"The Riddle of the Sands" is a terrific spy and adventure film set in the North Sea in 1901. It's based on the novel by Erskine Childers and apparently his family was in no hurry to get the film made. After repeated attempts to negotiate a contract failed, filmmakers just waited until the copyright expired on his novel and made this film. Surprisingly, the film was released in the UK in 1979 but five years later in the USA. I say surprisingly because the movie is terrific.
Davies (Simon MacCorkindale) is on a strange sort of vacation. He's sailed his small yacht to the North Sea (roughly the area between the Danish and Dutch coast...in Germany). For fun, perhaps, he's charting the waters, as the ever-changing tides have rendered maps out of date. However, over time, he starts to see things which make him wonder if perhaps the German Navy is up to something in these waters...so he contacts his friend Carruthers (Michael York) and has him join him. Together they learn so much more than they expected...and that Germany MIGHT be planning an invasion of Britain more than a dozen years before WWI.
This story is exciting, very well acted (apart from one actor who occasionally forgot their German accent) and well worth seeing. If you love history, you really should see this movie...it's simply terrific.
Davies (Simon MacCorkindale) is on a strange sort of vacation. He's sailed his small yacht to the North Sea (roughly the area between the Danish and Dutch coast...in Germany). For fun, perhaps, he's charting the waters, as the ever-changing tides have rendered maps out of date. However, over time, he starts to see things which make him wonder if perhaps the German Navy is up to something in these waters...so he contacts his friend Carruthers (Michael York) and has him join him. Together they learn so much more than they expected...and that Germany MIGHT be planning an invasion of Britain more than a dozen years before WWI.
This story is exciting, very well acted (apart from one actor who occasionally forgot their German accent) and well worth seeing. If you love history, you really should see this movie...it's simply terrific.