Convoy **** (1940, Clive Brook, John Clements, Edward Chapman, Judy Campbell, Albert Lieven) – Classic Movie Review 11,200

Director Pen Tennyson’s 1940 British Ealing Studios black and white flag-waving war film Convoy is a suitably laid-back, grace-under-fire portrayal of everyday World War Two seafaring existence. It is his third and last film.

But it needed to contribute to the British war effort, and it is notably stirring, written by Pen Tennyson and Patrick Kirwan, focusing on a story in which Nazi commander (Albert Lieven)’s German pocket battleship U-37 in the North Sea menaces a British merchant-ship convoy coming back from Norway.

The human dimension is provided by the yarn about British officer Lieutenant Cranford (John Clements) romancing Lucy Armitage (Judy Campbell), the wife of Captain Armitage (Clive Brook), who is commanding the escort for the North Sea convoy.

The romance and comedy are weakly written and feebly done, but the dramatics, action, wartime production, photography, score and air of gritty reality are all superb and still greatly impress.

The following year on July 10, 1941, the talented 28-year-old director Tennyson (great-grandson of the Poet Laureate) died in Fleet Air Arm war action. He directed only three films: There Ain’t No Justice, The Proud Valley and Convoy.

In 1940 Pen Tennyson was in the British Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) but was granted exemption from service to make this film. He served on HMS Valourous on convoy duty to gain experience of convoy life. When he was commissioned into the Royal Navy, his actress wife Nova Pilbeam helped him to learn the Morse code by signalling non-nautical messages.

Stewart Granger has an unbilled walk-on as Sutton.

Ealing Studios explained: ‘Convoy is dedicated in all gratitude to the Officers and Men of the Royal and Merchant Navies. Their cheerful co-operation made it possible to present the many scenes in our film which were taken at sea under actual wartime conditions.’

Also in the cast are Edward Chapman, Judy Campbell, Penelope Dudley-Ward, Edward Rigby, Albert Lieven, Stewart Granger, Charles Williams, Allan Jeayes, David Hutcheson, George Carney, Al Millen, Charles Farrell, George Benson, John Laurie, Al Millen, Hay Petrie, Mervyn Johns, Edward Lexy, Michael Wilding, Harold Warrender, George Benson, John Glyn-Jones, Anton Diffring (first film), Alf Goddard, Patrick Holt, Maire O’Neill, Charles Rolfe, James Knight, Derek Elphinstone, John Carol, Alec Clunes, Harry Terry and John Wengraf [Hans Wengraf].

Convoy is directed by Pen Tennyson, runs 90 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios, is released by Associated British Film Distributors (1940) (UK) and RKO Radio Pictures (1941) (US), is written by Pen Tennyson and Patrick Kirwan, is shot in black and white by Günther Krampf (photography: interiors) and Roy Kellino (photography: exteriors), is produced by Michael Balcon producer and Sergei Nolbandov associate producer, is scored by Ernest Irving, and is designed by Wilfred Shingleton.

[Spoiler alert] Two of the U-boats named in the film, U40 and U42, were sunk in 1939 by mines and the Royal Navy. The U-37, which is sunk in the film, fought throughout the war until 1945, sinking 55 ships and damaging another.

Shots of actual destroyers include HMS Imogen (D44), HMS Isis (D87) and HMS Griffin (H31).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,200

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