Brown on Resolution [Forever England] **** (1935, John Mills, Betty Balfour, Barry Mackay, Jimmy Hanley) – Classic Movie Review 11,374

Director Walter Forde’s 1936 British war film Brown on Resolution [Forever England] stars John Mills, who embodies the character of brave sailor he did so well – here Albert Brown, who joins the Royal Navy as soon as he is old enough and his ship, HMS Rutland, is posted to the Pacific, and shortly after the First World War breaks out.

Rutland is sunk by the German battlecruiser raider vessel, the SMS Zeithen, and Brown and a shipmate are rescued and taken prisoner aboard Zeithen, but Brown escapes and ends up single-handedly stopping Zeithen by shooting at it from the shore.

This lively World War One adventure, adapted from C S Forester’s 1929 novel Brown on Resolution, is a then pioneering, still rousing British stiff-upper-lip seafaring war drama and a fine monument to the skills of the young Mills in his first lead role. The film was a formidable undertaking at the time, and a tribute to British film resourcefulness and also to Walter Forde’s skills as director.

The mother Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Brown is played by silent film star Betty Balfour, who had recently made a comeback in Evergreen (1934). Brown’s shipmate friend Ginger is played by Jimmy Hanley.

After over a year of negotiations, the UK Admiralty agreed to cooperate, and it is the first film to use real Royal Navy ships and the first time the Royal Navy had co-operated with a film company to this extent. Zeithen is played by British C-class cruiser HMS Curacoa and Rutland is played by destroyer leader HMS Broke. The Admiralty also allowed filming at the Gunnery School, Whale Island and the Boys Training Establishment at Gosport.

Shooting began in Portsmouth and studio filming took place at Shepherd’s Bush.

Also in the cast are Betty Balfour, Barry Mackay, Jimmy Hanley, Howard Marion-Crawford, H G Stoker, Percy Walsh, George Merritt, Cyril Smith, and Charles Childerstone. The cast also includes war hero Henry Hugh Gordon Stoker, who had been in a stage production of Journey’s End with Mills.

They toyed with the title Forever England, from a line in the Rupert Brooke poem The Soldier, but kept the Brown on Resolution title they thought might be confusing. But it was eventually used for the UK re-issue.

US title: Born for Glory; UK re-issue title: Forever England.

It was released on 15 May 1935 (UK) and 19 October 1935 (US).

It was remade as Sailor of the King [Single-Handed], in 1953, updated to the Second World War, whereas the 1936 Brown on Resolution keeps the novel’s World War One setting.

Brown on Resolution [Forever England] is directed by Walter Forde, runs 80 minutes, is made by Gaumont British, is released by Gaumont British Picture Corporation, is written by Michael Hogan, Gerard Fairlie and J O C Orton (dialogue), is shot in black and white by Bernard Knowles, is produced by Michael Balcon and scored by Louis Levy.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,374

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