"The_Cruel_Sea_(1953_film)" Topic

I came home late from work & saw this on TV
link

Quite a film. Not once did the crew manage to thwart Hitler's bid for World Domination using a WMD. They didn't even defeat the Kriegsmarine single handed.

Indeed, they managed to sink only 2 U-Boats in 5 years of constant convoy duty.

Now I'm as much a fan as the next man of escapist tosh, exaggerated action, super-hero driven War films but the quiet heroism & understated stoicism as shown in this movie must be something like the reality of warfare.

I think this was done with an American slant in The Caine Mutiny (a film I haven't seen for years: unfortunately) & with humour in Mr Roberts (which I caught late at night a few weeks ago).

Its a pity they don't make films like these anymore.

I had just listen to a radio play on that which was pretty good. I think it was on the BBC.
Found it
link

I grew up with war-films like this and I've realised over the years that so much of their impact depends on the writing – the best of them usually seem to be adaptations of good novels or memoirs.

Have you seeen "In Which We Serve"?

Operation Petticoat with the pink sub was on this week in UK / Europe……very little action but fun all the same…they did torpedo a truck…no cgi either or whooping and hollering when it's all over…..It's the quality in the writing – lots of recent films are written by 'committee'…….or a 'team'……with no clear vision ( lots of different ones!) ………

The Cruel Sea is superbly atmospheric…….still haunted by the scene of depth charging the sub and killing the survivors in the water……….understated but graphic in the face of the captain of the Compass Rose……

A great film IMHO, and probably my favourite WWII film. Good book too

…Ah! The sound of the pom-poms banging away in "In Which We Serve".

Indeed, they managed to sink only 2 U-Boats in 5 years of constant convoy duty.

Only? That may be low by movie standards, but it's still a pretty good real world tally for a single ship.

A good movie, but they're ahead of the curve in that respect.

The film was well-done, but the novel upon which it was
based I've long regarded as a masterpiece reporting of
WWII convoy escort life.

lots of recent films are written by 'committee'…….or a 'team'……with no clear vision

No clear story either. It's all car chase, shoot out, car chase, shoot out, roof top escape, shoot out, car chase, and "look at our CGI, aren't we clever?".

For me you can't beat films like 'Seven Days in May' and 'The Bedford Incident'. Not WWII, but fantastic stories and none of the above rubbish.

The Cruel Sea is based on Nicholas Montserrats semi-auto biographical novel of the same name, although Erickson is clearly a partly fictionalised version of Johnny Walker. One of my favourite films ever, certainly in the top ten.

The novel is rather more gritty.

Alistair Macleans 'HMS Ulysses' is also semi-autobigraphical, based on his time in light cruisers, although rather more 'sexed up' for publication.

Shame there was never a film of that.

The Cruel Sea is a homage to the heroism of the "ordinary" men, units and ships who won the war just by doing their job. And it was a miserable job, too.
Jack Hawkins IS the Captain, and hearing him say "Number One" is fantastic.

The novel is one of the great sea novels of all time.

One of the great sea films of all time. A lot of war movies emphasize triumph after facing great adversity; this one is about staying alive, and it's about pain. Everyone should see it at least once.

Ron

P.S. Jack Hawkins IS the Captain!

I read this back in the late 80's and it quickly became one of my favorites. Still have that book around here somewhere. An excellent legacy to the quiet sacrifice and duty that the convoy escorts and crews provided during the war.

When I visited Halifax, I toured HMCS Sackville. Not my pictures, but a great site can be found here…

steelnavy.com/Sackville.htm

While the book provides great descriptions of the Flower class, walking the decks really drove home how difficult this duty could have been.

A memorable movie!
I didn't know any of the Flower class ships survived--I am plotting a trip to eastern Canada, and must add this to it.

grelber

The Cruel Sea was one of my favorite books growing up. It's one of the reasons I joined the Navy.

Montsarrat's non-fiction book about the war, Three Corvettes, is also recommended; I enjoyed it immensely, and it's in places extremely funny.

Been years since I last had the pleasure (?) of seeing this typically great British war film.

No overt heroics, no pulse-thrilling score, it was honestly made for an audience that would have been full of people who either saw RN service, or lost someone at sea during the war.

If you have any knowledge of the war and its conditions, or any empathy for people doing a job that on the one hand, had to be done, but which no one should have to do.

