lestermay Reviews

Seawards the Great Ships (1961)

Man, and all the Marvel of his Might

[9/10 · 6 June 2015]

No wonder this documentary short won an Oscar, a first for Scotland. Beautifully scripted, beautifully filmed, this documentary records a bygone time, a time when sailors worldwide knew what 'Clyde Built' meant. From design to cutting the first steel, from construction to launching and on to fitting out, we see how a ship is made by man with all the marvel of his might - and brain, and creativity as well. The film has touches of humour, too, for these tough men on Clydeside were able to laugh while they constructed what they hoped would be a happy ship, often a beautiful ship too.

This film provides a wonderful record of shipbuilding and will be of interest to sailors and those in the shipping industry, to those who had a father who built ships and to many a Scot and Glaswegian.

It was a real privilege to join my last ship at Yarrow Shipbuilders, in Scotstoun, on the Clyde, in September 1985. She wasn't a ship with a name then, for she was known to all as yard number 1029, but she was to become the frigate HMS Brave - a truly beautiful ship, a very happy ship. This film brings happy memories and let me thank, indeed salute, those whose skilled work enabled Seaward to go the Great Ships.

Farewell (2009)

Circumspect: Love circumscribed during first airship circumnavigation 1929

[9/10 · 30 May 2012]

I watched this film on BBC TV where it was titled "Around the World by Zeppelin" - and an excellent documentary it indeed is.

Contemporary black and white film of the German airship LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" (1928), with her 20 passengers and 40 crew, embark on a 21-day voyage to be the first airship to circumnavigate the globe. From Lakehurst Naval Air Station, near New York, and back, across the Atlantic Ocean, over England and Berlin, over the Soviet Union and Siberia, over the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo and on to Los Angeles and across the middle of the United States.

At around 70 mph it's a sedate journey, except when the weather is bad. It's an adventure and, the only woman on board is Grace, Lady Hay Drummond-Hay, who becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by air. It is her diary and reports that give the narrative, and her love interest the weaves in and out of this story of the history of the airship and aviation.

As well as real live footage of the airship - taken from her and taken of her - interwoven is contemporary footage of the late 1920s to help illustrate the female journalist's words.

A great liner is seen in the opening frames, the three-funnelled 54,282-grt United States Lines "Leviathan" - ironically, formerly the German liner "Vaterland" (1913), briefly the largest liner in the world, but handed over to the US as war reparations in 1919.

Towards the end of the film, the "Graf Zeppelin" passes over Honda Point, off California, where lie the wrecks of seven US Navy four-stack destroyers that were lost, with just 23 sailors lives, on 8 September 1923 in the greatest peacetime disaster for the USN. The ships, part of Destroyer Squadron Eleven, were lost in the Honda Point Disaster owing to navigational errors at night. A photograph, with the ships' names is posted online, but one is identifiable in the film, the USS Woodbury (DD 309 - the number clear still on her bow, as she lies on her port side) and that close to her is USS Fuller. It is a sorry sight. The ships were not salvaged until some years after the disaster.

Shortly before arrived in Los Angeles, off Monterey County, the airship sees and passes directly over the American inter-coastal Luckenbach Lines' two-funnelled steamship "Edward Luckenbach", where passengers are seen playing deck games abaft the after funnel.

There are many other twists and sights to see in this exciting and historic documentary, including various early aircraft but I am not competent to identify them. What happened to the young stowaway, one wonders - did he become the film star he wanted to be?

Empire of the Seas (2010)

A maritime feast on the box: how the Royal Navy forged the modern world

[10/10 · 3 February 2010]

The BBC is to be congratulated on the production of this outstanding four-part television series, transmitted on BBC2 in late January and early February 2010.

So interwoven with, and so central to, the history of the of the United Kingdom and British Empire is the Royal Navy - the English Navy, later the British Navy - that this series is a history of Britain and Empire and wider still.

This series has certainly succeeded in its aim of showing how the Royal Navy forged the modern world. This is no idle claim from a silly old, but proud, matelot but a fact that, even today, the islands that comprise the United Kingdom, and her 14 overseas territories, forget at their peril.

The story starts just before the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and ends with the Armistice at the end of the Great War in 1918. We see how the English Civil War actually benefited the Navy yet it was the Royal Navy that helped secure the restoration of the monarchy.

Beautifully shot and skilfully captained by presenter Dan Snow, a former Sea Cadet himself, we see how it was the Royal Navy that set the standard for the British civil service (and one that was copied in many countries), caused the founding of the Bank of England and the establishment of income tax. It was because of concern about a weak Royal Navy that the British Crown lost its powers to Parliament. It was the Royal Navy, and HM Dockyards, that became the greatest industrial organisation of its time, having an impact on farming (to feed the sailors) and on industry to provide materials in large scale to build and maintain the fleet - and to improve the design, such as with copper-bottomed sailing vessels.

