Saturday, March 08, 2014

Tonight's Movie: Morning Departure (1950)

The British film MORNING DEPARTURE is the compelling story of a submarine disaster which takes place a few years after WWII.

The film, shown in the U.S. as OPERATION DISASTER, tells the story of the HMS Trojan, which is seriously damaged when it sails too close to an electronically activated mine left over from the war years. Part of the submarine is destroyed, and it sinks to the ocean floor. Enough equipment survives the blast for some of the crew to escape and make it safely to the surface, but four men must remain on board hoping for rescue.

The four men are the submarine's captain (John Mills), his first officer (Nigel Patrick), and two seamen (Richard Attenborough and James Hayter). As the men cope with various crises while the rescue operation unfolds, their relationships deepen and their true characters reveal themselves.

Meanwhile, above the ocean surface Commander Gates (Bernard Lee, in a fine performance) supervises the attempted rescue, which is threatened by bad weather.

The script by W. E. Fairchild was based on a play by Kenneth Woollard but does not feel theatrical in the least. Indeed, although much of this 97-minute film takes place in a confined area aboard the sub, it's almost difficult to imagine how a story with so much action was done on the stage.

It's a tough film with well-delineated, memorable characters. I have to say I totally did not see the end coming, and it raised a big logistical question for me, but I'll say no more on that topic here.

Mills is really excellent, as his day begins like any other, pulled out of bed too early by a crying baby and the need to get ready for work. (When his wife asks why the submarine exercises must begin so early, he jokes "It impresses the taxpayers!") He tells his wife he'll see her by teatime and goes off to a seemingly ordinary day aboard his sub.

He soon proves why he's the captain, dealing authoritatively with ever-deepening problems with both the submarine and the crew. He's a compassionate man but he's also very much in charge.

Meanwhile Attenborough's anxious young seaman, who shows signs of breaking down under the pressures, has the chance to redeem himself as Patrick's smooth "No. 1" begins to suffer physically. Seaman Higgins (Hayter) stays calm throughout and takes great pleasure in the simple things, such as being allowed to drink port in the officer's wardroom.

MORNING DEPARTURE was directed by Roy Baker, who passed on in 2010. His next films after MORNING DEPARTURE were the thriller HIGHLY DANGEROUS (1950) with Dane Clark and Margaret Lockwood and the excellent time travel fantasy I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU (1951) with Tyrone Power and Ann Blyth.

MORNING DEPARTURE is available on DVD from VCI.

6 Comments:

Blogger Crocheted Lace said...

Without giving away the ending, the logistics and technical problems were pretty realistic for the time. I love this film and was also very surprised by the ending.
As a follow up - try other John Mills submarine films: We Dive At Dawn, and Above Us the Waves.

9:19 PM  
Blogger Laura said...

Glad to know you saw this too! Believe it or not I bought all three Mills submarine films in a VCI sale a while back. Really looking forward to seeing him in the other two, having enjoyed his performance so much here. Thanks for your feedback!

Best wishes,
Laura

9:34 PM  
Blogger Jerry E said...

John Mills is my all-time favourite British screen actor (together with Jack Hawkins) and he is very good in this film. I watched it quite recently and was once again reminded of Mills' naturalness and decency. By all accounts that was how he was off-screen too.

5:13 AM  
Blogger Laura said...

Jerry, thanks for sharing your thoughts on John Mills. I've seen him in a couple of films such as WATERLOO ROAD (1945) and DUNKIRK (1958), along with Disney's SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (1960), but there are many Mills films still ahead of me to see for the first time.

Glad to know you also recently watched this one. Such a good movie, although I'm still trying to wrap my head around the ending.

Best wishes,
Laura

9:35 AM  
Blogger Crocheted Lace said...

Very easy to believe, Laura!
I also bought the same three submarine films on sale from VCI. Also got "Tiara Tahiti", "Mr. Polly" among others. Mills is so versatile, he's one of my all time favorite actors.
I love British movies, so it is great that VCI is putting out so many nice films. I hope they offer some Eric Portman films also! :-)

11:24 PM  
Blogger Laura said...

That's really fun, I wonder if we bought the Mills submarine movies in the same sale! I agree, it's fantastic that VCI puts out so many British films. Hoping to get Margaret Lockwood in GIVE US THE MOON (1944) before too long.

Haven't seen a lot of Portman's work yet but liked him in MILLIONS LIKE US (1943), off the top of my head.

Best wishes,
Laura

11:30 PM  

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