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Sailor of the King (1953) DVD5 Uncompressed - War Classic [DDR]
Sailor of the King a.k.a. Single-Handed is a 1953 war film based on the novel Brown on Resolution by C. S. Forester and (despite being largely set in the Pacific) filmed in the Mediterranean Sea. Jeffrey Hunter stars as a Canadian sailor serving on a British warship who battles single-handedly to delay a German World War II warship long enough for the Royal Navy to bring it to battle. The film was released in the United States as Sailor of the King.
Jeffrey Hunter plays a young British sailor, the out-of-wedlock son of a high-ranking naval officer (Michael Rennie). Hunter's ship is torpedoed, leaving him stranded on a German-occupied island. Armed with only a rifle, Hunter is able to shoot at a German cruiser docked for repairs, and to slow down its departure. The British Navy then moves in and sinks the ship. Hunter is decorated for valor by the squadron commander--his own father. Though set during World War II, Sailor of the King was adapted from C. S. Forester's World War I novel Brown on Resolution (previously filmed in 1935, with John Mills in the lead). This 1953 20th Century-Fox production was released in Britain as Single Handed.
CAST:-
Jeffrey Hunter as Signalman Andrew 'Canada' Brown
Michael Rennie as Lieutenant / Captain Richard Saville
Peter van Eyck as Kapitan Ludwig von Falk
Wendy Hiller as Lucinda Bentley
Bernard Lee as Petty Officer Wheatley
Victor Maddern as Signalman Willy Earnshaw
John Horsley as Commander John Willis
Patrick Barr as Captain Tom Ashley, HMS Amesbury
Robin Bailey as Lieutenant John Stafford, HMS Stratford
James Copeland as Chief Engineer [uncredited]
Sam Kydd as second signalman [uncredited]
The officers and men of HMS Manxman, HMS Cleopatra, and HMS Glasgow.
Directed by Roy Boulting
Produced by Frank McCarthy
Written by C. S. Forester (novel), Valentine Davies
Music by Clifton Parker
MOVIE REVIEW:- Sailor of the King (1953) a.k.a. Single-handed
During the First World War, Lieutenant Richard Saville, a young British naval officer on five days leave, and Miss Lucinda Bentley, a merchant's daughter from Portsmouth, get talking on the train up to London. Halfway along their journey, they miss their rail connection and spend a romantic holiday in the countryside of southern England. When Saville proposes to her, she accepts, but on the day they are due to go back to Portsmouth, she changes her mind, asking Saville to realise that neither he nor she could bear being parted for the long periods he would be at sea. They part, seemingly forever.
Saville serves out the First World War and the inter-war years, and by the first years of the Second World War, he is in command of a squadron of three cruisers on convoy duty in the Pacific. He receives a message from a British merchantman just before it is sunk by the German raider Essen, but HMS Stratford, the flagship of Saville's squadron is too low on fuel for pursuit and the convoy cannot be left unguarded. Saville decides to remain with the convoy while his other two ships - HMS Amesbury and HMS Cambridge - chase after the raider.
Cambridge then has to stop to pick up survivors from the merchantman, leaving the Amesbury on her own. Amesbury finds and attacks the Essen, scoring a major torpedo hit on the Essen’s bow, but is sunk with the loss of all but two hands, Petty Officer Wheatley and Signalman Andrew 'Canada' Brown. Brown is the son of a mother keen on the navy and thus knows more about naval tactics, strategy and gunnery than most of his rank.
The Essen picks up the two survivors. Meanwhile, news of the Amesbury's fate reaches Saville in the Stratford. Saville decides to risk all and go after the Essen with Cambridge.
While the Essen is anchored in a rocky lagoon for 36 hours to carry out repairs, Brown manages to escape to the heights around the lagoon with a rifle (back home, he had won marksmanship prizes). He then proceeds to pick off sailors working on the repairs, leading the Essen's captain to use his ship's AA guns and then big guns in vain attempts to dislodge Brown. Finally he sends a party of marines out to hunt Brown down, but just as they are about to kill him, they are recalled and the Essen departs. Brown collapses, seriously wounded.
As the Essen leaves the lagoon, she is caught and sunk by Saville's force. One of her survivors informs the British of Brown's exploits, which delayed repairs for 18 hours, thus enabling the British to catch up with them. A landing party is sent ashore from Saville's force to find Brown.
ALTERNATE ENDINGS
The film is unusual for its period in that, for the American version, two different endings were filmed, one in which Brown survives and another in which he is killed. These were both shown in cinemas and audiences were asked to choose their favourite one. Both endings are also shown when the film is broadcast on British television (e.g. FilmFour).
FIRST ENDING SENARIO
The landing party searches the island for Brown, as the camera pans to his apparently dead body. The action then cuts to London and an honours investiture, where Saville receives a knighthood for his actions. Brown was found dead by the landing party and is awarded a Victoria Cross posthumously, presented to his mother. She is revealed to be the former Lucinda Bentley, who had moved to Canada after her tryst with Saville. She and Saville meet before she goes to accept her son's medal.
SECOND ENDING Senario
The action cuts straight from the German survivor to an honours investiture in London, where Brown (who has in this version survived to receive his VC) meets Saville. Brown tells Saville that his English mother - to whom he owes his joining the navy - is living in Montreal and unable to make it to the ceremony (though whether or not she is Lucinda is not revealed). Saville informs Brown that he is to be his signaller on their next posting, on the north Atlantic convoy routes. They will both probably get a chance to see his mother in Canada. The pair then stand to attention as the national anthem plays.
        
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4999 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 29.970
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages:English
RunTime 85 mins
Subtitles: None
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 85 mins |