Hardest part to watch/hear--The Captain looking at the voice pipe on the bridge as his ship begins to capsize and hearing the animal screams of those trapped below who he cannot save.

Current film makers have no ability at all to demonstrate horror so simply and to have such effect.

If anyone following this thread has not seen it, make a point to at your first opportunity. And if you can make a double feature of it alongside "In Which We Serve," you will come away with a deeper appreciation of war at sea and what real heroics are about.

TVAG

Saw "The Way Ahead" last week. For the first hour the biggest point of tension was "could one get a hot bath within 30 minutes of camp ?".

Then the unit got deployed, their ship was torpedoed, they lost all their kit and so became a reserve unit. When they finally got used they had to play darts in a bar for quite a while.

It was a great war film – if anything the little bit of action at the end was the weakest bit.

The Haida is the last Tribal class destroyer and is on display on Hamilton, Ontario. She participated in some escort duties during the war.

This film was done for an audience used to war, and it shows.
Utterly brilliant!

Speaking of gritty novels, I've long been seeking to
replace my copy of C.S. Forester's _The Cruiser_.

Loaned mine out over 30 years ago and it never came
back home.

Would appreciate pointers to available for sale copies.

Excellent book, if any of you haven't read it and can
find it.

War movies made in the 50s had ex-servicemen in their target audience. Authenticity was probably pretty important. I have not seen The Cruel Sea for years – maybe time to watch it again.

The Cruel Sea is my favourite WWII film; just brilliant. 264 U-boats destroyed by ships so two was a good score unless you were in a Support Group.

I always remember the scene where Hawkins was giving a command on his new ship, and just staring at the speaking tube, as he heard the screams of his old crew! Chilling, and very impressionistic to a young boy.

Anything with Jack Hawkins in it was great! It IS truly a shame that no-one has made a film of HMS Ulysses. H'mmm. can you imagine if they made a movie today entitled " 3 corvettes"? Probably wouldn't be anything like Monsarrat's book! Lot's of material from Forester for films: Death to the French, a GOOD movie of The Gun; etc.

I which we serve would be 100% better if it didn't have Neol Coward involved! No-one can possibly believe folk spoke like that!

Not only were the audience WWII vets, but a lot of the actors! They probably wouldn't let directors get away with some of the stuff they do today.

Canada often gets things wrong with regard to our military history, but as far as WWII warships is concerned we're aces! More by luck than good planning!

Anything with Jack Hawkins in it was great! It IS truly a shame that no-one has made a film of HMS Ulysses. H'mmm. can you imagine if they made a movie today entitled " 3 corvettes"? Probably wouldn't be anything like Monsarrat's book! Lot's of material from Forester for films: Death to the French, a GOOD movie of The Gun; etc.

I which we serve would be 100% better if it didn't have Neol Coward involved! No-one can possibly believe folk spoke like that!

Lot's of old , cinematic gems like these on You Tube!

Not only were the audience WWII vets, but a lot of the actors! They probably wouldn't let directors get away with some of the stuff they do today.

Canada often gets things wrong with regard to our military history, but as far as WWII warships is concerned we're aces! More by luck than good planning!

"I which we serve would be 100% better if it didn't have Neol Coward involved! No-one can possibly believe folk spoke like that!"

'In Which We Serve' was based to a degree on HMS Kelly, Noel Coward is positively restrained in the way he speaks compared to the real Captain, Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Yes, they really did talk like that in the 1940s. HM the Queen still talks like that…

I wasn't aware that Forester did a book called "The Cruiser"….

James

Out of curiosity, for a captain (and crew) who served sea duty from '40-'45 in the small ships that did the lion's share of the work, what proportion of their time would they spend at sea and in port? About how often would they have leave?

Just curious and looking for a sense, not precise details….

I haven't watch the movie, but read the novel several times. The Cruel Sea is not only one of my WWII favorite novels, but one of my favorite novels ever, period. Together with "To Kill a Mockingbird" is the only one I re-read regularly.

<<'In Which We Serve' was based to a degree on HMS Kelly, Noel Coward is positively restrained in the way he speaks compared to the real Captain, Lord Louis Mountbatten.>>

The scene where the Captain adresses the surviving crew in the warehouse before they march off to new postings used quite a lot of HMS Kelly personnel as extras, I'm told. The film was often called "In Which We Sink" because of the number of ships Mountbatten commanded which were lost (all to extreme enemy action, it should be added).

