The Cruel Sea ***** (1953, Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, Denholm Elliott, Virginia McKenna) – Classic Movie Review 1670

Director Charles Frend’s 1953 British wartime classic stars Jack Hawkins, who relishes enjoying a quintessential stiffed-lipped role as the stalwart lieutenant commander of the British corvette HMS Compass Rose, who gives the order to depth-charge a Nazi U-boat in waters that contain British survivors.

Sir Donald Sinden (October 9 1923 – September 11 2014).

Ealing Studios’ version of Nicholas Monsarrat’s bestseller is grim and takes no hostages, but nevertheless is always exciting and extremely compelling. Documentary-influenced in style, this classic movie, set during the World War Two Battle of the Atlantic, is commendably more realistic and thoughtful than most war movies up to this time, though thriller writer Eric Ambler’s Oscar-nominated screenplay is, perhaps necessarily, more conventional and less complex than the writing in the novel.

In star-making roles, Hawkins is a model of calm authority as the experienced skipper and the 30-year-old Donald Sinden is outstanding in his film star debut as Lockhart (after a walk-on in a 1948 film Lost Daughter), while Stanley Baker, Denholm Elliott, Virginia McKenna and Alec McCowen give the most convincing performances among the fine ensemble of actors.

Frend’s direction is suitably robust, rugged and manly, infused with salty atmosphere and packed with tension. It is one of Ealing’s most successful dramatic films, artistically and commercially, and it was Britain’s number one film at the box office in 1953.

John Stratton, Moira Lister, John Warner, Megs Jenkins, June Thorburn, Liam Redmond, Meredith Edwards, Bruce Seton, Barry Letts, Glyn Houston, Fred Griffiths, Gerald Heinz, John Singer, Andrew Cruickshank, Walter Fitzgerald and George Curzon are also among the cast.

Sir Donald Sinden died on September 11 2014, aged 90. He trained at London’s Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts and went on to have more than 70 film and TV credits and perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company in lead roles such as King Lear and Malvolio in Twelfth Night. He was awarded a CBE in 1979 and a knighthood in 1997 for his services to drama.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1670

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