Fans of Brit war fare will like these mid-’50s look-backs at daring exploits in uniform, directed by Lewis Gilbert. Albert R.N. is a little-seen but rather good POW tale taken from real life. Anthony Steel, Jack Warner, Robert Beatty & William Sylvester try out a brilliant but risky escape plan, utilizing a ‘new’ prisoner in their barrack, ‘Albert.’ Then, suspense in a life raft is the subject of The Sea Shall Not Have Them. Air-sea rescue in the English Channel is performed by Royal Air Force personnel — in boats. The cast is even more stellar: Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, Nigel Patrick.

Two War Films by Lewis Gilbert
The Sea Shall Not Have Them + Albert R.N.
Blu-ray
Cohen Film Collection
1953 & ’54 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 92 + 89 min. / Street Date January 23, 2024 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Michael Redgrave, Anthony Steel, Bonar Colleano, Jack Warner, Robert Beatty, James Kenney, Ian Whittaker, Eddie Byrne, Anton Diffring, Michael Balfour, Frederick Valk, Michael Ripper, Griffith Jones, Sydney Tafler, Nigel Patrick, George Rose, Victor Maddern, Rachel Kempson, Joan Sims.
Art Director: Bernard Robinson
Original Music: Malcolm Arnold
Associate Producer: Anthony Nelson-Keys
Produced by Daniel M. Angel
Directed by Lewis Gilbert

We grew up loving English-made war pictures on television, although the selection was often restricted to The Dam Busters 6 times in one week, on the Million Dollar Movie. We’ve since discovered many more, most of which are well worth visiting, and not just for the WW2 buffs that shout out airplane IDs and technical anachronisms. (We know who you are.)

The busy entrepreneur Daniel M. Angel we know as the producer of a couple of pictures for Joseph Losey. Teaming up with director Lewis Gilbert, Angel also got our attention with  Cosh Boy and the classic  Carve Her Name With Pride. Of these two ‘new’ Lewis Gilbert offerings, one title is fairly familiar and the other we had never heard of before. Film fans piecing together UK film history can see some connections coming together. These are really sister films, sharing many actors that we know from ‘commercial’ genre fare, especially Hammer Films. That connection may not be a coincidence, as future Hammer executive Anthony Nelson-Keys served as associate producer, and both films display the work of future Hammer art director Bernard Robinson.

Two War Films by Lewis Gilbert features 1954’s The Sea Shall Not Have Them and 1953’s Albert R.N.. We’re reversing the billing to put them in chronological order.

Albert R.N.
1953 & ’54 / 92 + 89 min. / Break to Freedom
Starring: Anthony Steel, Jack Warner, Robert Beatty, William Sylvester, Anton Diffring, Eddie Byrne, Guy Middleton, Paul Carpenter, Michael Balfour, Moultrie Kelsall, Frederick Valk, Walter Gotell.
Cinematography: Jack Asher
Art Director: Bernard Robinson
Film Editor: Charles Hasse
Consultant-fabricator of ‘Albert’: John Worsley
Original Music: Malcolm Arnold
Screenplay by Guy Morgan, Vernon Harris from a play by Morgan, Edward Sammis
Associate Producer: Anthony Nelson-Keys
Produced by Daniel M. Angel
Directed by Lewis Gilbert

Postwar English movies with scenes set in German Prisoner Of War camps had mostly been about guilty collaborators, often framed as courtroom dramas sorting out issues of loyalty an cowardice. Twenty years later, POW pictures had become high-adventure escapism. Fans of The Great Escape soon learned that, except for Steve McQueen’s motorbike, almost every story point in the film had already been seen in 1950s films. Following the big Billy Wilder hit Stalag 17, the excellent The Colditz Story remained fairly serious, but the just-okay The Password Is Courage leaned further in the direction of comedy.