"I wasn't aware that Forester did a book called "The Cruiser"…."

It is called 'The Ship' (but is about cruisers)

'The Cruiser' was by Warren Tute.

I have both.

I wasn't aware that Forester did a book called "The Cruiser"….

Forester's book "The Ship" was based on the 2nd battle of Sirte, where a squadron of small light cruisers and a handful of destroyers escorting a convoy to Malta drove off a far stronger Italian surface force. It's many, many years since I read it but it sticks in the memory as a good read.

Martin Rapier, thanks for the correction – the book is
indeed _The Ship_.

If you're ever interested in selling your copy, PM me
please.

It is only a fiver on Kindle, the paperback is £6.74 GBP (or a couple of quid second hand).

link

link

Ah, The Cruel Sea. When I was a kid a man who was ex-merchant navy gave it to me after I told him I liked war stories. Said it was the best war story I'd ever find.

I've never seen the movie (and won't find it in Japan, unfortunately), but they do have a BBC radio play on youtube:

YouTube link

I concur with the sentiments about modern movie making with its flash bang CGI-for-its-own-sake methods being generally inferior to the more human approach of earlier times. There are exceptions though, of course.

Cheers,
Aaron

Gang;

The BOOK is far better than the movie – even though the movie was great and Jack Hawkins was hands down THE best choice for Ericson.

By the way, if you have an original copy of the hardcover book, its formatting helped make the story. After the long night expecting the worse, the ship finally got underway agian to catch up to the convoy, and the chapter ended. When you turned the page, the next line was "The torpedo struck Compass Rose …"

When teaching MS Word I used to have each student type a page of that chapter – the sinking and the night remaining … but I always did the last page. I would then read it aloud to the students who, by that point, all wanted to know the story. I always asked the same question afterwords of each student: "In one word, describe how you felt reading this." And EVERYONE always answered the same word – COLD!

Amazing book, amazing writing.

Mark

"By the way, if you have an original copy of the hardcover book, its formatting helped make the story."

I'd never noticed that, and I do indeed have an original hardcover copy. Thanks.

Another good read for convoy escort action is C S Forester's "The Good Shepherd". In this case told from a US standpoint. The hero is the Captain of a US Destroyer and Commodore of the escort for a UK bound convoy. Gripping stuff.

Nice, CRW! Will have to revisit that next time I see my stores.

Thanks! I rewatched Crule Sea over the weekend and followed it up Sink the Bismnarck. Good times.

"The Gift Horse" is nearly as good, and also worth watching is "Western Approaches", a wartime attempt to present the same conflict but from a Merchant Navy viewpoint. A bit more "heroic", but interesting.

Supercilius Maximus
"The film was often called "In Which We Sink" because of the number of ships Mountbatten commanded which were lost (all to extreme enemy action, it should be added)."

Errrrrr. One, HMS Kelly.

Fatman

Mountbatten took a trip in a K-Boat that didn't sink. That seems to be a remarkable achievement :-)

<<Errrrrr. One, HMS Kelly.>>

I stand corrected. I'd been told it was more.

No worries Supercilius Maximus, for some reason he has this reputation, I don't know why.

Fatman

Slightly off topic but I'd recommend "Red Tobruk" as a good memoir from a destroyer captain.

Captain Gregory-Smith commanded HMS Eridge in the Med before becoming a beacmaster a Gold beac on D-Day.

There's an interesting bit where they resort to firing blanks and training ammo to scare off German bombers as they ran out of the real stuff.

"The Gift Horse" is nearly as good, and also worth watching is "Western Approaches", a wartime attempt to present the same conflict but from a Merchant Navy viewpoint.

Two excellent films which are both worth watching if you enjoyed "The Cruel Sea".

Thanks Martin!

On recommendation I got the book & read it.
Indeed, it is a worthy partner to the excellent movie.

However, I was surprised to realise the film had been sanitised to a degree.
The novel is much more hard-edged.

There is the chapter with the fate of the twice torpedoed Wrens. Fairly grim.
The book also expresses its disgust with Irish neutrality, dismisses both collaborating & allied French and paints a very harsh view of the Germans through the captured U-Boat survivors.
It is very harsh about British civilians & non-frontline troops who are only have selfish concerns.

Indeed, the novel pulls few punches.