Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Written by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Produced by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Executive Producer Earl St. John
Starring Peter Finch, John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, Bernard Lee, Ian Hunter and Jack Gwillim

The introduction of the movie explains the situation by stating that the German Blitzkrieg had changed the land war but the sea war remained the same. Germany could feed itself, England could not, so Germany relied on magnetic mines, U-boats and surface raiders to strangle England. The surface raiders were pocket battleships and the world had never seen anything like them, which sets the tone for the movie. The music and the camera angles are designed to instill awe of a magnificent beast. When the officers of captured British merchant ships discover that the British cruisers Ajax, Achilles, Exeter, and Cumberland are hunting the Graf Spee, they have little hope that the cruisers with their 6-8 inch guns will be a match for the Graf Spee’s 11 inch guns. Actually, there were only two pocket battleships and the movie focuses on the hunt and destruction of one of them, the Graf Spee.

This is a movie for people who are interested in details not love stories and melodramatic posturing. Captain Hans Langstorm, the CO of the Graf Spee, calmly states that among the British battleships, only the Hood, the Repulse and the Renown can catch him, while cruisers can not match his guns. At one point, he begins to sound like a Bond villain, who can not resist the temptation of boasting about his flawless plan. He even explains how he finds his supply ship, how he changes the name of the ship from Deutschland to Admiral Scheer and uses a fake funnel and guns to change his silhouette in order to get closer to his victims.

Unlike most WWII movies, the Germans are not portrayed as cold, bloodthirsty demons. It was made in the middle of the Cold War when Germany had become a valuable ally, so the Germans are shown as honorable enemies. In fact, there are almost no references to the Nazi party. The captain of the Graf Spee is shown as a polished gentleman who does not enjoy making war on civilians and listens politely to a British captain’s protests that he was in neutral Portuguese waters. The German crew is kind to the captured merchant captains, singing carols for the captured officers and giving them presents. A representative of the captured captains even visits Langstorm at the end to give his respect and sympathy.

It is a very British movie, the cruiser captains have their boat crews race to the flagship and Commodore Henry Harwood orders them to break out the gin once he has finished briefing them. It is good to see that Harwood is given credit for deducing that the Graf Spee would go to the River Plate and for having the ships practice his tactics of attacking a pocket battleship from different directions to force it to divide its fire. Unfortunately, the movie ignores his rich experience in Latin America and does not say how many hunting groups were spread out all over the ocean searching for one ship.

The movie’s main weakness is that no mention is made of Langstorm’s deliberate disobedience of his orders to avoid British warships and his decision to seek out a convoy in order to increase his record. Therefore, the British are shown as having tracked him down when in reality Langstorm was careless and overconfident. The movie does not hesitate to show the damage caused during the battle, when the captain of the Exeter makes his way through his nearly crippled ship to the aft command where he receives reports from men who remain at their posts despite their wounds.

Fond as I am of British movies, the script focuses too much on the captured captains, some of whom get as much screen time as Langstorm, who is only seen at the beginning and at the end. While there is not enough time to present the machinations between Germany and England in depth, the Uruguayan Foreign Minister is shown as a sharp customer, who refuses to be bullied or tricked by either side, which is a pleasant change from how non-Europeans were presented at the time.

When I first saw the movie, I naturally presumed that the play by play description of the Graf Spee’s final day by an American radio reporter was a Hollywood invention and I was quite surprised to learn that it really happened.

The Achilles was part of the Indian navy from 1948 to 1978, and she played herself in the film Battle of the River Plate, which was shot in the Mediterranean off Malta. The Cumberland also played herself in the film, but without armament because she was a gunnery trials cruiser from 1951 to 1959. The Sheffield played the Ajax, the Jamaica stood in for the Exeter, and the US heavy cruiser Salem played the Graf Spee, even though it was actually much larger than the Graf Spee had been, which further cemented the myth that the Graf Spee had been a very powerful warship.

The Battle of the River Plate was the first British victory in the war, and it was quite a long time before the next one.

The film is very faithful to reality and Anthony Quayle actually looks like Commodore Harwood. The directors are to be praised for not trying to shoehorn the climatic battle into the end of the film and for taking the time to explore the political negotiations between the Germans, British and Uruguayans that sealed the Graf Spee’s fate. A good movie but it suffers a bit from ignoring the German perspective.