As a result British ships and British naval officers and naval ratings (sailors) became the world standard and the envy of other powers. The ships were many and their stations were the seven seas, protecting British trade - and all nations' trade on many an occasion - against piracy and bad men and it was a bulwark against any enemy with eyes on the British Isles.

The French failure to defeat the Royal Navy was a cause of the French Revolution. The final defeat of France at sea, by Nelson in 1805, made possible their final defeat at Waterloo by Wellington and that was followed by a century of "Pax Britannica", when the Royal Navy policed the seas and underpinned the British Empire. The Royal Navy played a leading and honourable part in the abolition of slavery in the first half of the nineteenth century.

We see, in the final episode, how the Royal Navy was at the forefront of technical innovation, with the shift from sail to steam, with the now preserved ironclad HMS Warrior (1860) changing for ever the way of naval warfare. The introduction of submarines in 1901 - "a damned un-English weapon" - and the introduction of naval aviation in 1909 were achieved in the face of opposition from the old guard. The new Dreadnought class of battleships, in 1906, made every other battleship in the world obsolete. After a century of relative peace, the Royal Navy was just about ready for war in 1914 and played a significant part in the defeat of the Kaiser's forces.

This is a story of 340 years of a force that grew into the largest Navy in the world. The Royal Navy has not lost a significant battle for over 300 years and it set the standard for many of the world's navies today, as witnessed still in their uniforms, routines, ships and manners. The English language is peppered with words and phrases that began at sea with the Royal Navy or were used by landlubbers so proud of this truly great armed service.

This is television documentary at its very best and the series will soon, hopefully, be released on DVD to a worldwide audience. For the Royal Navy is not just part of the story of the United Kingdom or the British Empire, it is an important part of the world's story in this past half millennium.

The Volunteer (1944)

Rare footage of life in an aircraft carrier at war

[8/10 · 21 August 2009]

This wartime propaganda film, made by "The Archers" and dedicated to the Fleet Air Arm, will have wide interest. The drama documentary starts with footage of Ralph Richardson with his careless dresser, Londoner Fred Davey, preparing for Othello in a London theatre. It follows the story, told by Lieutenant-Commander (A) Ralph Richardson RNVR – A for Air Branch and RNVR for Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve – as Fred volunteers and joins the British Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm as a Naval Air Mechanic (E) – E for Engineering.

It's war and the theatre management announces the closure of Othello on 9 September 1939, "owing to present conditions". Thus a pipe-smoking Ralph Richardson (RR) narrates a tale that is "the end of one world and the beginning of another".

Fred goes to Denham Film Studios, in Buckinghamshire, to meet his former "guv'nor" and, after walking past famous actors of the time, has tea with RR, costumed as a Beefeater, and announces his joining the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). Laurence Olivier appears at the window – he, too, became a pilot in the FAA.

RR flies a Vought Kingfisher catapult-launched float-plane over an unidentified naval training establishment on the coast and lands on the sea nearby. There is footage of the parade ground with some of the 2,000 trainee naval ratings. Later the training establishment's Captain addresses trainees before an evening concert party. There are close-ups of trainee naval and WRNS ratings and footage of Naval Airman Bennett and NA Lloyd playing a table tennis match. RR meets Fred doing his workshop training.

Then it's two years hence. Note that the "two and a half stripes" RR wears on his uniform jacket sleeves are "Wavy Navy"; a wartime saving measure was that the gold stripes went only half way round the sleeves. RR wears his naval raincoat as he climbs into the cockpit of a Supermarine Walrus amphibious biplane, which he flies over the old aircraft carrier HMS Argus, whose deck was used often for landing practice, landing his seaplane in the water. Ralph Richardson became known as "Pranger" Richardson for his lack of skill as a naval pilot! RR boards an aircraft carrier (possibly HMS Indomitable (commissioned late 1941), but certainly of the same "Illustrious" class) and she sails for exercises. There follows footage of Supermarine Seafires (naval versions of the famous Spitfire fighter aircraft) and footage of the flight deck, aircraft lift and hangar.

Rare footage between decks of the carrier is seen as RR, wearing No.5 uniform with winged collar and bow tie (a substitute for evening dress – mess kit – when the latter was not available), goes in search of NAM (E) Fred Davey.

RR goes to the hangar, where many of the ship's company are assembled to watch recently developed film of the aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean and North African waters. The narrator on board of this film within a film is Lieutenant-Commander Tommy Woodroffe RN, famous for his drunken commentary, lasting more than four minutes, on BBC radio of the Fleet Review of 1937: "The Fleet's All Lit Up!". We see footage of sailors on a beach party, swimming and messing about, as well as footage of entering Algiers and the city's foreshore (a wartime merchantman, probably a Liberty ship, is alongside in port). Ordinary Seaman Jacob, the ship's Captain and the French pilot are seen on the pilotage platform right forward as the ship enters harbour and then there is "exclusive" footage of General Charles de Gaulle arriving by car in the city. A wardroom "calling party" of officers goes ashore "all in the wrong rig (uniform) except, of course, the Royal Marine!". He describes the portly figure of the carrier's First Lieutenant ("Number One") as he goes ashore.

