San Demetrio London **** (1943, Walter Fitzgerald, Mervyn Johns, Ralph Michael, Robert Beatty, Charles Victor, Frederick Piper, Gordon Jackson) – Classic Movie Review 2827

Ealing Studio’s director Charles Frend brings a vibrant documentary-style realism to his 1943 film account of the salvaging by its surviving crew of the abandoned blazing British merchant ship San Demetrio, torpedoed while in convoy in the Atlantic in 1940. It stars Walter Fitzgerald, Mervyn Johns, Ralph Michael, Robert Beatty, Charles Victor, Frederick Piper, Gordon Jackson and James McKechnie.

Left to the mercy of patrolling U-boats, the beleaguered men keep the San Demetrio afloat and heroically re-board the vessel three days after the attack. They then battle to steer her back to the River Clyde in Scotland for refitting.

This rousing wartime morale-boosting picture is somewhat faded now, particularly because of the obviously studio-filmed exteriors and some outmoded values. But it is not too heavy on the heroics and is attractively sympathetic to the Navy’s lower orders.

Robert Hamer and Frend’s screenplay (from a story by F Tennyson Jesse) holds steady, the typically strong playing by the Ealing ensemble cast is a major asset, and the movie’s good spirit still shines through.

Also in the cast with far fewer familiar names than usual are Arthur Young as Captain George Waite, Nigel Clarke, David Horne, Barry Letts, Lawrence O’Madden, Michael Allen, Neville Mapp, Herbert Cameron, John Owers, James Sadler, John Coyle, Duncan McIntyre, Rex Holt, James Donald, Peter Miller Street, James Knight, John Boxer, Caven Watson and perhaps the only woman in the cast, Diana Deckler.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2827

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com