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San Demetrio London (1943)

Director: Charles Frend

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2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A prototype docudrama, still inspiring in its fusion of entertainment and wartime propaganda, produced by Michael Balcon at Ealing Studios and co-directed by Robert Hamer after Frend fell ill. The San Demetrio is an oil tanker, critically damaged by German gunfire in mid-Atlantic and abandoned to the flames by its crew, then heroically salvaged and brought safely home by part of the same crew when they happen on it, still floating, after drifting for three days in a lifeboat. The ship, in fact, becomes a microcosm or a symbol of the war: the ship is Island Britain, almost sunk (Dunkirk), its salvage the Churchillian ethos in action, with all hands pulling together and without a pompous officer chappie ordering people around. There is even an American aboard (Beatty) to make it an Allied victory. A fascinating and rather neglected picture.

Author: ATu 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

  • Dingo_567 said...
    Posted on Sep 22 2008 01:46 A bloody great movie !!!
    Report as inappropriate
  • Adam H said...
    Posted on Sep 14 2007 13:46 An outstanding fmovie still occasionally on TV - proof that determined people will 'step up to the mark' in times of crisis and a credit to the British film industry shooting such a realistic movie of a real-life ocurrence.
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Cast & crew

Director: Charles Frend

Producer: Robert Hamer

Cast: Walter Fitzgerald, Mervyn Johns, Ralph Michael, Robert Beatty, Charles Victor, Frederick Piper, Gordon Jackson full cast

Genre(s): War

Duration: 105 mins


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