Playing the subject straight and sober is Lewis Gilbert’s thoughtful Albert R.N.. It was shown here as Break to Freedom, but we never came across that title either. The ‘R.N.’ means Royal Navy. Some of the sailor-POWs in a particular camp have been penned up for 4 years already. Morale isn’t terrific, for all the tunnels they’ve dug have been discovered. The Captain in charge (Jack Warner) counsels his men, referees disputes and negotiates with the German commandant (Frederick Valk), a fair-minded officer who doesn’t hold up their Red Cross packages.

The main idea would be a gimmick if it weren’t true. Prisoner-artist Geoff (Anthony Steel) fashions a lifelike dummy that, with just a little luck, could make possible perfect escapes. The dummy is given the name ‘Albert.’ It passes during inspections and head counts when prisoners are escorted outside the compound’s barbed wire for weekly baths. It works great, but personalities get in the way when deciding who will actually get to escape. Geoff is insecure about his right to be the first to go. A new, impatient American prisoner (William Sylvester) is so desperate to get out that he considers bribing a German officer (Anton Diffring). Another prisoner (Eddie Byrne) becomes convinced that the American has slept with his wife, while stationed in England.

The prisoner who fashioned the real-life papier-maché ‘Albert’ is credited with overseeing the studio’s mock-up mannqquin head. It figures in several clever, believable deceptions. The dramatic wrap-up is very much a writer’s ‘movie compromise’: a villain gets his just rewards and a hero-escapee sidesteps the label ‘revenge killer.’  Communicated well is the author’s theme of Shared Responsibility. When an escapee is killed, should Geoff blame himself for inventing the dummy?  The Captain says no.

We like the idea of a POW camp film that stays focused on such a narrow (but authentic) true life story; a modern theatrical film would have to throw in 101 other ‘big’ ideas, winding up as diverting escapism ‘about nothing.’ Albert R.N. shows serious adults betting their lives on a gambit that has a chance of working only because it’s so unlikely.

The excellent production manages a convincing barracks situation where POWs grow gardens and play instruments in an orchestra. For today’s film fans, part of the fun is name-checking the actors in the cast list. UK readers please forgive our superficial appreciation of your industry’s revered talent.

Always the same 50 actors. Was the UK film industry that small, or was it just a ‘closed shop?’

The older authority figure Jack Warner we know from  The Blue Lamp and  The Quatermass Xperiment. Horror favorite Anton Diffring  (Circus of Horrors) was London’s go-to Nazi; his character here has added depth. We appreciate William Sylvester from  Christ in Concrete and  Gorgo; this movie has both Sylvester and Robert Beatty, who together investigated the moon monolith in  2001: A Space Odyssey. We readily recognize other featured players, but you may need to follow the links to make the connections we did:  Eddie Byrne,  Paul Carpenter,  Michael Balfour,  Frederick Valk.

Leading player Anthony Steel, the artist with the big escape idea, was in  Malta Story and  The Master of Ballantrae. He somehow never made the permanent impression as did most of the others.

Is somebody trying to send me a message?  An ill-fated escapee is named Erickson … and he’s from Hollywood, California!

The Sea Shall Not Have Them
1953 & ’54 / 92 + 89 min. /
Starring: Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, Bonar Colleano, Jack Watling, Anthony Steel, Nigel Patrick, James Kenney, Sydney Tafler, Ian Whittaker, George Rose, Victor Maddern, Michael Ripper, Michael Balfour, Paul Carpenter, Eddie Byrne, Anton Diffring, Griffith Jones, Guy Middleton, Jack Lambert, Moultrie Kelsall, Nigel Green, Gudrun Ure, Rachel Kempson, Joan Sims, Graham Stark.
Cinematography: Stephen Dade
Production Designer:
Art Director: Bernard Robinson
Special Effects: Cliff Richardson
Visual Matte Effects: Bryan Langley
Film Editor: Russell Lloyd
Original Music: Malcolm Arnold
Written Screenplay by Lewis Gilbert, Vernon Harris from a novel by John Harris
Associate Producer: Anthony Nelson-Keys
Produced by Daniel M. Angel
Directed by Lewis Gilbert

1954’s The Sea Shall Not Have Them is a good picture that doesn’t have a particularly lofty reputation. I’d say that may be due partially to being overshadowed by an earlier wartime classic with a similar subject,  In Which We Serve.  In that show, writer, star and co-director Noël Coward proved his patriotism by bobbing up and down for weeks in a soggy raft in a movie studio’s water tank. (His famous off-color zinger about this movie can be found at the top of the The Sea Shall Not Have Them  IMDB trivia page.)