In Gibraltar, there's hockey on the flight deck and fencing, too, followed by "Up Spirits" – the traditional daily issue of Navy rum. The film takes us ashore to the Casbah and then the Band of HM Royal Marines plays on the flight deck as the aircraft carrier sails.

At sea off Gibraltar there is footage of the Fairey Albacore torpedo bomber and another aircraft type, with "goofers" (idlers) watching, and of the Grumman Martlet fighter aircraft.

What Tommy Woodroffe describes as "good old Calpe going full out" is actually her sister ship, the Hunt class escort destroyer HMS Farndale (L70); HMS Calpe was L71. The destroyer was on plane guard duty, something undertaken by a helicopter today.

Flying operations continue and a Supermarine Seafire takes off and a Grumman Martlet lands on, its nose hitting the flight deck; we see a "pranged" (crashed) Fairey Albacore and flight deck operations.

The aircraft carrier arrives at Gibraltar in a Levanter, a strong gap wind, and battleships are alongside in the naval dockyard. The captain berths the carrier at Coaling Jetty and then, while alongside, the Band of HM Royal Marines arrives on the flight deck at "Hands to Church" and we see a church parade too on the nearby battleship HMS Howe.

At sea again and there is footage of air attacks on the carrier, a near miss and casualties on deck. Later, RR asks an RPO (a Regulating Petty Officer – a naval policeman) to help him find Fred in his messdeck, where there is a music party in progress. We pass a Royal Marine sentry and hear the pipe "Out pipes … Pipe down" indicating that it's time for lights out and bed. RR and the RPO find Fred asleep in his hammock, which he has slung in the aircraft hangar rather than the messdeck.

Back in London RR walks with a young girl called Joan in St James's Park and ends up outside Buckingham Palace where the King is holding an investiture and we again meet Fred Davey.

"Secure from Flying Stations"!

The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)

Tourist advertisement for the Charente-Maritime

[7/10 · 15 August 2009]

Suspending belief and just settling back to enjoy and laugh at the high camp of this unusual musical film is a pre-requisite.

Suspending, indeed, is the way the film starts and ends, with the travelling players and their vehicles travelling on the Rochefort-Martrou Transporter Bridge built 1898-1900; only about twenty of these unusual bridges were built worldwide, and half survive with some still in use. This bridge was refurbished in 1994 and is in use in the summer months. Suspending might, too, have been the end for the axe-murderer, but we are not told.

The French Navy school, the home for the many sailors seen in the film, was Le Centre Ecole de l'Aéronautique Navale (CEAN). No more sailors like Maxence, and no more sailors' hats with their red pompons though, as the French Navy pulled out of Rochefort by 2002 after a presence that had lasted 336 years. The ribbon on the sailors' hats reads EN ROCHEFORT - Ecole Navale Rochefort.

The primary colours of the film are a defining aspect and the sunshine helps enormously; who would not want to visit Rochefort for a holiday? The Mayor will be very happy with the film's being shown again to a new generation at London's British Film Institute.

With dancing sailors and young, lithe dancers, the different groups wearing matching clothes, the film is very high camp and will have some appeal to a gay audience for sure!

The whole is colourful froth and pretty harmless fun.

12 Monkeys (1995)

Moronic drivel

[2/10 · 12 August 2009]

What a waste of two hours of my life! Utter drivel. Brad Pitt was good in a lunatic asylum but that is where the people behind this film should be.

If I try to pass on the DVD to you, refuse to take it! That this film was once rated three stars in Halliwell's was clearly an error - and one they corrected by removing all stars in the 2008 edition. I should have taken note.

It is, of course, a pity that IMDb requires me to waste yet more of my time by not accepting a short review. I must write ten lines to say how very bad this movie is but don't they think that my watching the film for two full hours was quite enough punishment? It's not me who should write lines; the director, producer and script writers should be made to write hundreds of lines: "I must not waste peoples' time, or investors'money, by producing garbage films". That this film did well at the box office is sad!

Timewatch: Bloody Omaha (2008) Season 27, Episode 2

A first class Timewatch documentary

[9/10 · 31 May 2009]

This documentary is well worth 50 minutes of your life. The mostly young Americans who died, in their thousands, on Omaha Beach on the first day of the Normandy Landings deserve your time, your respect and your salute.

In the best tradition of Timewatch, this documentary gives a good insight into the planning, the execution and the mistakes made as well as looking at new research that throws new light on the subject. Its focus is the US Rangers who led the way at Omaha Beach and the memories of the survivors interviewed are indeed humbling.

The aerial photograph of the beach on the first day of the landings will bring tears to many eyes.

