The Sea Shall Not Have Them

6/1/19551h 31m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ SURGING DRAMA! Excitement that leaps from the screen! ~

Overview:

During the autumn of 1944, RAF Hudson, carrying a VIP passenger in possession of highly secret information, is shot down and ditches in the North Sea. Fighting the elements and trying to keep up morale, the occupants of the aircraft's dinghy talk about their lives awaiting the rescue they hope will come. The film's title reflects the motto of the RAF's Air Sea Rescue Service, one of whose high speed launches battles against its own mechanical problems, enemy action, time and the weather to locate and rescue the downed crew and the vital secret papers they carry.

Director:

Lewis Gilbert

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

rescue
sea
based on novel or book
world war ii
black and white

Cast

Michael Redgrave

~ as ~

Air Commodore Waltby

Dirk Bogarde

~ as ~

Flt Sgt Mackay

Jack Watling

~ as ~

Flying Officer Harding

Bonar Colleano

~ as ~

Sgt Kirby

Anthony Steel

~ as ~

Flying Officer Treherne

Nigel Patrick

~ as ~

Flt Sgt Slingsby

James Kenney

~ as ~

Cpl. Skinner

Sydney Tafler

~ as ~

Cpl. Robb

Griffith Jones

~ as ~

Group Capt. Todd

Guy Middleton

~ as ~

Squadron Leader Scott

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 1 year(s) ago
7
Despite the fact that much of this film appears to have been filmed in a London lido, it still manages to engender quite a bit of peril. The passengers of a shot down plane are adrift in the Channel in a lifeboat with limited rations, cold and wet, praying for rescue before discovery by the Nazis or death by more long-drawn out means. It's got many of the usual ingredients of a wartime adventure, but is told in quite an interesting manner - each of the passengers having their few minutes of fame to explain why they are in their current predicament. Their would be rescuers are having quite a few problems of their own, and the whole thing builds nicely to quite an exciting denouement. The cast - Dirk Bogarde, Michael Redgrave, Nigel Patrick and Anthony Steele work efficiently, if not sparklingly, together within the confines of their dinghy; their tolerances of their environment and of each other - regardless of rank - stretches patience and tests tempers in a plausible fashion. At times I felt I was on the boat with them - a testament to the intense direction from Lewis Gilbert who manages to compensate for the limited resources available to the film, and create quite a compelling, realistic looking story.