Usually, you can only count on not counting on a film from the Boutling brothers, Roy & John; never quite delivering on their promise.* But this WWII adventure, updated from C.S. Forester's WWI novel, finds Roy working on his own as hired-hand director and gives little cause for complaint. An off-center structure by Hollywood scripter Valentine Davies also helps. Known for lighter things (MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET; IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING; ON THE RIVIERA), Davies crams a whole woman’s weepie in as prologue, one of those classic wartime encounters with an out-of-wedlock result, before he gets to the main storyline 20 years on with Michael Rennie (never knowing he fathered a child) now in command of a group of mid-sized vessels in the next war hunting a far more powerful Nazi ship. He's unaware that the heroic Canadian sailor (an exceptionally buff Jeffrey Hunter) who has single-handedly waylaid that damaged German boat just long enough for Rennie to reach it, is his own out-of-wedlock son. Yikes! Far-fetched as this is, it plays in strong believable dramatic arcs thanks to Boulting’s reserve & calm efficiency, moving smoothly from unlikely homefront WWI romance between painfully regressive strangers/turned passionate one-night lovers (Rennie and an irreplaceable Wendy Hiller, turning a spinsterish cliché into breathing presence) to WWII naval chase. An impressive piece of work from Boulting. An earlier version with John Mills (not seen here), BORN FOR GLORY/FOREVER ENGLAND/’35, also has a good rep.
DOUBLE-BILL: *An exception is BRIGHTON ROCK/’48, directed by twin brother John, Roy producing, script by Graham Greene & Terence Rattigan. OR: A similar WWI night of passion . . . out-of-wedlock result . . . WWII meet up (unacknowledged by Mom) gets a more traditional outing in Olivia de Havilland’s Oscar-winner TO EACH HIS OWN/’46.
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