This documentary is a worthy contribution to D-Day filmography.

Fugitive Pieces (2007)

A very moving account of the troubles of war

[8/10 · 29 May 2009]

I won a pair of tickets to this film, not knowing much about it - what a lucky win it turned out to be.

War is a terrible thing and often tortures the remaining years for its survivors. For a child, of course, war's awful memories impact without the luxury of maturity and this story is but one among millions. But the story is told well and says something good about the human condition.

The film is beautifully shot and the locations are a treat for the eyes. The actors are each plausible in their roles and perform well. The story is very moving - take some tissues! Perhaps a little slow moving for some and perhaps a touch too long, it is nevertheless a very good film.

Absolutely Fabulous: Poor (1994) Season 2, Episode 5

Edwina Monsoon's full name revealed

[8/10 · 31 March 2009]

Edina's full name is revealed as Edwina Margaret Rose Monsoon. It is highly likely that the names Margaret Rose were chosen because that was the full name of Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret (1930-2002), the younger sister of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (born 1926).

The character Edina was supposedly born on 6 August 1960. Exactly three months earlier, on 6 May 1960, Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong-Jones in Westminster Abbey, London, England, the first royal wedding to be broadcast on television in the UK. The then 29-year-old princess was already well known to the British public and, indeed, overseas, and she was to many a very attractive woman. Princess Margaret was a colourful figure and the royal wedding captured the public imagination. There were probably a number of girls named Margaret Rose around this period.

Dad's Army: The Godiva Affair (1974) Season 7, Episode 4

Not a great episode

[6/10 · 10 May 2008]

Rather more of the townswomen of Walmington-on-Sea in this episode but it's not one of the best.

A few good lines and some funny scenes, though, as the village goes 'en fête' in order to raise money towards the building of a Spitfire. Fundraising, whether real, or through investment in National Savings, helped villages and towns in the UK to 'connect' with the war effort by 'sponsoring', for example, a new aircraft or warship.

Captain Mainwaring tries to be a good 'divisional officer' and help out Corporal Jones but his choice of the café for a meeting is a mistake. The village gossip is ahead of him.

Elizabeth Mainwaring, his demanding wife, 'features' more than usual in this episode but one still never sees her!

Shootout! (2005– )

The Big Red One

[2/10 · 21 April 2008]

I started to watch this one-hour episode on The History Channel and turned it off after fifteen minutes.

It is unwatchable. It is not history in a sensible documentary format.

The narrator is hyper and makes it seem like the film is based on some child's Commando strip comic. I almost expected to see voice bubbles with "Achtung!" on screen.

Shoot Out is an utterly dreadful format and evidence of The History Channel dumbing down. Other parts in the series, such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa, I have not seen but, if The Big Red One's format is a guide, then they'll be best avoided. Indeed, the subject matter for those parts of the Pacific War has been well served in other programmes on this same channel.

Heavy Metal: Victory at Sea/HMS Victory (2004) Season Unknown, Episode Unknown

See this film before you visit HMS Victory in Portsmouth!

[8/10 · 11 April 2008]

Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, HMS Victory is one of the most famous ships ever built.

The oldest commissioned warship in the world, HMS Victory is today the flagship of Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command, preserved in dry dock in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.

The one hour documentary is a good introduction to the ship, her long life, how the ship's company lived and worked on board and how the ship was fought.

The ship-of-the-line was the most powerful weapon of its day akin to the modern day nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Using CGI and re-enactments, with recollections from those who knew the ship in its heyday, this film gives a flavour of life at sea during an important period in British and French history and, indeed, world history.

Broadcast on 9 April 2008 on The History Channel in the UK, the film is repeated every so often as part of the channel's series called "Battle Stations".

Angriff auf Pearl Harbor - Das Rätsel um den ersten Schuss (2006 TV Movie)

Pearl Harbour - Who Fired First?

[8/10 · 15 March 2008]

This programme, with the English title "Pearl Harbour - Who Fired First?" was broadcast on the History Channel in the UK between 0000-0100 on Saturday 15 March 2008.

The programme's central theme was the claim that the duty destroyer in Hawaiian waters at dawn on Sunday 7 September 1941, the USS Ward, had fired on, and sunk, a midget submarine - a claim that was not believed, and certainly not proved, until recent years.

The Japanese sent five midget submarines, as well as the hundreds of carrier-launched naval aircraft, to attack the US Fleet at Pearl Harbour (Pearl Harbor). The midget submarines, launched from the deck of a larger submarine, were an early form of kamikaze (they had insufficient fuel for a return journey).

One was found washed up on a beach in the islands in December 1941. The other four were not found at the time but, as this film showed in the last fifteen minutes of footage, one of them has now been found by underwater researchers and it is clear that she was sunk through gunfire, thus proving the story of the sailors of USS Ward.

