Fri 16 Apr 2021
A Movie Review by David Vineyard: THE SHIP THAT DIED OF SHAME.
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[9] Comments
THE SHIP THAT DIED OF SHAME. General Film Distributors, UK, 1955. Continental Distributing, US, 1956, as PT Raiders. Richard Attenborough, George Baker, Bill Owen, Roland Culver, Bernard Lee, Virginia McKenna. Screenplay by John Whiting, Michael Relph & Basil Dearden, based on a story by Nicholas Monsarrat. Directed by Basil Dearden.
This is an offbeat British noir with a touch of the supernatural, though underplayed and understated, that is unmistakable. George Hoskins (Richard Attenborough) and Bill Randall (George Baker Wexford, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service himself and as George Lazenby’s voice when he is posing as a member of the Royal College of Arms) and Birdie Dick (Bill Owen Compo of The Last of the Summer Wine) serve together on a Royal Navy Motor Gun Boat (a P.T. Boat in American jargon) raiding the French coast and attacking German installations at night and rescuing downed pilots in the Channel.
When Bill’s wife (Virginia McKenna) is killed in the cottage where they live in a bombing raid his rather jolly swashbuckling war comes to and end. With the war at an end Bill finds himself at sixes and sevens until he runs into George who has a plan to buy their former boat and indulge in a bit of harmless smuggling.
Smuggling and the British efforts to avoid excise taxes is a common theme in British history and literature from du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn, Graham Greene’s The Man Within, and J. Meade Falkner’s Moonfleet to more comic takes like Geoffrey Household’s “Brandy for the Parson,†and Compton Mackenzie’s Whiskey Galore, and the theme only grew more common with the wartime shortages and black-market during and after the war where shortages lasted well into the prosperous Fifties.
George and Bill, with Birdie insisting on coming along, begin rather harmlessly and revive some of the spirit of their wartime adventures. Fooling Customs Inspector Sam Brewster (Bernard Lee, M from the James Bond films) and foiling pirates led by smooth baddie Major Fordyce (Roland Culver) are a throwback to the best days of the war when they struck quickly and silently along the French coast.
Bill can almost forget the pain of what he lost, almost pretend that he has really escaped from the emptiness of his life.
But George is greedy and seeks out Major Fordyce who can guarantee them higher pay and bigger risks. Attenborough was always equally adept at playing meek innocents and rather shady characters.
Those risks come in the form of smuggling a man out of England, a dangerous mission attempted in a heavy fog and with a new element, sudden trouble with their ship, something that first becomes apparent to Birdie when he notes the ship doesn’t like what they are doing.
And little wonder, because the man that Fordyce has them smuggling is a wanted child murderer.
They barely get away and their passenger ends up overboard, but their luck has run out. Bill is ready to chuck it all and turn himself in when Fordyce and George, hoping to get away, murder Sam Brewster who is onto them and kidnap he and Birdie to get them safely to Portugal.
But no one has counted on the weather or the whims of their once gallant ship.
That faint, and it is very faint, hint that the ship is somehow aware of what it is being used for and ashamed is the main oddity in the story which otherwise would be a tough but standard British noir crime outing of the period with a better than average cast.
Based on a story later expanded by Nicholas Monsarrat (The Cruel Sea, The Nylon Pirates, White Rajah) who was a bestselling novelist who wrote primarily of the sea and whose feel for that life was notable, the supernatural aspect is never overplayed. It works at the fringes and builds only at the big climax.
The Ship That Died of Shame isn’t seen all that often, but it is worth catching. Currently it, and quite a few excellent films from the Thirties through the Sixties are available on Classic Reels a low price streaming service that adds one or two new films a day.
In any case this is worth seeing.
April 16th, 2021 at 8:26 pm
I’m not sure when I saw this, but I have. It have been on AMC when they actually showed American Movie Classics (even though this is a British film).
And all but forgotten, but it all came back to me as I was reading your review, David, and I think you nailed it. No award winner, I suppose, just one of those mid-50 crime thrillers the British did so well.
With just the right edge of the supernatural to it.
April 16th, 2021 at 10:06 pm
It’s a good tough noir thriller so I didn’t want to overplay the supernatural element, but it is clearly there.
April 16th, 2021 at 10:18 pm
An interesting note about Baker, he appeared in an British swashbuckler about the Cromwell era called MOONRAKER back in the fifties, and in the James Bond film MOONRAKER appears as a senior Naval officer.
Bill Owen, a music hall comic who carved out a career in British film mostly in comedy landed the role of Compo in LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE, the longest running situation comedy in television history (34 years). He was in every episode until his death with only Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace in Wallace and Gromit) appearing in more epsiodes.
It’s an interesting cast, Roland Culver appearing in many comic and villainous roles over a long career (the killer in Bob Hope’s THE GREAT LOVER), Bernard Lee famous as M in the Bond films also appeared with Attenborogh in DUNKIRK and was a staple of British film and television.
Virginia McKenna was married to British actor Bill Travers and with him became deeply involved in protecting lions in Africa after starring in BORN FREE.
I reviewed Monsarrat’s THE NYLON PIRATES on her fairly recently.
April 16th, 2021 at 10:59 pm
And of course everyone knows who Richard Attenborogh is, but I think I’ll just mention his name again, anyway.
As for the NYLON PIRATES, yes, the review was last June and here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=68819
April 17th, 2021 at 2:43 am
There’s a story, allegedly true, that when a British film was being made featuring an orchestra, there was a small but important part for a flute player. After much discussion about casting, someone said: “The answer is Bill Owen in the wind”.
April 17th, 2021 at 10:13 am
Bill Travers and his sister were a pair of handsome actors indeed; his sister a real beauty; (I forget who she married but it was someone else of note, also in the industry). Both were commendable in the personal causes and ideals they pursued, such as African lions.
Travers is wonderful in a small role as the Scottish, Union-cavalry outpost officer in one of my favorite offbeat westerns, ‘Duel at Diablo’ with James Garner and Sidney Poitier. So affable and engaging, with that brogue of his. And I liked his plan for guiding the wagon train safely through Indian territory.
April 17th, 2021 at 1:22 pm
That is Linden Travers, and she was indeed ‘warm.’
April 17th, 2021 at 7:32 pm
Before BORN FREE Bill Travers big breakthrough was in WEE GEORDIE based on the David Walker novel about a sweet natured Scottish strongman travelling to London to participate in the Olympics. He also had a major role in BHOWANI JUNCTION as the half Indian station master who is one of three men involved with Ava Gardner’s character.
After they starred in BORN FREE, and even after they split up, both he an McKenna mostly worked to support the wildlife sanctuary in Africa where the original Elsa had been returned to the wild and where they worked most of the time.
April 17th, 2021 at 9:51 pm
I’d probably watch any classic flick with a PT Boat in it, and find it enjoyable. And that is a heck of a movie poster too.
Montserrat certainly does have a fine reputation for sea tales. It’s one of my favorite genres.
This movie review above, made me curious to learn whether he was the author of ‘The Enemy Below’ but, that turns out not to be so.
This is way off track (please excuse me) but I note in passing that Wendell Mayes wrote the screenplay for that flick. Mayes continually climbs my list of solid screenwriters.