Sailor of the King is a 1953 British war film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Jeffrey Hunter, Michael Rennie and Wendy Hiller. It is based on the 1929 novel Brown on Resolution by C. S. Forester. Set largely in the Pacific, Hunter stars as a Canadian sailor serving on a British warship who battles single-handedly to delay a German World War II warship long enough for the Royal Navy to bring it to battle.
The film was released in Britain as Single-Handed.
It was filmed at Shepperton Studios near London and on location in the Mediterranean around Malta. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky An earlier 1935 film Forever England was based on the same novel and starred John Mills under Walter Forde's direction.
Plot:
During the First World War, Lieutenant Richard Saville, a young Royal Navy officer on five days' leave, and Miss Lucinda Bentley, a merchant's daughter from Portsmouth, get talking on the train up to London. Halfway through their journey, they miss their rail connection and spend a romantic holiday in the countryside of southern England. When Saville proposes, she accepts, but on the day they are due to go back to Portsmouth, she changes her mind, asking Saville to realise that neither he nor she could bear being parted for the long periods he would be at sea. They part, seemingly forever.
Saville serves out the First World War and the inter-war years and, by the first years of the Second World War, he is in command of a squadron of three cruisers on convoy duty in the Pacific. He receives a message from a British merchantman just before it is sunk by the German raider Essen, but HMS Stratford, the flagship of Saville's squadron is too low on fuel for pursuit and the convoy cannot be left unguarded. Saville decides to remain with the convoy while his other two ships - HMS Amesbury and HMS Cambridge - chase after the raider. Cambridge then has to stop to pick up survivors from the merchantman, leaving the Amesbury on her own. Amesbury finds and attacks the Essen, scoring a major torpedo hit on the Essen’s bow, but is sunk with the loss of all but two hands, Petty Officer Wheatley and Signalman Andrew 'Canada' Brown. Brown is the son of a mother keen on the navy and thus knows more about naval tactics, strategy, and gunnery than most of his rank.
The Essen picks up the two survivors. Meanwhile, news of the Amesbury’s fate reaches Saville in the Stratford. Saville decides to take a risk and go after the Essen with Cambridge. While the Essen is anchored in a rocky lagoon for 36 hours to carry out repairs, Brown manages to escape to the heights around the lagoon with a rifle. Having won marksmanship prizes, he proceeds to pick off sailors working on the repairs, leading the Essen’s captain to use his ship's AA guns and then big guns in a vain attempt to dislodge Brown. Finally, he sends a party of marines to hunt Brown down, but just as they are about to kill him, they are recalled and the Essen departs. Brown collapses, seriously wounded.
As the Essen leaves the lagoon, she is caught and sunk by Saville's force. One of her survivors informs the British of Brown's exploits, which delayed repairs for 18 hours, thus enabling the British to catch up with them. A landing party is sent ashore from Saville's force to find him.
Cast
Jeffrey Hunter as Signalman Andrew 'Canada' Brown
Michael Rennie as Lieutenant / Captain Richard Saville
Peter van Eyck as Kapitän Ludwig von Falk
Wendy Hiller as Lucinda Bentley
Bernard Lee as Petty Officer Wheatley
Victor Maddern as Signalman Willy Earnshaw
John Horsley as Commander John Willis
Patrick Barr as Captain Tom Ashley, HMS Amesbury
Robin Bailey as Lieutenant John Stafford, HMS Stratford
Joan Hickson as Hotel Manager
Lockwood West as Lieutenant Marsh
Guido Lorraine as German Officer
James Copeland as Chief Engineer
Sam Kydd as Second signalman
Victor Hagan as Station Master
Lowell Gilmore as Emissary of the King (American version)
The officers and men of HMS Manxman, HMS Cleopatra, and HMS Glasgow.
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