San Demetrio London (1943) - film review

In the autumn of 1940, the oil tanker San Demetrio London arrives in Galveston Texas to pick up a load of petroleum that is desperately needed by a besieged Britain.  On the way back to England, the tanker comes under fire from German U-boats.   Another ship in the convoy is sunk and the tanker looks as though it might blow when it receives a hit.  When the captain gives the order for the tanker to be abandoned, the crew make a desperate bid to escape in three lifeboats.  Two of the lifeboats are soon picked up by another ship but the third drifts in turbulent waters for several days before returning to the tanker.  To the amazement of the men in the lifeboat, the tanker is still afloat.  Having put out the fires, the men manage to repair the damage to the tanker.  They decide to take the ship back to England, knowing full well that if they run into U-boats a second time they will be unlikely to survive...

Inspired by a true story, San Demetrio London is typical of the wartime dramas that came out of Ealing Studios during WWII – a subtle propaganda film that championed the role of the ordinary man and showed that circumstances and character, not background, are the things that made someone a hero.  The film’s stark realist approach typifies the Ealing house style at this time, thanks to the influence of seasoned documentary filmmakers Harry Watt and Alberto Cavalcanti, who joined Ealing in 1940, having worked for the GPO film unit.  The film was directed by Charles Frend, who had made two previous war films for Ealing and would later direct another naval-themed classic, The Cruel Sea (1953).  When Frend fell ill during the shoot, screenwriter Robert Hamer took over, making an auspicious (and uncredited) film debut.

The events depicted in this film are ones that would have had an immediate resonance with its British audience.  With U-boats doing their utmost to cut off essential supplies, the country was under siege and the threat of a full-scale Nazi invasion had not gone away.  The struggle of ordinary men trying to keep their tanker seaworthy and return her safely to port was a story that most Brits could easily relate to and the film’s upbeat ending would have provided a welcome moral boost.  By the time this film was released, the tide had begun to turn and Ealing, in common with the other British film studios, was beginning to look towards the future and ask the question: what kind of country would Britain become after the war?  San Demetrio London offers one vision, of a more egalitarian society where the invidious social divisions of the past are conspicuous by their absence and where all men profit equally from their labours – in short, a socialist Utopia.

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