The Battle of the River Plate -
just the facts ( A article written in 2007 )
The Battle of the River
Plate is a 1956 film by the British-based director-writer team of Powell &
Pressburger. The film's U.S. title was Pursuit of the Graf Spee.
The film portrays the Battle of the River Plate, a naval battle of 1939, between a Royal Navy force of three cruisers (HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax & HMS Achilles) & the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. It was the last film Powell & Pressburger made together through their Archers production company.
Unlike many British war movies of its time, The Battle of the River Plate treats the Germans as honourable opponents rather than as cardboard cut-out "Huns". This was a recurrent theme in Powell & Pressburger's films, including The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp.
Spoiler warning: Plot & /or ending
details follow.
In the early months of WWII, the German Navy sent out various
surface raiders to attack Allied merchant shipping. The Royal Navy sent out various
hunting groups to find them. The group that found Admiral Graf Spee were very
lightly armed in comparison, but went straight to the attack.
The British were led by Commodore Harwood (Anthony Quayle), with Captain Woodhouse (Ian Hunter) commanding the Ajax, Captain Bell (John Gregson) the Exeter & Captain Parry (Jack Gwillim) the Achilles. Captain Langsdorff's (Peter Finch) Graf Spee was much better armed than the three cruisers & inflicted a lot of damage but was fooled by the tactics of the British. The Graf Spee sustained damage itself & took refuge in a neutral port, but according to international law, had to leave by a specified time. Falsely believing that an overwhelming British force was lying in wait, Langsdorff took his ship out with a skeleton crew & scuttled her.
Spoilers end here.
The attention to detail is impressive, including
the bells ringing before each salvo, the scorching on the gun barrels after the
battle, & the accurate depiction of naval procedures. The scene where Harwood
meets with his captains on board Ajax is pure fiction, created for the movie in
order to explain the situation to the audience. The only omission is that the
battle is seen entirely from the perspective of the British ships, plus that of
prisoners (captured from nine merchantmen) held on Graf Spee.
Most of
the action of the battle & prior to it takes place on real ships at sea. The
producers had the advantage of having elements of the Mediterranean Fleet of the
Royal Navy available for their use & USS Salem to play the part of Admiral
Graf Spee (although she had the wrong number of main turrets). This meant that
they didn't have to rely on extensive use of models like most Naval war films.
Of course they couldn't scuttle the USS Salem so they had to use a model for the
scuttling of Admiral Graf Spee.
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