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Overview
The Silver Fleet is a British war film first released in 1943,
directed by Vernon Sewell and Gordon Wellesley.
The film stars Ralph Richardson, Googie Withers, Esmond Knight, Beresford Egan and Frederick Burtwell.
Our overall rating for this film is: very good.
Synopsis
During WWII, with Holland under German occupation, naval engineer Jaap
van Leyden cooperates with the Nazis by helping to build U-boats in his
shipyard. Van Leydan appears to be undaunted when the townspeople
turn against him and label him and his family quislings.
Meanwhile, someone using the soubriquet Piet Hein is organising a
resistance group among the boatyard workers. The group succeeds
in capturing the first U-boat on its maiden voyage and pilots it to
England. No one is more pleased with this outcome than van
Leyden. The Nazis have another surprise coming...
Film Review
The Silver Fleet is one of a
series of highly effective wartime propaganda films to be produced by
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known as The Archers, during the
Second World War. This one was directed by Vernon Sewell and
Gordon Wellesley, and scripted by Pressburger. Through a gripping
story, which has a few suspenseful Hitchcockian moments, the film makes
a fervent appeal to the British people to support the war effort.
Although it is hard for someone watching the film today to have any
sense of the mindset of the film’s original intended audience, its
earnest messages about self-sacrifice and patriotism still strike a
chord. As in most of the Powell-Pressburger wartime productions, the film uses real locations to add a striking sense of realism, and stark black and white photography that suits the bleakness of the subject. The film has some lighter moments and the Nazis are treated far more sympathetically than in many films of this period. One of the main reasons why the film has such an impact is because Ralph Richardson succeeds, through his understated portrayal of a resistance leader and family man, in showing that in every ordinary man there lies a spirit of heroism. © James Travers 2008 Write a review for this film... User Comments
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Related links
More British DramaMore British War Recent DVD releases |
Credits
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If you like this film you may also like the following: 49th Parallel (1941) A Town Like Alice (1956) Carry on Sergeant (1958) Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) The Drum (1938) The Guns of Navarone (1961) I Was Monty’s Double (1958) In Which We Serve (1942) The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Millions Like Us (1943) One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942) Richard III (1955) The Spy in Black (1939) We Dive at Dawn (1943) |


