This blog was begun on the night of March 17, 2021:
Tonight we have a variation on our Naval Theme : a movie about Frogmen, specifically the divers in a British mine disposal unit based on Gibraltar. Lawrence Harvey (of "Manchurian Candidate" fame) stars as "Lieutenant Crabb", a Royal Navy seaman who is sent to beef up the diving team at the base, after several ships are sunk by Italian commandos. To gain stealth, the Italians are using an underwater vehicle no one has ever seen before, the so-called Human Torpedo, nicknamed the "chariot". You've seen similar conveyances on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" - they look like tubular Jet Skis with two seats, handlebars and a propeller on the back. Riding these, the Italians deploy in the middle of the night to place mines on the hulls of British ships, as well as merchant freighters delivering supplies. Harvey and his superiors can't figure out where they're launching from, so an espionage mission is called for, across the water to Algeciras in Spain. From there Harvey and his right hand man will impersonate locals while sneaking around trying to locate the Italian sabotage cell.
While the movie was very good in all respects, the direction was somewhat "Hollywood-ized", British Style, so that the tone shifts back and forth between tense action scenes, where the mine unit is all business, and light-hearted hijinx, in which the onscreen charisma of Lawrence Harvey is emphasized and is played against goofy characterizations of Incompetent Sailor Types. Between the mine deactivating scenes, which are excellent, a lot of time is spent in the familiar "whipping the troops into shape" mode, and while the CPO character is fun in a Cockney sort of way, the film would've benefited from a cut of ten minutes in this regard.
Also, when not donning their scuba suits for another ship-sinking jaunt to Gibraltar, the Italians, hiding out in a swank apartment, all look and dress like off duty Formula One drivers, impossibly handsome and chic. Still and all, it's a highly watchable film, enjoyable throughout, and apparently (I just found out from Google) is a biopic based on a real life Royal Navy Frogman named Lionel "Buster" Crabb, who was awarded an OBE for his exploits. Having said this, it was clearly produced as a star vehicle for Lawrence Harvey, and so lacks the realism of what we saw from Sir John Mills in "We Dive At Dawn". Nevertheless, Two Solid Thumbs Up for "The Silent Enemy", shot in widescreen black and white, entirely on location on Gibraltar and the Mediterranean. Good stuff. /////
And for something slightly different (but only slightly because we are still in the military) - how about a prisoner-of-war flick? Though the subgenre isn't as large as, say, that of submarine movies or spy films, it has produced some memorable pictures over the years , including "Stalag 17", "Bridge on the River Kwai", "The Great Escape", and the lesser known but no less great "A Man Escaped" by Robert Bresson. Those are just a handful of titles but let's add one more to the list, watched two nights ago : "The One That Got Away"(1957), the true story of the only German soldier ever to escape from a British prison camp and make his way back home.
The great Hardy Kruger stars as Oberleutnant Franz Von Werra, who - like Lionel Crabb - was also a real person, a Luftwaffe pilot who was shot down over England and taken prisoner by the RAF. The only plot to the film are his attempts to escape, thus there are no subthemes or extracurricular characters, but Von Werra is so irrepressible in his desire to break away from his captors that each of his three bids for freedom are separate adventures in themselves.
The security is surprisingly lax on his first attempt, and he manages to avoid a search party for five days before being recaptured, after which you'd think he'd be put into a locked cell but he isn't. The Brits are keen on sticking to the rules of the Geneva Convention and are sensitive to any accusations of prisoner maltreatment. Kruger's cocky Oberleutnant is swift to remind the camp warden of his rights, so he's placed in a dormitory ala "Hogan's Heroes", from where another escape attempt will be planned with his fellow p.o.w.s. After he's recaptured a second time, the authorities have finally had enough, and Kruger is shipped off to Canada by way of Halifax, Nova Scotia (a familiar stop for us by now). "You'll never get out of there", a guard tells him on the way over. But he is already plotting his third escape, without even waiting until he arrives at the Canadian camp. I don't wanna tell you how it goes down, but it's on this third try where the going will really get tough for Kruger, who will nearly freeze to death trying to cross the St. Lawrence River in order to enter America, where he believes he will be granted asylum, as the year is only 1940 and the U.S. has not yet entered the war; it's still a neutral country.
Like Lawrence Harvey, Hardy Kruger was an actor of great charisma and likeability. Even with his distinct German accent and face (he resembles a shorter haired Michael Schenker), he was still able to cross over into international stardom for a period in the late 50s to mid 60s. This is his movie all the way, and even though he's playing a German officer and therefore (to American and English audiences) the character is a Bad Guy, you find yourself rooting for him in his escapes, because of his sense of humor and the way he continually outsmarts his captors, with a grin on his face. Having the audience side with Kruger is clearly the intention of the writer and also director Roy Ward Baker, who make it noted in the dialogue that "Von Werra doesn't believe in Hitler - he only believes in Von Werra". He's not a true Nazi in other words, so it's okay to cheer him on. It's also interesting to note that Hardy Kruger could have invested some of his own life experience into the role. As a sixteen year old, he joined the Hitler Youth, as all German boys were forced to do. According to his IMDB, he hated it, and discovered acting as a way out, which led to a prolific career. He's still alive at 93 and retired now, but you should see him in "The One That Got Away", which gets Two Big Thumbs Up, and also in the original "Flight of the Phoenix"(1965) and especially in the French classic "Sundays and Cybele", in which he plays a psychologically damaged soldier. It's his greatest role, and the movie won an Academy Award in 1962 for Best Foreign Film. ////
That's all for the moment. I'm gonna head out for my afternoon hike now. I'm still working on the 800 page Paul McCartney book. Man, the breakup of The Beatles was brutal. I might take heat for this (well, for half of it anyway), but I think they might've remained together, for at least a few more years, had John stayed with Cynthia and Paul with Jane Asher. I'm just sayin'......
Have a great rest of the day. Tons of love as always! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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