The film has special interest to me because it was portrayed on real events not released until 1978. The daring and pure courage of these exploits draw breath. It’s not a very serious film and has plenty of comic events but once you sit back and consider the content it all starts to sink it.
The film is dedicated to Earl Mountbatten (former beloved viceroy of India and an honorary commander of the Calcutta Light Horse). He was assassinated by the cowardly IRA in 1979 by planting a bomb on his boat while he was in holiday in the South of Ireland. His grandson, Nicholas, aged 14, Paul Maxwell were also killed in the blast.
The following is a quick technical review by Tim a special friend - to whom I am grateful for these thoughts
With regards to ‘The Sea Wolves’ I found it a great film - but I can’t understand why Portugal did not declare war on Germany. In the true story, as with the Graff Spee in Uruguay, the Germans actually sank their own ships so they would not be captured by the allies - the warship Erenfells in ‘The Sea Wolves’ actually suffered this fate. One surprising scene is a German pouring oil over the decks and throwing a lit lantern causing an inferno. I did not understand why he was doing this to his own ship.
Another unusual element is the way the British can board the vessel making less noise that I can in my bedroom slippers. They had army boots on and although I love this film this aspect is unbelievable - was there a lot of cotton wool in people’s ears?
The weather was nicer than Britain, with it being India I would have however expected a torrent of rain as it was the tropics. I have a few other queries such as why there were not even demonstrations by Portugal about an attack involving Goa!
I like the film very much. My favourite scene is where they are at sea drinking alcohol and they tip the booze over themselves so that they think the Light Horse are just drunk businessmen. To make the film the producers had 4 German survivors of the raid advise them as far as filming was concerned. I believe that there were a number of British survivors of the raid helping on the technical end.
I also enjoyed ‘Paper Tiger’ and ‘Murder by Decree’ both of which I watched when I was in my 20’s as well as ‘Boys from Brazil’ which also starred Gregory Peck.
