlantic. With Raymond
Massey, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Hale. Dir Lloyd Bacon |
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| All Hands (GB, 1940, 12 mins) |
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| Government-produced short
on the theme of 'Careless talk costs lives' or in this
case, a war- ship and its crew. With John Mills, Leueen
McGrath. Dir John Paddy Carstairs |
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| Away All Boats (US, 1956, 114 mins) |
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| The story of an attack transport vessel
in the Pacific war. With Jeff Chandler, George Nader,
Richard Boone. Dir Joseph Pevney |
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| The Big Blockade (GB, 1941, 73 mins) |
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| A dramatisation of the idea of economic
warfare, showing how the navy and the RAF were trying
to ensure that Germany was as cut off from the rest of
the world as possible. With John Mills, Michael Redgrave,
Will Hay. Dir Charles Frend |
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| The Caine Mutiny (US, 1954, 125 mins)
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| A paranoid captain displays cowardice
in action, then mishandles his ship during a typhoon,
provoking a mutiny by his officers. From the popular best-seller
by Herman Wouk. With Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred
MacMurray. Dir Edward Dmytryk |
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| The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (US,
1988, 100 mins) |
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| An expanded version of the last section
of the previous title. With Brad Davis, Eric Bogosian,
Jeff Daniels. Dir Robert Altman |
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| Convoy (GB, 1940, 90 mins) |
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| Mostly studio-shot account of an escort
vessel and its encounter with a German pocket battleship.
With Clive Brook, John Clements, Michael Wilding. Dir
Pen Tennyson |
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| Corvette K-225 (aka The Nelson Touch)
(US, 1943, 95 mins) |
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| The story of a Canadian corvette:
its launching and its first Atlantic convoy. With Randolph
Scott, James Brown, Ella Raines. Dir Richard Rosson |
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| The Cruel Sea (GB, 1953, 126 mins) |
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| Adaptation of celebrated Nicholas
Monsarrat novel: the war as fought by the corvettes, their
tragedies and very occasional triumphs. By the time this
film came to be made, the Admiralty had got rid of all
its corvettes; finally one was located in Malta - the
Coreopsis, which had been on loan to the Greek navy.With
Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, Denholm Elliott. Dir Charles
Frend |
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| The Deep Six (US, 1958, 105 mins) |
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| The dilemma of a devout Quaker appointed
gunnery officer aboard a destroyer. With Alan Ladd, William
Bendix, Keenan Wynn. Dir Rudolph Mate |
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| Destroyer (US, 1943, 99 mins) |
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| Melodrama about the generation gap
among the crew of a US destroyer. With Edward G Robinson,
Glenn Ford, Edgar Buchanan. Dir William Seiter |
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| The Fighting Coastguard (US, 1951, 86
mins) |
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| Two shipyard workers are drafted into
the Coastguard and see action against the Japanese. With
Brian Donlevy, Forrest Tucker, Ella Rains. Dir Joe Kane
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| For Those in Peril (GB, 1944, 67 mins) |
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| Tribute to the Air-Sea Rescue Service,
patrolling the Channel and the North Sea in high speed
launches, picking up downed airmen. With David Farrar,
Ralph Michael, Robert Wyndham. Dir Charles Crichton |
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| The Frogmen (US, 1951, 96 mins) |
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| Underwater demolition squads in action
in the Pacific. With Richard Widmark, Dana Andrews, Robert
Wagner. Dir Lloyd Bacon |
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| In Harm's Way (US, 1965, 165 mins) |
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| Adaptation of a thousand-page best-seller
(by James Bassett) full of sub-plots and subsidiary characters,
covering the war in the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to the
battle of the Coral Sea. Filmed partly aboard the cruiser
USS St Paul. With John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal.
Dir Otto Preminger |
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| In Which We Serve (GB, 1942, 114 mins) |
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| As they await rescue, the survivors
of a destroyer dive-bombed and sunk during the battle
of Crete think back on their lives in the navy. Said to
be based on the experiences of Admiral Lord Mountbatten
and his ship HMS Kelly. With Noel Coward, John Mills,
Bernard Miles. Dir Noel Coward/David Lean |
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| Johnny Frenchman (GB, 1945, 112 mins) |
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| Cornish and Breton fisher folk, bitter
rivals in peacetime, join forces to fight the Nazis. With
Tom Walls, Francoise Rosay, Ralph Michael. Dir Charles
Frend |
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| The Key (GB, 1958,127 mins) |
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| Love and death among tugboat
crews attempting to save stricken merchant ships during
the battle of the Atlantic. With William Holden Trevor
Howard, Sophia Loren. Dir Carol Reed |
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| The Long Voyage Home (US, 1940, 105
mins) |
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| Various episodes in the wartime voyage
of a cargo ship from the Caribbean to London. With John
Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter. Dir John Ford |
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| Men of the Lightship (GB, 1940, 25 mins) |
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| The Luftwaffe attack an isolated lightship.