The film has interviews with veterans from the US and Japan, as well as clips of interviews with historians of the period. There is good footage of various aspects of the attack on Pearl Harbour, as well as an overview of the reasons for Japan's decision to wage war.

This is a true story of Pearl Harbour and will be of interest to anyone with a serious interest in the subject. Perhaps it should have been a bonus film on the DVD of the feature film Pearl Harbor (2001).

Das Dritte Reich - In Farbe (1998 TV Movie)

More than just colour footage of the Third Reich

[9/10 · 2 February 2008]

This is an excellent film but the title is a little misleading, as there is also plenty of colour footage from the UK, USA and the Pacific theatre.

The chronology of the Second World War is sometimes tricky to follow, because the producers were limited to colour film footage. But, that aside, there is much to gain from this film. Not only are there extracts from footage taken by famous film directors while in uniform, there are extracts from propaganda films of both sides and of film that never made it to the screen, having not met with the approval of the censor.

Well known aspects of the Second World War are here in colour and that certainly adds some immediacy for viewers today. For me, however, it is the footage that one never, or rarely, sees that makes this film so valuable a contribution to one's understanding of the war. Life went on, of course, and it's the private 'home movies' taken by civilians and military alike that are so memorable. It is so easy to forget, when watching some of the classic footage of the fighting of the Second World War, that ordinary life did go on. Propaganda some of it may have been, but it's no less valuable.

Robert Powell's English narrative is wrong when he describes HMS Ivanhoe as a cruiser - she was an I class destroyer (lost 1 September 1940).

Overall, this is an excellent addition to the wealth of material already available and it helps to understand the human story of the years 1939 to 1945.

Timewatch: Forgotten Heroes (1994) Season 13, Episode 1

Stories of the Merchant Navy and the Battle of the Atlantic

[9/10 · 16 October 2007]

This is a moving documentary in the excellent BBC Timewatch series. While the Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945) itself is not always remembered, less still do we remember the men of the Merchant Navy and the important part they played in Great Britain's survival in World War II.

Britain's dependence on merchant shipping was an economic fact and never more evident than in total war. Huge quantities of food and raw materials had to be imported and soldiers and airmen shipped overseas and sustained.

Over 190,000 people were employed on British merchant ships in 1938, some 50,000 of whom were Indian and Chinese. 150 ships were sunk in the first nine months of the war. By the end of the war, nearly 32,000 merchant seamen had died and 4,786 ships flying the British flag had been sunk.

This documentary tells their story. British and foreign merchant seamen recall their experiences of life at sea, the terrific Atlantic weather, the convoys, the sinkings by U-boats and their survival for days and weeks in lifeboats, often in terrible weather conditions. All this and their feeling that their service was much ignored at the time; it is surely little recognised today.

The Tower Hill Memorial in London, England, records the name of over 20,000 of these men.

The documentary is a bonus feature on the DVD "The Battle of the Atlantic" (BBC, 2002) which itself is part of the 12-disc boxed set, "World War II Collection" (BBC Worldwide, 2005).

Battle of the Atlantic (2002– )

The only theatre of World War II that frightened Churchill

[9/10 · 16 October 2007]

Winston Churchill gave the first public expression to the phrase "Battle of the Atlantic": "Battles might be won or lost, but our power to fight, to keep ourselves alive, rested on the outcome of the struggle for control of the Atlantic." This excellent three-part documentary tells the story of the Battle of the Atlantic which lasted for the duration of World War II, from 1939-1945.

It begins with "The Grey Wolves", the story of Hitler's submarines, the U-boats, and their threat to starve Britain into submission. With the leadership of Admiral Karl Donitz, and his 'wolf packs', they nearly succeeded. Huge numbers of merchant ships were sunk between 1939 and 1942.

The second part, "Keeping Secrets", describes the capture of an Enigma machine - the true story, not that of the feature film "U571" - and the invention of radar.

Lastly, "The Hunted" describes how the tide turned and the tactics of Captain "Johnny" Walker, in HMS Starling, and Admiral Sir Max Horton ashore in Liverpool, together with RAF Coastal Command, and comparable allied services, prevailed to win the Battle of the Atlantic.

Both the Allies and the Germans had a common enemy, of course - the Atlantic Ocean - and the graphic archive footage leaves the viewer in no doubt about the Cruel Sea. Churchill is seen meeting Jolly Jack and US Navy sailors and Hitler meets some of the top U-boat commanders.

As ever, best of all, are the stories told by the men, and women, themselves - the eye-witness accounts of the U-boat commanders, the Royal Navy hunters, the merchant seamen, airmen and code-breakers. This is truly a sea story and the tale of the under-stated heroism that underpinned the Allied victory in Europe. The cost was the loss of more than 30,000 merchant seamen, over 4,700 British flagged merchant ships and many allied surface warships and men. Over 85% of U-boat crews would lose their lives.

