The Silver Fleet (1943/VCI Entertainment DVD)
Picture: C-
Sound: C- Extras: C- Film: C+
Jaap van Leyden (Ralph Richardson) is the shipyard master
in building ships in Holland.
However things change when German Nazis takeover the town, forcing it's
citizens to make submarines for Nazis Fleet... or die. Fearful for his family and his men, Jaap
decides to pretend to collaborate, building ships, but secretly he rallies his
comrades to sabotage/hijack the subs as 'Piet Hein'. A man may die, but when he dies for his
country he lives forever.
Though fiction, this film shows a man who dare to risk it
all for patriotism. Jaap is caught
between a rock and a hard place when the Nazis pressure and threaten a town of
Dutch engineers and ship builders into building two submarines for
them, but after passing a school he is reminded of Piet Hein, a historical
Holland hero and decides to either steal or destroy these subs than just give
it to the Germans. While being called a
traitor, Jaap unknown to even his own men, organizes and supplies his
country men with the tools they need to gain advantage over their captors. In the end he shows what the true meaning
of the last full measure of devotion is.
This was not bad of a film from the 40s (co-written by the great Emeric
Pressburger), thought black and white... it told the story of how an ordinary
man could do something extraordinary. That even under repression and called a
traitor matters little when you are fighting for a bigger cause. This was clearly a film made to inspire
anti-Nazis support. The 1.33 X 1 black
and white image is greener than I would have liked and not one of the better
monochrome prints Rank has sent to VCI, but they tried to fix it. Director of Photography Erwin Hillier later
lensed The Quiller Memorandum
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) and Operation
Crossbow. I was disappointed, while
the lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono shows its age.
This film needs some more restoration.
Extras include picture gallery.
- Ricky Chiang
