Sailor of the King
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| Sailor of the King | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Roy Boulting |
| Produced by | Frank McCarthy |
| Written by | C. S. Forester (novel) Valentine Davies |
| Starring | Jeffrey Hunter Michael Rennie Peter van Eyck Wendy Hiller |
| Music by | Clifton Parker |
| Release date(s) | June 11, 1953 |
| Running time | 83 minutes |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Sailor of the King, also known as Single-Handed and Brown on Resolution, is a 1953 war film based on the novel Brown on Resolution by C. S. Forester and (despite being largely set in the Pacific) filmed in the Mediterranean Sea. Jeffrey Hunter stars as a British sailor who battles single-handedly to delay a German World War II warship long enough for the Royal Navy to bring it to battle.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
During the First World War, Lieutenant Richard Saville, a young British naval officer on five days' leave, and Miss Lucinda Bentley, a merchant's daughter from Portsmouth, get talking on the train up to London. Halfway along their journey, they miss their rail connection and spend a romantic holiday in the countryside of southern England. When Saville proposes to her, she accepts, but on the day they are due to go back to Portsmouth, she changes her mind, asking Saville to realise that neither he nor she could bear being parted for the long periods he would be at sea. They part, seemingly forever.
Saville serves out the First World War and the inter-war years, and by the first years of the Second World War, he is in command of a squadron of three cruisers on convoy duty in the Pacific. He receives a message from a British merchantman just before it is sunk by the German raider Essen, but the flagship of Saville's squadron is too low on fuel for pursuit and the convoy cannot be left unguarded. Saville decides to remain with the convoy while his other two ships - HMS Amesbury and HMS Cambridge - chase after the raider. Cambridge then has to stop to pick up survivors from the merchantman, leaving the Amesbury on her own. Amesbury finds and attacks the Essen, scoring a major torpedo hit on the Essen 's bow, but is sunk with the loss of all but two hands, Petty Officer Wheatley and Signalman Andrew 'Canada' Brown. Brown is the son of a mother keen on the navy and thus knows more about naval tactics, strategy and gunnery than most of his rank.
The Essen picks up the two survivors. Meanwhile, news of the Amesbury 's fate reaches Saville. Saville decides to risk all and go after the Essen with Cambridge. While the Essen is anchored in a rocky lagoon for 36 hours to carry out repairs, Brown manages to escape to the heights around the lagoon with a rifle (back home, he had won marksmanship prizes). He then proceeds to pick off sailors working on the repairs, leading the Essen 's captain to use his ship's AA guns and then big guns in vain attempts to dislodge Brown. Finally he sends a party of marines out to hunt Brown down, but just as they are about to kill him, they are recalled and the Essen departs. Brown collapses, seriously wounded and apparently dead.
As the Essen leaves the lagoon, she is caught and sunk by Saville's force. One of her survivors informs the British of Brown's exploits, which delayed repairs for 18 hours, thus enabling the British to catch up with them.
[edit] Alternate endings
The film is unusual for its period in that, for the American version, two different endings were filmed, one in which Brown survives and another in which he is killed. These were both shown in cinemas and audiences were asked to choose their favourite one. Both endings are also shown when the film is broadcast on British television (e.g. FilmFour). They both begin with the German survivor giving the information of Brown's escape.
[edit] First ending
A landing party goes ashore from Saville's force to find Brown, as the camera pans to his apparently dead body. The action then cuts to London and an honours investiture, where Saville receives a knighthood for his actions. Brown was found dead by the landing party and is awarded a Victoria Cross posthumously, presented to his mother. She is revealed to be the former Lucinda Bentley, who had moved to Canada after her tryst with Saville. She and Saville meet before she goes to accept her son's medal.
[edit] Second ending
The action cuts straight from the German survivor to an honours investiture in London, where Brown (who has in this version survived to receive his VC) meets Saville. Brown tells Saville that his English mother - to whom he owes his joining the navy - is living in Montreal and unable to make it to the ceremony (though whether or not she is Lucinda is not revealed). Saville informs Brown that he is to be his signaller on their next posting, on the north Atlantic convoy routes, and the pair then stand to attention as the national anthem plays.
[edit] Differences from the novel
In the novel, Brown is unknowingly Saville's and Lucinda's illegitimate son. In the film, it is implied that Lucinda married a man named Brown, and Andrew states "my father died before I was born." Thus, it is implied either that Andrew is Lucinda's legitimate son by her marriage, or (though this possibility is never explicitly stated) that he may in fact be Saville's son.
Unlike the 1935, pre-Second World War version, the First World War setting of the actions against the German raider are transferred to the Second World War, thus introducing a gap between these events and the affair which is not in the novel.
[edit] Cast
- Jeffrey Hunter as Signalman Andrew 'Canada' Brown
- Michael Rennie as Lieutenant / Captain Richard Saville
- Peter van Eyck as Kapitan Ludvic von Falk
- Wendy Hiller as Lucinda Bentley
- Bernard Lee as Petty Officer Wheatley
- Victor Maddern as Signalman Willy Earnshaw
- Patrick Barr as Captain Tom Ashley