The three-part series is available on one DVD as part of the 12-disc boxed set "World War II Collection" (BBC Worldwide, 2005). See also the BBC Timewatch documentary "Forgotten Heroes" (1994), an extra feature on the DVD; in their own words, it tells the story of the merchant seaman in World War II.

The drama documentary "Western Approaches" (1944) will be of interest to those who wish to know more about the Battle of the Atlantic as will, of course, the feature films "Lifeboat" (1944) and "The Cruel Sea" (1953).

Secrets of the Dead: The Sinking of the Andrea Doria (2006) Season 5, Episode 4

Collision Course

[8/10 · 24 July 2007]

This one-hour documentary will be of interest to anyone who likes ships, or has sailed the Atlantic Ocean.

The Italian liner Andrea Doria (built 1951, 29,083 gross tons) was nearing New York, and the Swedish liner Stockholm (built 1948, 12,165 gross tons) had not long sailed, when they collided late on the night of 25 July 1956.

The film gives a flavour of the beautiful Andrea Doria in her short life - her interiors and her passengers.

The time leading up to the collision is well-covered and the whole event is supported with comments from people who were there. 46 people died in the collision and the documentary ends with a commentary on the legal proceedings, together with a modern appreciation of the real cause of the collision, now that more papers have been released.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Andrea_Doria and the book "Collision Course" by Alvin Moscow (Longmans, 1959).

In the final frames of "On The Waterfront" (1954) the Andrea Doria can be seen underway in New York Harbour (it is unlikely to be her sister-ship, Cristoforo Colombo, as her maiden voyage was in 1954).

Hancock: The Blood Donor (1961) Season 1, Episode 5

The Very Best of Hancock

[9/10 · 7 March 2007]

That's the title of the BBC DVD (Regions 2 + 4) that contains this episode of Hancock, along with four others, all from 1961.

"The Blood Donor" was first transmitted on 23 June 1961. It is probably the most famous of his half-hour comedy shows and rightly so - it is still very funny indeed. Clips from this show will be seen on any TV programme about great comedy. People of any age - and in any decade - can relate to the character he plays: this is the very best of Hancock.

Some of it is spirit of the age stuff - like the famous advertisement "Drinka Pinta Milka Day" and Hancock refers to his support for Britain's joining the Common Market (Britain did not join what is now the European Union (EU) until 1973). His reference to his not joining the young Conservatives will raise a smile among those of a certain age - many joined for social, rather than political, reasons.

If you like good comedy, if you like British comedy, then this master of comedy will not disappoint you. Tony Hancock's suicide in 1968, at the age of 44, inevitably means that there is not so much footage available. The 25 minutes of "The Blood Donor" lets us know what might have been, and is British comedy writing and acting at its very best.

A salute to H..H..Hancock!

Elizabethan Express (1954)

Buy a ticket on the London to Edinburgh summertime express

[8/10 · 19 July 2006]

This film is one of the gems among the many short documentary films made by the British Transport Commission in the post-war years until about 1980.

Just 20 minutes long, this classic short is available on the BFI's "On and Off the Rails" (The British Transport Films Collection - Volume One), a two-DVD set that contains fourteen short films.

We join the "Silver Fox", one of Sir Nigel Gresley's great A4 streamlined locomotives, running the 0930 summertime service called the "Elizabethan Express", from London's King's Cross station to Edinburgh's Waverley station, where it arrives on time at 1600. At the time, this was the longest non-stop railway journey in the world to be timed at over 60 mph.

This black and white film is beautifully shot and captures the glamour, speed and excitement of railway travel in the early 1950s. The men who make this happen - the drivers, the guard, the cooks and stewards - are the focus of this film, along with staff along the line, staff who are 'off the rails'.

The film's unusual rhyming commentary was controversial at the time but works well enough, and even raises a smile here and there. Popular in cinemas when released in 1954, this film is one of the best-known railway films.

There is some footage of Durham Cathedral and of crossing the River Tyne at Newcastle, but most of the film stays 'on the rails' from start to journey's end.

This is time travel for real and it's not just for railway enthusiasts. It's now history and will be of interest also to those who want to understand how their ancestors lived. See the film and travel to the recent past!

The Eighty Days (1944)

Another great documentary short by Humphrey Jennings

[7/10 · 2 June 2006]

This 14-minute short film by Humphrey Jennings has a commentary by the famous American war reporter and broadcaster Ed Murrow.

The film is a retrospective account of the V-1 blitz (the 'doodlebug') on London and the south-east of England during 1944 and 1945. These pilot-less bombs were fired from France and the film follows anti-aircraft gun crews on the south coast, onlookers and fighter planes, as Britain tries to deal with the incoming menace.

Some are shot down (hurray!) and we follow one that makes it to London. The engine stops and the bomb falls to ground; we then see the aftermath and the work of those involved trying to recover survivors and the dead.

