Pursuit of the Graf Spee (“Battle of the River Plate”)
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Written by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
1956/UK
The Archers
First viewing/Netflix
Captain Langsdorff ‘Admiral Graff Spee’: [to Captain Dove] Every commander is alone, Captain.
This, the last of Powell and Pressburger’s true collaborations, is a colorful account of the British effort to hunt down and destroy a German pocket battleship that was sinking merchant shipping in the South Atlantic during the first months of WWII.
The speed and firepower of the Graf Spee made its commander, Captain Lansdorff (Peter Finch), believe the ship was invincible and gave her free reign over merchant shipping in the South Atlantic. The film begins with the sinking of a British naval vessel off the coast of Portuguese Africa. Landsdorff takes its captain (Bernard Lee) prisoner aboard ship and releases the crew on land. Many other British prisoners are transferred to the Graff Spee later. The ship is due to return for repairs and leave to Germany but Lansdorff decides on one final mission to disrupt shipping out of Buenos Aires.
He is intercepted by Commodore Henry Harwood (Anthony Quayle) and his squadron of three cruisers. Against the odds, the British manage to cripple the vessel, which takes refuge in the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. The rest of the movie follows the media attention to the Graf Spee’s plight and the British naval and diplomatic strategy to put an end to her threat.
This film does not begin to measure up to the Archer’s masterpieces but is a solid naval drama. Most of the footage was taken using real British cruisers with an American ship standing in for the Graf Spee. The movie held a particular interest for me as I lived in Montevideo for a couple of years and this story was often told there.
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