Rent The Battle of the River Plate (1956)

Rousing - The Battle of the River Plate review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Aka Battle of the River Plate - Micheal Powells stirring retelling of the titular battle. Before war was even declared in 1939 Hitler ordered the Graf Spee out to the South Seas so she could harry British Merchant shipping and threaten Britains food supply. From there she sailed to the South Atlantic where she was discovered by 3 British criusers and the first naval battle of the war took place. One of the British cruisers was badly damaged and had to withdraw and the Spee was herself damaged and made it into Montevideo harbour. This was Uruguayan territory who were neutral but under a naval convention the Captain has 72 hours to make good his repair and then the ship would be seized……leaving him little choice. Based mainly on the book by Marchant Naval Captain Dove (played by Bernard Lee) whose ship was sunk and he was captured by Captain Langsdorff and treated with all the normal curtesies and Peter Finch plays him as an decent old fashioned type. All the other German officers give the Nazi salute but not once do we see Finch give one. He is opposed by Commodore Harwood (Quale) who gives it his best stiff upper lip but again a decent chap. The battle scenes (partly on location and partly at Pinewood ) are very good and the way the British fool the Germans into believing they had far more ships that they actually do is very clever. At time the script tends to overdo the whole steady on chaps bit but it’s one of the more balanced WWII films of the period. And look out for a very brief appearance by Christopher Lee - 4/5