Made ten years later, Lewis Gilbert’s ode to wartime heroism at sea loosens up a bit from the grim fatalism of Charles Frend’s very good  The Cruel Sea. The men being honored aren’t direct combatants, but Royal Air Force personnel assigned to boats very much like the PT boats of John Ford’s  They Were Expendable. Their lonely patrols pick up fliers in damaged aircraft, that have to ditch in the English Channel. It’s late in 1944, yet they are still threatened by enemy planes and subs. Picking up downed pilots is so important, that the little boats will risk minefields and German artillery on the Belgian shoreline.

The action is split between a rescue boat and the freezing survivors of a ditched bomber. The Captain of Boat 61 (Anthony Steel) pushes his crew to search for the dinghy-raft in the middle of a storm. His Sgt. (Nigel Patrick of  The Sound Barrier,  Sapphire and Raintree County) has several jokers to keep in line. For movie fans, it’s an all-horror lineup: Michael Balfour  (Quatermass 2), Michael Ripper  (X the Unknown), Victor Maddern  (Blood of the Vampire) and George Rose  (The Flesh and the Fiends). Sidney Tafler  (It Always Rains on Sunday) is along for the ride as well.

Boat ’61 gets diverted to other action, and then breaks down. Its rather undisciplined young engineer (James Kenney of Cosh Boy) fabricates a replacement part  (Below Left ↙ ) . An even younger recruit (Ian Whittaker, later a distinguished set decorator) foolishly starts a fire that almost gets out of control.  (Below Center ↓ with Nigel Patrick)

Back at base, the Group Captain (Griffith Jones of  Miranda) worries about the special importance of this particular rescue. One plane passenger is an Air Commodore (star Michael Redgrave), a technical expert bringing back crucial documents about the German rockets that are already bombarding England, the V-1 Buzz Bombs and V-2 ballistic missile. The downed fliers must stay in the stormy channel for over a day. Suffering in the cold are a Sgt. with a fatalistic attitude (rising star Dirk Bogarde), the badly wounded pilot (Jack Watling of  A Night to Remember) and a friendly Canadian (Bonar Colleano)  (Above Right ↗ )  who bravely puts up an optimistic front.

The events are fairly standard for rescue-oriented movies. Bad weather and engine breakdowns contribute to the poor chances of finding anybody, assuming they’re not already dead. Once again, Lewis Gilbert’s fine direction puts us on the side of interesting, likable characters. Unlike Albert R.N. there are brief roles for three women with men on Boat 61: two wives (Joan Sims & Rachel Kempson) and a fianceé (Gudrun Ure, apparently no relation to Mary Ure).

You have to fight with the resources you’ve got.

The movie doesn’t gloss over the reality of the rescuers, who do a dangerous job while understaffed, in planes and boats that frequently break down. A morale-building wartime film wouldn’t admit that kind of weakness. Crew members are accustomed to failure and some don’t have the best attitude when things go wrong. But when they find the lost raft, already in sight of the Belgian shore, everything changes. The interpersonal dramatics are interesting, and the finale is exciting, even if it depends on some pretty weak gunnery from the Germans in those shore batteries.

The crossover of actors between movies is interesting too. Guy Middleton  (Oh! What a Lovely War) is a dependable POW in the first film, and a thoughtless liability in the second. Anton Diffring plays a treacherous SOB in the prison camp movie, but in The Sea he’s a decent enemy flier grateful to be rescued by an RAF seaplane.

Worth an extra mention is Bonar Colleano, a New Yorker who moved to England as a child. Near war’s end he became well-known in English movies as the go-to guy to play smart-talking Yanks. He represents America, for instance, at the beginning of the Archers’  A Matter of Life and Death, and is terrific as the star of Basil Dearden’s masterpiece  Pool of London. Colleano unfortunately died in a car crash, in 1958.

