Sailor of the King
Encyclopedia
Sailor of the King 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
. Michael Rennie
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.
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.
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.
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.
The novel had previously been filmed in 1935 under the original title Brown on Resolution
. The earlier film had naturally retained the First World War setting of the actions against the German raider. In this 1953 remake, the story is transferred to the Second World War; the gap between the affair and these events is thus moved to the 25 years between 1914 and 1939. This is remarkably appropriate, as WW2 produced a number of examples of lightly armed convoy escorts accepting battle against hopeless odds with much heavier German commerce raiders, such as Graf Spee, Scharnhorst
and Admiral Hipper
in order to allow their convoys to scatter and escape.
plays both the fictional Royal Navy ships "HMS Amesbury" and "HMS Stratford". As "Amesbury" she is heroically sunk by the more powerful German raider "Essen", and as "Stratford" she triumphs at the end of the story. HMS Cleopatra herself had a distinguished war record, as she was Admiral Vian's
flagship at the Second Battle of Sirte
, when she was one of four light-cruisers which beat off the Italian battleship Littorio
and two powerful heavy cruisers in one of the best cruiser actions of the war. The film's battle sequences depict this famous wartime light-cruiser firing her guns and torpedoes in some detail.
The raider "Essen" is portrayed by , a fast minelaying cruiser, fitted for the film with large mock-up gun turrets over her 4" guns. The 'torpedo damage' which forces her delay at Resolution Island is simply painted on the side of her port bow. With three enlarged raked funnels, she looks more like a First World War vessel than any of the German WW2 surface raiders, but she is sufficiently unusual in appearance not to be mistaken for any of the British ships..
The crew of are credited in the opening titles; she herself is seen in a few distant shots in company with two Dido-class cruisers, and her triple 6" guns are depicted when the "Essen" fires her main armament at the island in an attempt to dislodge Brown.
1953 in film
The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A...
war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
based on the 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...
by C. S. Forester
C. S. Forester
Cecil Scott "C.S." Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith , an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of naval warfare. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen...
and (despite being largely set in the Pacific) filmed in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...
stars as a Canadian sailor serving on a British warship who battles single-handedly to delay a German World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
warship long enough for the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
to bring it to battle.
Plot
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
Commerce raiding
Commerce raiding or guerre de course is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt the logistics of an enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging the combatants themselves or enforcing a blockade against them.Commerce raiding was heavily criticised by...
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
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...
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
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 CrossVictoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
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
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 MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
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
God Save the Queen
"God Save the Queen" is an anthem used in a number of Commonwealth realms and British Crown Dependencies. The words of the song, like its title, are adapted to the gender of the current monarch, with "King" replacing "Queen", "he" replacing "she", and so forth, when a king reigns...
plays.
Differences from the novel
In the novel, Brown is unknowingly Saville's and Lucinda Brown's illegitimate son. In the film, Lucinda initially has a different surname, Bentley. It is thus implied that she later married a man named Brown. Andrew states "my father died before I was born." Thus, it is possible either that Andrew is Lucinda's legitimate son by her marriage, or (though this is never explicitly stated) that he may in fact be Saville's son. In the novel Brown dies without knowing that his actions have secured the destruction of the German ship.The novel had previously been filmed in 1935 under the original title Brown on Resolution
Brown on Resolution (film)
Brown on Resolution is a 1935 film adaptation of the CS Forester novel Brown on Resolution. 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...
. The earlier film had naturally retained the First World War setting of the actions against the German raider. In this 1953 remake, the story is transferred to the Second World War; the gap between the affair and these events is thus moved to the 25 years between 1914 and 1939. This is remarkably appropriate, as WW2 produced a number of examples of lightly armed convoy escorts accepting battle against hopeless odds with much heavier German commerce raiders, such as Graf Spee, Scharnhorst
German battleship Scharnhorst
Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of the German Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15...
and Admiral Hipper
German cruiser Admiral Hipper
Admiral Hipper, the first of five ships of her class, was the lead ship of the Admiral Hipper–class of heavy cruisers which served with the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1935 and launched February 1937; Admiral Hipper...
in order to allow their convoys to scatter and escape.
