As Captain of a WWII Nazi Raider hiding his ship’s identity under false flags before attacking commercial & enemy vessels in open waters, Van Heflin gets his shot at playing ‘the Good German,’ a fair-minded man-of-principle doing his duty to the fatherland without breaking his personal code-of-honor. A standard movie character for over a decade, often set against Aryan race prejudice personified by a second-in-command character, here John Ericson. In practice, the ruse fools ship after ship, successful enough to attract the special attention of British Naval Command where the hunt is led by Admiral Charles Laughton in a late credit that slightly improves on a similar characterization in STAND BY FOR ACTION/’42, now with hints of Winston Churchill and better integration into the storyline.* This fact-inspired Dino De Laurentiis production held back by tight budget (action largely lifted from newsreel footage) and a rush to fit a two hour story into 90 minutes, but effective enough to come across. Director Duilio Coletti an unknown quantity, but note Silvio Narizzano, soon to make GEORGY GIRL/’66 as Associate Director, along with a Nino Rota score & Aldo Tonti lensing. Those who can deal with bad Italian synch-sound and mix-and-match non-German accents will find a neat piece of genre moviemaking, if never quite as thoughtful as it imagines.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: For a better take on this sort of thing, one that largely sticks to the hunters in their subterranean command center, SINK THE BISMARCK, out the same year. (As Dino de Laurentiis undoubtedly knew.) https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/07/sink-bismarck-1960.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK: *This payday job a weak link in Laughton’s spectacular late-career renaissance of WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION/’57; SPARTACUS/’60; ADVISE & CONSENT/’62. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/09/witness-for-prosecution-1957.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/06/spartacus-1960.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/advise-and-consent-1962.html
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