Cohen Film Collection’s Blu-ray of Two War Films by Lewis Gilbert is a decent presentation. Albert R.N. is virtually flawless, as if its film elements hadn’t been touched in 71 years. We can appreciate the smooth work of Jack Asher, who we know better as the artist behind the look of Hammer’s best Technicolor horror movies.

The disc encoding for The Sea Shall Not Have Them isn’t quite as polished as that for its co-feature. It may be a problem title missing original film elements; we can read where a film festival in the late 1980s couldn’t find a screenable print. The disc appears mastered from a very good print that nevertheless exhibits minor scratches and dirt here and there, and what looks like a bit of film damage in one scene, leaving a close-up shot much too short. The slight decline in quality doesn’t detract from the drama or the excitement. Viewers are more likely to notice the matte lines that hover around the actors in the raft — all of those scenes were filmed in the studio, using a green or yellow-screen ‘automatic matting system.’ We’ve seen very little Rear Projection in English films of this vintage.

The two films span the year in which 35mm features both here and in England changed to ‘widescreen’ configurations. Albert R.N. is very definitely flat 1:37 Academy ratio. Released late in 1954, The Sea Shall Not Have Them is reported to have been formatted ‘slightly widescreen’ — the U.K. took a while to settle on a widescreen Aspect Ratio of 1:75. The transfer here is flat 1:37, and tight compositions make think it might be correct. The credit text is blocked for widescreen, but we know that the titles for many flat UK pictures were redone widescreen, for subsequent reissue. We wouldn’t really want to lose much lot off the top and bottom. So we have no complaints about the possibly inaccurate AR.

Malcolm Arnold composed music scores for both films. Albert R.N. appears to use the same ‘military’ theme Arnold employs in his music for  The Bridge on the River Kwai,  The Heroes of Telemark, and  The Roots of Heaven.

This time around we’re grateful to get two good features for the price of one. There are no extras, however. The trailer promoted for Albert R.N. is a new promo made by the Cohen people.

Forgive our complaining attitude, but we have to point out some really terrible English Subtitles on these movies … some of the worst since we got a stack of Hong Kong-produced DVDs 25 years ago. There may be no budget for a subtitle editor, but they really needed somebody more familiar with the subject.

↑  The shot of Anton Diffring in the first review above is from Albert R.N..  Diffring clearly says

“…if you insist on committing suicide …”  but the subtitle reads  “…if you’re in the system committing suicide …”

It’s illogical, it’s distracting, and it never stops.

We hear about the rockets called V-1s and V-2s, but the clueless subs report them as vitamins — B1s and B2s.

“Pink gins in the Mess”  (fancy drinks in the cafeteria) becomes the head-scratcher  “Pink Gins in The Miss.”

“Keep your powder dry” for some reason becomes  “Keep your trouser dry.”  Good advice, I guess.

An unarmed man filing some metal is ordered to  “Keep Filing!”  The accompanying subtitle reads  “Keep firing!”

“We have four Corvettes and they’re lovely ships,”  is transcribed as  “We have four corps vets and they’re lovely ships.”

“I wouldn’t say no to London, Buzz Bombs and all”  becomes  “I wouldn’t say no to London, bus bombs and all.”

“What sort of time did they give you?”  becomes  “What sort of attire did they give you?”

We at first assumed that a program was taking automatic dictation. But other evidence suggests that a living person is responsible for the mess. When the old song  “Frankie and Johnny”  is heard, a big subtitle identifies it as being  ‘by Elvis Presley.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Two War Films by Lewis Gilbert
Blu-ray rates:
Movies: Very Good +
Video: Sea Good; Albert Excellent
Sound: Sea Good; Albert Excellent
Supplements: none.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: January 21, 2024
(7065gilb)

Visit CineSavant’s Main Column Page
Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: cinesavant@gmail.com

Text © Copyright 2024 Glenn Erickson