Cast
- ichael Rennie)) as Signalman Andrew 'Canada' Brown
- Jeffrey HunterJeffrey HunterJeffrey Hunter was an American film and television actor. His most famous roles are as Jesus in the film King of Kings, as Martin Pawley in The Searchers, and as Capt...
as Lieutenant / Captain Richard Saville - Peter van EyckPeter van EyckPeter van Eyck, born Götz von Eick , was a German-American actor.-Biography:...
as Kapitan Ludwig von Falk - Wendy HillerWendy HillerDame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an Academy Award-winning English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. The writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took...
as Lucinda Bentley - Bernard LeeBernard LeeJohn Bernard Lee was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven James Bond films.-Life and career:...
as Petty Officer Wheatley - Victor MaddernVictor MaddernVictor Jack Maddern was an English actor.Born in Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex, Maddern was one of large group of dependable supporting actors that British film produced over the years....
as Signalman Willy Earnshaw - John HorsleyJohn Horsley (actor)John L. Horsley is an English actor. He was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England.He made his acting debut at the Theatre Royal in Bournemouth. His early career saw him playing a succession of doctors and policemen, the former on film in Hell Drivers , the latter on television in Big...
as Commander John Willis - Patrick BarrPatrick BarrPatrick David Barr was a British film and television actor.Born in Akola, India, Patrick Barr went from stage to screen with The Merry Men of Sherwood . He spent the 1930s playing various beneficent authority figures and "reliable friend" types...
as Captain Tom Ashley, HMS Amesbury - Robin BaileyRobin BaileyRobin Bailey was an English actor. He was born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.Although often chosen for upper class and tradition-bound roles such as Judge Graves in Thames Television's Rumpole Of The Bailey, Bailey is perhaps most fondly remembered for his portrayal of Uncle Mort in I Didn't Know...
as Lieutenant John Stafford, HMS Stratford - The officers and men of , , and .
Ships used
The Dido class cruiserDido class cruiser
The Dido class was a class of sixteen light cruisers built for the Royal Navy. The design was influenced by the Arethusa class light cruisers. The first group of three ships was commissioned in 1940, the second group and third group were commissioned in 1941–1942...
plays both the fictional Royal Navy ships "HMS Amesbury" and "HMS Stratford". As "Amesbury" she is heroically sunk by the more powerful German raider "Essen", and as "Stratford" she triumphs at the end of the story. HMS Cleopatra herself had a distinguished war record, as she was Admiral Vian's
Philip Vian
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Philip Louis Vian, GCB, KBE, DSO & Two Bars was a British naval officer who served in both World Wars....
flagship at the Second Battle of Sirte
Second Battle of Sirte
The Second Battle of Sirte was a naval engagement in which the escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta frustrated a much more powerful Regia Marina squadron. The British convoy was composed of four merchant ships escorted by four light cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser, and 17 destroyers...
, when she was one of four light-cruisers which beat off the Italian battleship Littorio
Italian battleship Littorio
|-External links:...
and two powerful heavy cruisers in one of the best cruiser actions of the war. The film's battle sequences depict this famous wartime light-cruiser firing her guns and torpedoes in some detail.
The raider "Essen" is portrayed by , a fast minelaying cruiser, fitted for the film with large mock-up gun turrets over her 4" guns. The 'torpedo damage' which forces her delay at Resolution Island is simply painted on the side of her port bow. With three enlarged raked funnels, she looks more like a First World War vessel than any of the German WW2 surface raiders, but she is sufficiently unusual in appearance not to be mistaken for any of the British ships..
The crew of are credited in the opening titles; she herself is seen in a few distant shots in company with two Dido-class cruisers, and her triple 6" guns are depicted when the "Essen" fires her main armament at the island in an attempt to dislodge Brown.