Hell Boats (1970)

"Attack on the Iron Coast" director Paul Wendkos stages several exciting combat scenes in "Hell Boats," but shallow characterization makes this energetic World War II thriller little more than a solid, standard-issue Navy actioneer. The story takes place against the singularly spectacular looking setting of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea in the early years of the war when the British were losing. The biggest celebrity name in a largely British cast, "Youngblood Hawke" actor James Franciscus plays a rugged American officer in the Royal Navy, Lieutenant Commander Jeffords, with a caramel tan that George Hamilton would envy. As one officer explains, our hero's mum was British, and he enlisted in 1939. The Admiralty dispatched him on special orders to the island of Malta, and Jeffords cannot malinger when it comes to disembarking from his transport plane. The German Luftwaffe likes to wait long enough for transports to land before they strafe them. Elizabeth Shepherd makes an unforgettable entrance as Alison, the lonely wife of Jefford's commanding officer on Malta, while Jeffords is out roaming the beach. She is naked, but of course we cannot see any nudity. To make herself presentable to Jeffords, she borrows his shirt. They meet once after Jeffords learns about her. Apparently, Alison's husband, Commander Ashurst, R.N. (Ronald Allen), has more of a stiff upper lip than anything else won't have her. Eventually, everything works out between them, but not before he puts his life on the line for the mildly insubordinate hero. The big mission in "Hell Boats" involves hijacking a Nazi patrol boat and gathering a flotilla of motor torpedo boats (MTBs) to blast to smithereens a Sicilian-based submarine pen that contains an arsenal of German glider bombs used to sink British shipping to Malta. These bombs have made devastating inroads on His Majesty's shipping. Happily, scenarist Anthony Spinner has more luck with the mission itself rather than the love triangle that sputters out. Before our hero can launch his attack, he must obtain information about the gun emplacements on the island. Consequently, he sneaks onto the island disguised as a native and reconnitors the place. They have a brief encounter with the Germans and a running firefight ensues. Our heroes escape, but the people who guided them die valiantly. This is good because otherwise "Hell Boats" would have been pretty dull if our hero remained at the helm of a boat during the fireworks. The behind-enemy-lines scenes bolsters the suspense. The special effects make the grade, and the action is the strongest part of the narrative. Unfortunately, one-dimensional characters abound and the talented cast does as best it can. "Hell Boats" was one of a number of World War II actioneers made in the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as "Mosquito Squadron" and "The Last Escape."

Malta is its usual stunning self in this cinematically beautiful film. Why was it not filmed wide? What irritates me is the overly strong U.S. asserter officer shouting at the Brits to do something. James Franciscus and Elizabeth Shepherd's relationship is ludicrously overblown and misconstructed. Sorry, filmmakers but the silly introduction where she is "starkers" and swimming and flaunts herself at him is priceless. She is so forward and up for IT, it's not true yet her acts all gallant and appears only mildly stirred... It's so awkward - it's clear she is says "Come on bog boy!" with everything she has but he is only modestly aroused. Oh you have to see it to understand it.I find this film is embarrassing. It's full of bristly macho-ness and "U.S. attitudes will shake up the Brits and sort 'em out" and the Brits deference is bordering on obsequious. A good story with weak characters. Elizabeth Shepherd is gorgeous and acts strongly but a poor story and and weak direction diminish what could have been a great part.I hate giving bad reviews but this film seems to come from a time when studios squashed good film-making in the process of simply creating star vehicles and it makes it very difficult for me to watch it happily.The real star of the film though is Malta.

This movie surprised me. I enjoyed it more than I expected that I would. The film seemed older than it was—it used tropes and motives from earlier war films but they almost work here. The music and clichés simply echo another, earlier time. One almost laughs at the sex scenes and the confrontations between the two competitors. The heavy use of music, in particular, seems too studied.Yet, Franciscus brings intelligence and understatement to his roll as the protagonist. He underplays sufficiently to give an illusion of depth to his character.Elizabeth Sheppard, playing Allison, is fetching. She too underplays her part in a convincing way. Ronald Allen plays off both of them in ways that makes the interplay interesting. The director Paul Wendkos knows how to produce a creditable film narrative. Still, this is not Bergman.This is a seventies movie that looks and sounds like a black and white film from the forties.Special effects are, at best, studied (that word again) and not all that believable. One forgets how new scuba gear was at the time the movie is set.By the way, one understands how Magda Konopka married a billionaire. She looks terrific here.

Superficially it's a war drama of the tiny motor torpedo boats which did much unsung work in WW2, but the naval battles merely provide an exciting story in which an even more special romantic drama is wrapped up. The difficult love triangle involves the stuffy, awkward Brit and his unhappy wife, complicated by the arrival of the flamboyant American. The three play their parts beautifully as the tension rises; husband suspects wife, she is agonisingly torn between the two, lover tries to win her over.Additionally there is an element of professional respect between the officers, which only serves to frustrate their base instincts, as the competent yet uncertain Brit tries to hold onto both a command and a wife he knows he doesn't deserve, and the daring yet sensitive American (a divorcée?) starts to see some semblance of bravery fighting to break out from the Brit's inhibited facade. Very like real life, the path of love does not run true, and the result is thus more realistic than one would expect from a movie. The madcap plans to outwit the enemy mimic perhaps, the deceptions played out in the romance.This may not be a totally memorable film, but it has some finely understated beauty, which quietly avoids using hackneyed stereotypes, and mawkish efforts at pathos.