Brown on Resolution (film)
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- Forever England redirects here - the phrase is also a quotation from Rupert BrookeRupert BrookeRupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...
's poem "The SoldierThe Soldier (poem)"The Soldier" is a poem written by Rupert Brooke. The poem is the fifth of a series of poems entitled 1914.It is often contrasted with Wilfred Owen's 1917 antiwar poem Dulce Et Decorum EstThe manuscript is located at King's College, Cambridge....
".
Brown on Resolution (US title - Born for Glory; UK re-issue title - Forever England) is a 1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...
film adaptation of the CS Forester novel Brown on Resolution
Brown on Resolution
Brown on Resolution is a 1929 nautical novel written by CS Forester. It is set during World War I. The hero of the novel, seaman Brown, is the sole able-bodied survivor of a sunken British warship, who is able single-handedly to discomfit its attacker, a German cruiser, long enough to ensure its...
. The plot is centred on the illegitimate son of a British naval officer singlehandedly bringing about the downfall of a German battleship during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The title role is played by John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
, his first lead role, and it is also notable for being the first film to use actual Royal Navy ships {Citation needed}.
The novel was also later adapted as Sailor of the King
Sailor of the King
Sailor of the King is a 1953 war film based on the novel Brown on Resolution by C. S. Forester and filmed in the Mediterranean Sea...
(also titled Single-Handed in the US, and sometimes - though rarely - Brown on Resolution), in 1953. The 1935 version retains the novel's original World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
setting, but in the 1953 remake, the setting is realistically updated to the Second World War, as the Germans resumed commerce raiding with surface warships in 1939.
Plot
In 1893, Betty Brown meets a debonair young naval officer and falls in love. She conceals her pregnancy from him, and he rejoins his ship. The boy, Albert Brown, is brought up by his mother and joins the navy as soon as he is old enough.Brown's ship is posted to the South Pacific during the First World War. He is marooned on the remote Galapagos island of Resolution when the cruiser he is serving on, HMS Rutland, is sunk. A German battlecruiser
Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
(the fictitious SMS Ziethen) takes him prisoner whilst it defeats an inferior British force. It then suffers damage in a second encounter and her captain plans to pull into an isolated Pacific anchorage to try to repair his vessel. There, the resourceful Brown escapes, steals a rifle and a small amount of ammunition, and makes his way ashore.
The German vessel's main battery
Naval artillery
Naval artillery, or naval riflery, is artillery mounted on a warship for use in naval warfare. Naval artillery has historically been used to engage either other ships, or targets on land; in the latter role it is currently termed naval gunfire fire support...
cannot be brought to bear on Brown, and he is able to pick off exposed crew-members who are trying to repair her punctured hull plates. The anchorage is an impenetrable tangle of scrub and thorn bushes, making it difficult for shore parties to run him to ground.
Brown is eventually killed by a German shot, never learning that his actions delayed the repairs long enough for the raider's British pursuers to catch her up and destroy her. Brown becomes a hero, the British erect a cross on the highest point on the island to commemorate him, and the commander of the British ship discovers that Brown was the illegitimate son he always denied he had.
Cast
- Betty BalfourBetty BalfourBetty Balfour was an English screen actress, popular during the silent era, and known as the "British Mary Pickford" and "Britain's Queen of Happiness"...
- Elizabeth Brown - John MillsJohn MillsSir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
- Albert Brown - Barry MacKayBarry MacKay (actor)Barry MacKay was a British actor.He was most prominently seen in light comedic roles in the British cinema of the 1930s and is perhaps best known as Jessie Matthews' leading man in Evergreen , Gangway and Sailing Along .Other notable roles include Lieutenant Somerville in Brown on Resolution and...
- Lt. Somerville - Jimmy HanleyJimmy HanleyJimmy Hanley was a British actor.Born in Norwich, Norfolk, Hanley began his career as a child actor before becoming popular in juvenile roles...
- Ginger - Howard Marion-CrawfordHoward Marion-CrawfordHoward Marion-Crawford , the grandson of writer F. Marion Crawford, was an English character actor, best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in the 1954 television adaptation of Sherlock Holmes...
- Max - H.G. StokerHenry Hugh Gordon StokerCommander Henry Hugh Gordon "Dacre" Stoker, DSO RN commonly credited in films as H.G. Stoker or Dacre Stoker , was an officer of the First and Second World War Royal Navy and stage and screen actor...
- Captain Holt - Percy WalshPercy WalshPercy Walsh was a British stage and film actor. His stage work included appearing in the London premieres of R.C.Sherriff's Journey's End and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and Appointment with Death .-Partial filmography:*The Diplomatic Lover * Dirty Work * Admirals All...
- Kapitan von Lutz - George MerrittGeorge Merritt (actor)George Merritt was a British film and television actor.-Selected filmography:* The W Plan * The Lodger * I Was a Spy * Crime on the Hill * The Silver Spoon...
- William Brown - Cyril SmithCyril Smith (actor)Cyril Bruce Smith was a Scottish actor who began his career as a child in the 1900s and went on to appear in over 100 films between 1914 and his death almost 50 years later.-Career:...
- William Brown, Jr.