An interesting short film about one of the most frightening weapons of the war. The film makes uses of music and natural sound as well as commentary. It was shown as part of a Humphrey Jennings' season at the Imperial War Museum in London in May/June 2006.

The Changing Face of Europe (1951)

War-torn Europe receives Marshall Plan aid

[7/10 · 2 June 2006]

I have only seen Part 6 of the six parts of this film. Entitled "The Good Life" (1951), it is a 40-minute documentary about Greece post-war. The master of documentary film-making, Humphrey Jennings, was killed during the making of this film, while reconnoitring one of the locations, and Graham Wallace completed the direction.

Filmed in Technicolor and sponsored by the Marshall Plan, it is about pan-European efforts to tackle endemic poor health and disease. A Scandinavian and Greek medical team visit a Greek village to carry out TB inoculations and a variety of other aspects of health are covered.

It is a charming documentary and the Greek children will bring a smile to your face.

Part 6 was shown during a short Humphrey Jennings season at the Imperial War Museum in London in May/June 2006.

The New Lot (1943)

The model for "The Way Ahead"

[6/10 · 15 May 2006]

Made by the Army Kinetographic Service, this training film was aimed at conscripts. This short film takes five different raw recruits and shows how, during basic training, they gradually come to terms with both their new role in the Army and the need for them to fight.

The Director, Captain Carol Reed, and the writers, Lieutenant Eric Ambler and Private Peter Ustinov, of this film were later released by the War Office to direct and write "The Way Ahead" (1944) starring David Niven. This feature film was modelled on "The New Lot", though it included officers as well as conscripts, and was intended to do for the Army what "In Which We Serve" had done for the Royal Navy.

Quite neatly done, "The New Lot" starts with the recruits each in their last days in their very different civilian environments. They all embark a train - pulled by the Southern Railway's Lord Nelson Class locomotive "Sir Walter Raleigh" (BR No. 30852 - built 1928 and withdrawn from service in 1962) - where they begin to get to know each other en route for the training barracks.

It's propaganda, of course, and not very exciting but it will raise a smile here and there. It will certainly be of interest to those who know classic British cinema and TV from the 1940s to the 1980s. Look out for some famous names and well-known faces.

This short was released on a region-free DVD called "The Next of Kin" by DD Home Entertainment in the UK in 2005, as part of the Imperial War Museum official collection.

Storstrømsbroen (1950)

A beautiful little film about a beautiful big bridge

[9/10 · 7 April 2006]

Carl Th. Dreyer's beautiful documentary uses no words to show different aspects of this beautiful bridge in Denmark. It is one of over a dozen state-commissioned documentary shorts made by the famous director.

The Storstrom Bridge was built between 1933-37 to the designs of Anker Engelund with construction under the direction of civil engineer Guy Anson Maunsell.

Storstrom Bridge connects the island of Sjaelland (Zealand) at Vordingborg to the smaller island of Falster to the south. Some two miles long (3199 metres or 3520 yards), at the time it was built it was the longest bridge in Europe.

It is an arch bridge with a suspended deck with both a road and railroad. The reinforced concrete central section was built on shore and floated out to be sunk in position.

Carl Dreyer shows the bridge from afar and in close up, from the air and from a ship in the Storstrom, with trains, vehicles, cyclists and a fisherman using the bridge.

This is a delightful short and Dreyer lets the viewer imagine being a sightseer in silent awe of this beautiful structure.

For some more information about the bridge, and photographs, visit http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0004540.

This documentary is available on DVD, as an extra, on the British Film Institute's 2006 release of Dreyer's classic feature film "Ordet" (1955).

Undersea Raider (1943)

The best submarine film of World War Two

[8/10 · 4 February 2006]

I endorse the comments made a week ago on this site. The following additional comments may be of interest to viewers of this film (released on DVD by the Imperial War Museum on 2005).

The opening frames of the film show Lieutenant Commander David Gregory, the Commanding Officer of the submarine HMS Tyrant (actually HMS Tribune - N76) returning from leave. The Submarine Depot Ship is HMS Forth, with her submarines alongside to port and starboard, in the Holy Loch, near Dunoon in the Firth of Clyde (some 25 miles west of Glasgow). The Holy Loch later became the US Navy's submarine base.

The boat's honours board - seen on the fin of HMS Tyrant as the submariners remark on the "skipper's" return - is probably genuine but a little different to those formally approved for use by HMS Tribune in the 1950s. The First Lieutenant or 'Number One' - second-in-command - of HMS Tyrant is a Lieutenant of the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR).

As HMS Tyrant sails from the Depot Ship, while saluting Captain SM, you may see the flag of the Netherlands - clearly a Dutch submarine was also alongside (perhaps HNLMS Zeehond?).

The two-funnel destroyer that escorts the two submarines out to sea - called HMS "Cutty Sark" in the film - is a tough one to identify. Perhaps she is an S Class destroyer built in World War I - an old destroyer would make sense for this duty as it's not a 'front line' role. Eight S Class remained in service by 1943.

