THE CRUEL SEA (1953)

WWII as seen thru the eyes, battles and loses on a modest convoy escort ship headed by Jack Hawkins, the sole professional seaman leading a crew of newbie sailors against German U-boats in the North Atlantic. Plainspoken & straightforward in presentation, exceptional in getting details right (director Charles Frend; lenser Gordon Dines; restrained score Alan Rawsthrone), it proves enthrallingly quotidian (which sounds oxymoronic) thanks mostly to Eric Ambler’s exceptional adaptation of Nicholas Monsarrat’s book. The effects are good for the period, sparingly used and smoothly intercut with footage shot at sea and some less smoothly integrated newsreel/actuality war footage. But it’s the combination of individual stories & teamwork that catches you, the cast so well particularized you’re never ‘lost at sea’ in following the action.  All given with typically stoppered British emotionalism, especially in set pieces that test captain & crew, buried behind stiff upper lips too filled with real loss, grief & sacrifice to read as cliché. (A ‘Sophie’s Choice’ moment involving survivors at sea & a possible U-Boat attack unbearably tense.) Great support all round, with Donald Sinden particularly fine in early, irony-free mode. A paradigm of the WWII memoir form.