The Shipbuilders ** (1943, Clive Brook, Morland Graham, Finlay Currie, Maudie Edwards, Nell Ballantyne, Geoffrey Hibbert) – Classic Movie Review 13,144

John Baxter’s 1943 British wartime patriotic propaganda social drama film The Shipbuilders is based on the 1935 novel by George Blake, and stars Clive Brook and Morland Graham.

Producer/ director John Baxter’s 1943 British patriotic propaganda social drama film The Shipbuilders is based on the 1935 novel by George Blake, and stars Clive Brook, Morland Graham, Finlay Currie, Maudie Edwards, Nell Ballantyne, and Geoffrey Hibbert.

The Shipbuilders is a nicely crafted World War Two wartime flag-waving drama which has a Clydeside shipbuilding boss Leslie Pagan (Clive Brook) forced to close the shipyard in the Great Depression. But the yard is reopened when Pagan and his workers improbably link hands to build ships for the Royal Navy and keep Britain ahead in the 1930s, with the whole thing coming to fruition in WW2. Socialist ideals, a community spirit and pulling together will see us through. The case is made clearly and concisely, and fairly attractively.

On the personal front, Mrs Shields (Morland Graham and Nell Ballantyne)’s riveter son Danny (Geoffrey Hibbert) accidentally kills someone but evades a jail term, and then dies heroically in fighting on one of Brook’s vessels.

It is well shot in black and white by Jimmy Wilson and the newsreel stock footage of shipbuilders at work gives the film a rare historic value.

The cast include Clive Brook as Leslie Pagan, Morland Graham as Danny Shields, Nell Ballantyne as Mrs Shields, Finlay Currie as McWain, Maudie Edwards as Lizzie, Geoffrey Hibbert as Peter Shields, Allan Jeayes as Ralph, Moira Lister as Rita, Frederick Leister as Mr. Villier, Gus McNaughton as Jim, John Turnbull as Baird, Bertram Wallis as Caven Watson James Woodburn, Ian Sadler, Beckett Bould, Patric Curwen, Michael Gainsborough, Emrys Jones, David Keir, Ian McLean, Dudley Paul, Walter Roy, David Trickett, C Denier Warren, Alec Faversham.

The Shipbuilders is directed by John Baxter, runs 90 minutes, is made by British National Films, is released by Anglo-American Film Corporation (UK), is written by Gordon Wellesley, Stephen Potter and Reginald Pound, based on the 1935 novel by George Blake, is shot in black and white by Jimmy Wilson, and produced by John Baxter, scored by Kennedy Russell.

Release date: 14 December 1943 (London).

Scottish film actor Morland Graham (8 August 1891 – 8 April 1949) had a career spanning more than 35 years. He is best known for Jamaica Inn (1939), Old Bill and Son (1941), Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948) and Whisky Galore! (1949).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,144

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