With non-professional cast. Dir David Macdonald |
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| Mister Roberts (US, 1955, 123 mins) |
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| Comedy-drama set aboard a US navy
cargo vessel languishing in a quiet corner of the Pacific,
as the war draws to a close. With Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon,
James Cagney. Dir Mervyn LeRoy/John Ford |
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| The Navy Way (US,1944, 74 mins) |
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| A mixed bunch of draftees spend time
at the Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois,
before being sent off for active duty. With Robert Lowery,
Bill Henry, Jean Parker. Dir William Berke |
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| Perfect Strangers (aka Vacation From
Marriage) (GB, 1945, 102 mins) |
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| A stale marriage is revitalised on
the outbreak of war, when husband and wife both join the
navy. With Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, Roland Culver.
Dir Alexander Korda |
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| Perilous Expedition (aka Stot Starr
den Danske Somand) (Denmark, 1948, 93 mins) |
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| The story of the crew of a Danish
merchantman who escape to England after their country's
capitulation in 1940 and subsequently serve on the Iceland
convoys and in the Mediterranean. With Lau Lauritzen,
Poul Reichhardt, Lisbeth Movin. Dir Bodil Ipsen/Lau Lauritzen
The story of the crew of a Danish merchantman who escape
to England after their country's capitulation in 1940
and subsequently serve on the Iceland convoys and in the
Mediterranean. With Lau Lauritzen, Poul Reichhardt, Lisbeth
Movin. Dir Bodil Ipsen/Lau Lauritzen |
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| Q Ships (aka Blockade) (GB, 1928, 88
mins) |
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| Q ships were what the British in WW1
called warships disguising themselves as merchant vessels
in the hope of seducing U-boats into surfacing. Earl Jellicoe
is credited as technical adviser. With Johnny Butt, JP
Kennedy,Val Gielgud. Dir Geoffrey Barkas/M Barry |
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| Seas Beneath (US, 1931, 87 mins) |
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| Concerning the US navy's 'Mystery
Ships', their equivalent of the British 'Q Ships' (though
reviews of the day maintained that the Americans never
actually used these tactics.) Filmed on various US navy
vessels around Catalina (but nominally set in the Mediterranean).
With George O'Brien, Walter Kelly, Warren Hymer. Dir John
Ford |
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| The Sharkfighters (US, 1956, 73 mins) |
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| A group of navy scientists based
in Cuba during WW2 attempt to devise an effective shark
repellent. With Victor Mature, James Olsen, Karen Steele.
Dir Jerry Hopper |
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| The Shipbuilders (GB, 1943, 89 mins) |
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| Drama set in a shipyard, closed in
the 1930s through lack of orders, reopened to build war-
ships as a new conflict looms. With Clive Brook, Geoffrey
Hibbert, Finlay Currie. Dir John Baxter |
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| Soldier, Sailor (GB, 1944, 61 mins) |
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| Fictional story aiming to underline
the inter-dependence of the armed services. With Ted Holliday,
Al Beresford, David Sime. Dir Alexander Shaw |
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| Stand By For Action (US, 1942, 100 mins) |
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| A 'mothball' destroyer in action in
the Pacific.The screenplay was originally set in the British
navy but after Pearl Harbor, was hastily rewritten and
Americanised. With Robert Taylor, Charles Laughton, Brian
Donlevy. Dir Robert Z Leonard |
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| Submarine Patrol (US, 1938, 95 mins) |
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| WW1 story about the achievements of
the so-called 'Splinter Fleet', a squadron of wooden submarine
chasers. With Richard Greene, Preston Foster, George Bancroft.
Dir John Ford |
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| They Were Expendable (US, 1945, 135
mins) |
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| A PT boat squadron in action off the
Philippines immediately after Pearl Harbor. With John
Wayne, Robert Montgomery, Ward Bond. Dir John Ford |
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| Torpedo Squadron, Move Out (aka Raigekitai
Shutsudo) (Japan, 1944, 90 mins) |
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| Three young officers volunteer for
duty as human torpedoes, and sink an American flagship.
Dir Kajiro Yamamoto |
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| The Weaker Sex (GB, 1948, 84 mins) |
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| The story of a family at war, with
the focus on two daughters who both join the Wrens. With
Ursula Jeans, Joan Hopkins, Lana Morris. Dir Roy Baker
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| The White Ship (aka La Nave Bianca)
(Italy, 1941, 77 mins) |
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| Beginning with a naval engagement
and going on to show the care of the wounded aboard a
hospital ship. With non-professional cast. Dir Roberto
Rossellinir |
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| Top Stories |
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