Sons of the Sea (1939)

SONS OF THE SEA is a rather dated spy thriller set in and around the naval training college in Dartmouth. The film opens with the murder of an official and sees his replacement investigating the crime, suspecting that he himself may have been the intended target. Meanwhile a visiting secret service agent looks into the murder while the antics of a local astronomer also raise suspicion.This film is chiefly of note for both the way in which it was made and the way it was filmed. It came out in 1939 just at the outset of WW2 and the enemies are obviously Nazis although they are never mentioned as such by name. The most interesting thing about this though is that it was actually made in colour thanks to a process called Dufaycolor. It was only used for this one film but is pretty decent and a good rival to the more popular Technicolor process.Otherwise this is pretty heavy going, lacking the lightness of touch of many other thrillers from the era. There's no humour to speak of, just a lot of heavy emoting and back-and-forth conversations. I found the acting of the protagonists to be more than a little stuffy as well which also sapped my enjoyment. And the ending just sort of dawdles along instead of being exciting like it should be.

I actually enjoyed this film a good deal more than anything I'd read had given me to expect. I suppose in retrospect it's (very literally!) a schoolboy story of a pre-war Britain where murder is the preserve of dastardly foreign agents, a naval career is the highest pinnacle to which any right-thinking boy can aspire, and even the enemy is honourable -- but then I always enjoyed those tales on their own terms, and the murder-mystery here, while not deep, is skilfully told. The culprit is fairly obvious from an early stage, despite a trailed red herring of truly clumsy proportions, but the focus shifts imperceptibly from 'who' to 'who next?', and there's a real tension in the sunlit afternoon that leads up to the events of the final part of the plot.Given what is evidently a low budget or a high sensitivity threshold for gore and explosions -- the body count is all off-screen -- this story of murder and espionage adopts a detached and narrowly-focused viewpoint that perhaps inadvertently echoes the observer/telescope motif running through it: scenes are shown at face value, without a guiding detective figure to steer viewers' deductions, the villain declines the obligatory revelation of his true identity, motives and plans, and we learn of the boy Philip's fateful interview only at second-hand and piecemeal after the event, with no more certain knowledge of whose version to trust than the characters themselves. The result -- for me at any rate -- was a surprisingly understated and effective treatment of what is basically an Agatha Christie or W.E.Johns-type story, relying on the classic plot-lever of vital knowledge locked up in the head of one man. The slow-moving and potentially sentimental amnesia-scenes culminate in a genuinely chilling moment of breakthrough; and the 'flag-waver' finale caught this viewer, at least, into an unfeigned lump in the throat. For those with the requisite knowledge, there is also a wide range of naval melodies to be picked out of the sound-track!I felt the only false note was Philip's sudden change of career plans by the end; not perhaps implausible as a reaction to events, but presented abruptly as a 'fait accompli' rather than as a revelation of self-discovery. This could have been more convincingly handled to achieve the desired outcome.Otherwise, the film came across as an enjoyable little piece, and an unintended snapshot of its era with its boyish emphasis on honour, duty and service and its carefully non-specific foreign threat -- attractively photographed, with good use of its location, and well-judged touches of comedy and drama bringing to life the secret-agent-by-numbers plot. This is a Boys' Own adventure in the best sense of the term; not up there with "The Four Feathers" or "Beau Geste", but good lively matinée fodder.

I stumbled across this film while flicking through the TV channels this morning, the BBC were giving it an airing on BBC2. I'll be honest I was about to move on as the acting struck me as pretty dreadful when the scene changed to an outdoor shot of Portsmouth like I'd never seen it before. Period cars in new condition and vibrant colour!I'd thought from the indoor scene that first on that this was some 1950s film and was shocked to discover that it was a colour film made in 1939! Looked up the details on the IMDb here and was fascinated to learn about the film's unique history.It's a shame that the story and the acting is not better, but for curiosity value alone this film is worth digging out. The colour has lasted very well and it provides an invaluable record of an England that no longer exists.

I first saw "Sons Of The Sea" during the war (circa "40/41) in Victoria and was struck by the vibrant color of the film. The story line was not memorable and I completely forgot what the story was about. The only actor who's name I remember was Leslie Banks. (That may have been partly because I associated him with the FIRST color film made in the UK, "Wings Of The Morning". (I was about 15 at the time.) In later years, as I became more involved in film (working in television and later in the National Film Board of Canada, in distribution), I kept looking for some mention of this title, but to no avail. I happened to mention to my son, just the other day, about this title, since we had been discussing "Wings..", its' color and its' female lead, Annabella. Today, he called me in to my computer, where he had located IMDb on the Internet, and there was my long lost film! I'm so happy to have found it again and learn more about ITS' history, from then to now. Has a DVD been released of this film? ..or a VHS tape (NTSC!) I'll be back to check soon. Thanks again for finding me!