DUNKIRK (1958)

Though dwarfed by Christopher Nolan’s mammoth 2017 production, this major effort from Ealing Studios, recently moved from their boutique compound to join M-G-M/U.K., works well on its own terms; even better as companion to Nolan’s impressive, if rather impersonal telling.  (Running a half-hour less, Nolan’s characters tend to get lost in the mix.)  The story structure is much the same: Nazis overrunning Europe in doubletime; abandoned British Units in France fighting their way to Dunkirk & a boat ride home; ill-prepared homefront, coddled by over-confident government & press; miraculous amateur flotilla of small commercial vessels & pleasure craft (some pressed into service, some spontaneously joining in) saving a remarkably high percentage of military surrounded by Germans at Dunkirk.  Assigned for some unremembered reason to journeyman helmer Leslie Norman (no doubt a stickler for holding to a budget; Ealing in its last gasps), it’s good, if standard WWII moviemaking of the period, only dropping the ball technically on big ships at sea.  Those cyclorama skies!  (Faking ships at sea always a sticking point at the time.*)  Luckily, the safe & solid cast, nearly all of them war vets, still able to pass or given age-appropriate roles (Richard Attenborough, John Mills, Bernard Lee top-billed), have their characters down pat and carry us thru any rough patches.  (All instantly recognizable even under a helmet which proves something of an advantage compared to Nolan’s film where scorecards would have come in handy.)  Only Malcolm Arnold’s warmed over score disappoints.  An obvious choice after BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI/’57, he coasts on that film’s music cells.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Michael Curtiz and the Warners special-effects department able to convince us back in the ‘30s and ‘40s, but maybe we were just caught up in the enthusiasm, the over-sized water tank built for THE SEA HAWK/’40; along with Errol Flynn’s dash and Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s sweeping scores.

DOUBLE-BILL:  The obvious one, DUNKIRK/’17.