For viewers not familiar with naval jargon, "Pilot" means the Navigating Officer, "Subby" means a Sub-Lieutenant and "Chief" means the Marine Engineering Officer. The film is sometimes dubbed "In Which We Submerge"!

The T Class submarines were built from 1937 to 1944 and none is preserved. The smaller U and V Class were built during the same years.

The T Class was followed by the broadly similar A Class submarines, the first of which was launched in early 1945, but most were cancelled owing to the end of hostilities. A few were completed and formed the backbone of the RN Submarine Service in the post-war years.

One of this Class, HMS Alliance (1945), is preserved at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire. A visit to her will give you a real feel a typical WW2 submarine and you will be able to see for yourself just how good was the Pinewood Studios full-size model of the interior of HMS Tyrant! (HMS Alliance was still in service in 1972, as she was on duty for the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, taking Midshipmen like me for a dive in Torbay - the pervasive smell of diesel oil put me off volunteering for service in submarines!).

Summary: Great film > Buy the DVD > Visit the RN Submarine Museum!

Burma Victory (1946)

An excellent but little-known documentary

[8/10 · 3 February 2006]

The background to this film can be told, in good part, by a short account of Admiral Mountbatten's part in the first years of WW2.

In 1939, Lord Louis Mountbatten - a great grandson of Queen Victoria - was a serving Captain in the Royal Navy; he was Captain (D) commanding the fifth destroyer flotilla, personally commanding the destroyer HMS Kelly and taking her from the builders in August 1939. Mountbatten was one of the survivors when HMS Kelly was lost in the Battle for Crete on 23 May 1941. The story of HMS Kelly during the first twenty-one months of the war was told by Mountbatten's friend Noel Coward in his film "In Which We Serve" (1942) - arguably one of the best British films of WW2.

Mountbatten was then appointed to command the British aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, being repaired in the United States in the summer of 1941. He was invited by the US Chief of Naval Operations to give lectures to US Navy officers, went to sea in US ships and made many valuable contacts in the US Navy.

However, he was not to take HMS Illustrious to sea. Churchill recalled him in October 1941 to take over as head of Combined Operations. He had been promoted to four-stripe Captain only in 1937 but, in March 1942, he was given the acting rank of Vice-Admiral while only 41 years of age. He was made Chief of Combined Operations and continued in that post until August 1943 when he was appointed Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia. He arrived in Delhi in October 1943.

Let me now quote from "Mountbatten - Eighty years in pictures" (Macmillan, 1979) to set the scene for the making of this film.

"Mountbatten's first offensive was to restore the morale of his men, which was at a very low ebb. He toured his whole command to meet the men of all Services and of all nations. He would start off by gathering them round and saying: "I hear you call this the Forgotten Front. I hear you call yourselves the Forgotten Army. Well, let me tell you that this is not the Forgotten Front, and you are not the Forgotten Army. In fact, nobody has even heard of you!". He would then go on: "But they will hear of you, because this is what we are going to do ..." and would proceed to put them in the picture".

This film was a result of Mountbatten's aim of communicating the message about the war in South East Asia. It does an excellent job of telling the story behind those valiant men awarded the Burma Star - and of their allied comrades-in-arms.

The film followed the excellent 'Desert Victory' (1943) and 'Tunisian Victory' (1944), but was completed too late to serve its purpose of information about the war in progress, being released shortly after VJ Day (15 August 1945) - thus it became an historical record.

The film describes the Burma Campaign from early 1944 onwards and gives a good account of jungle warfare. Monsoon, malaria and dysentery are more the enemy than 'the Japs'. Most of the footage is real with just a few reconstructed scenes. This was warfare at its worst: terrible terrain and an inhumane enemy.

It is a very good documentary. I can only imagine that it is not highly rated because it is not widely known and has been rarely screened. However, it is now available on DVD and I strongly recommend the the IWM box set 'The Victory Films Collection' released in 2005. The DVD has an extra: the outtakes of Lord Mountbatten, acting out scenes finally consigned to the cutting room floor, are a treat! His showmanship is clearly evident. He went on to be the last Viceroy of India (1947) and the first Governor-General of the newly independent India (1948), before reverting to the rank of Rear-Admiral and commanding the 1st Cruiser Squadron in Malta. In 1952 he was a NATO C-in-C and, in 1955, one of Churchill's last acts as Prime Minister was to appoint him First Sea Lord. He was Chief of Defence Staff from 1959-1965.

This film should be seen by anyone interested in history or documentary films. It is just the film for the family archive if your father or grandfather served in Burma - it will bring tears to your eyes but you will be proud. (Did the working elephants get awarded the Burma Star, too?).

The film is indeed a salute to British documentary film-making, to the Burma Star Association and all the men who fought in Burma. I am happy to salute them today.