Sailors Beware (In Which We Serve (DVD))

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Product:	In Which We Serve (DVD)
Date:	10/09/01 (52 review reads)
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Advantages: Great film, great acting.

Disadvantages: Only to those sailors in real life.

In Which We Serve was written and produced by Noël Coward and he also starred as Captain “D” ably supported by Celia Johnson as his wife Alix Kinross, a young John Mills as O/S “Shorty” Blake and Bernard Miles as Chief Petty Officer Walter Hardy with Richard Attenborough, whose name was left off the credits, much to his annoyance.

This is a story of a ship, a fictional British destroyer called HMS Torrin, but the story was based on a real ship. HMS Kelly was captained by Louis Mountbatten when it was sunk off Crete in May 1941.

HMS Torrin looked very much like a battle class destroyer or at least a forerunner of and was strangely numbered F12, which signifies a Frigate not a Destroyer. That apart this 1942 propaganda film did reflect very accurately the times during the Second World War, which isn’t surprising really as it was made in those times. For those viewers who lived through the years it is a film of nostalgia with a capital N. For those of a younger age it will give them an insight into how their parents and grandparents lived, behaved and died.

For me it was a trip down memory lane, although my naval career didn’t start until 1954 the life on board was a dead ringer for my experience. The lower deck conditions on board the Torrin were no different to what was home for me nor were the sounds and sights. I could almost smell the distinct smell of cordite as the guns blasted their lethal charges at the foe, whilst the men manhandled the shells from the magazine way down below to the gun turrets up top. Fighting a war at sea was rough and tough for those who served. Death for some would be a blessed release.

Armed with 4.5 inch guns fore and aft and a variety of anti aircraft guns and torpedo tubes this splendid ship was capable of inflicting tremendous damage on the enemy but a flight of bombers planted two bomb right amidships and the Torrin sank with the crew jumping overboard for their
lives.

This is a perfectly structured story told in flashback as the survivors clung to life rafts in the fuel oil covered sea. For many the tears will flow with carefree abandon as the lives of the officers and men of HMS Torrin and their families unfolds.

There wouldn’t be a dry eye in the house as “Shorty” reads a letter from home and rejoices in the birth if his son only to have his joy cut short as he reads on. By one of those strange wartime coincidences Shorty had met a girl on a train who just happened to be related to CPO Hardy and after they got married she went to live at the CPO’s house in Plymouth to be near her new husband. You could feel the tension as Shorty tells CPO Hardy that the Chief Petty Officer’s house had been destroyed by a bomb and his wife and mother in law had been killed. With typical British stiff upper lip, stoicism and reserve the Chief accepts the news and goes up top to grieve alone.

This film is compulsive viewing and no matter how many times I watch it, it always has and always will bring back memories, a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye.

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