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Great Film overall

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

THE SHIP THAT DIED OF SHAME is something a little different from Ealing Studios: it's a gritty crime drama about a trio of British sailors who find themselves at a loose end after the war and who decide to go into the smuggling business to make ends meet. What follows is low key and grittily realistic, based on a story by CRUEL SEA author Nicholas Monsarrat. The film has a much higher threshold of realism than most from this era and is thus less gung-ho than some, a character study more than an action thriller.George Baker is the reliable lead, suffering from tragedy and with a mix of drives and emotions to propel him onwards into a life of crime. Richard Attenborough does well in a very oily performance while Bill Owen brings up the rear in an understated turn. Other familiar faces like Virginia McKenna, Bernard Lee, and Roland Culver also appear from time to time. The first half of the film has a light, almost jovial atmosphere at times, but it all gets very dark and very serious for the climax.

What's noteworthy about this one for me is that similar vintage Hollywood films often spoil their stories by making their villains remorseful or in other ways kow-towing to the official morality of their times. These characters, by contrast, the bad ones and good ones alike, never hesitate for a moment to do the nasty things we know they will do. What's better, they are pictured as intelligent, for the most part, and able to give the authorities a run for their money. It's not that I think criminality is in any way praiseworthy, but rather that the writer gives us real people, making real decisions, and doesn't throw away the credibility of the characters merely to bow down to the official morality of his times. Particularly good is the character played by Attenborough, who isn't a bad man, but who, through not thinking enough about the choices he's making -- which he rationalizes very cleverly and realistically, so that it takes us a while to even see that that is what he's doing -- gets in far too deep, and then can't get himself out. A marvellous job of acting, and an intelligent and tightly woven script. Not a great movie, but a pretty good one, especially since the "actions" of the boat can just as easily be attributed to the hesitations of the characters, that is, there's no real supernatural force necessarily implied by the script.

The other commentator 'ianlouisiana' has summed this movie up pretty well.It is a morality play with the little ship representing a metaphor of moral's decline.A little heavy-handed at times, but it's engaging for all of that. There's a surprisingly good cast list for a story with such potentially limited appeal. Richard Attenborough, George Baker, Bill Owen, Vrginia McKenna and Bernard Lee could make even a turkey presentable.An interesting cat-and-mouse scenario develops between the three smugglers - Attenborough, Baker & Owen - and the customs officer, played by excellent Bernard Lee. He has a confrontation with them in harbour during which he is arrogantly brushed-off by Attenborough, whom he describes as being 'Lah-de-da'. Later, in a near-catch out in the English channel at night and in fog, he hears their boat hurtling away, and immediately recognises the sound of its powerful engines. From that moment on they are marked men.Things descend from high spirits to sordid crime and ultimately murder. And their spiral of disgrace is reflected in the declining reliability of their vessel and its final loss.There's plenty of open-air photography with some excellent shots at sea. White-capped waves and bright sunlight contrast with the darkening human motives and claustrophobic interior.Available on DVD, and well worth a whizz for all the right reasons. Though it's not a happy ending, even so.

Ten years after the end of the second world war Dearden and Relph brought to the screen this parable depicting Britain's decline since the victory over Fascism.Half a century further on the determination,courage,refusal to contemplate defeat and the unity that enabled that victory to be won live on only in the memories of people old enough to have lived through it. Today indifference,self-preservation, expedience and diversity are the words we live by. Somewhere between those two extremes the good ship 1087 self-destructed with shame at the way that the promise of the peace that had been brought about at so high a cost had gradually become more and more corrupted. The promise of Attlee's government,the Olympic Games and the Festival of Britain descended into spivvery.From being a defender of everything that was decent and right 1087 gradually turned to smuggling drugs and criminals. "The ship that died of shame" is a remarkable picture.It was made by people who loved films for an audience that was just starting to prefer an evening at home in front of the TV to a visit to the cinema. Mr Richard Attenborough,Miss Virginia Mckenna and Mr George Baker had the drawing power to fill the theatre.War films were very good box-office.It was a major success,helped no end by the fact that the original story was written by Nicholas Monsarrat,author of the hugely popular "The Cruel Sea". Mr Attenborough had a longer career in naval uniform than most real sailors.By 1955 he could stand on a heaving deck like a 20 year man. The following year he would make his naval magnum opus "The baby and the battleship" with long-time oppo Mr John Mills who must have been doing something really important not to have been cast in this. His sudden realisation of what he had become is like Alec Guinness's in "Bridge on the River Kwai". Miss McKenna with her strong English face and striking eyes exhudes honesty and dignity in every film she graces.Despite not being one of her best known performances it is one of my favourites. Mr George Baker had just about everything going for him,good looks, natural athleticism,beautiful speaking voice and an air of authority. He,too,looks at home on a ship,wearing a roll-neck pullover and smoking a "Navy Cut". This is a very taut film.By that I don't mean that it suspenseful - even though it is - but that there is no flab on it. The scene where Mr Roland Culver as "The Major" shoots Mr.Bernard Lee could not have been bettered by Hitchcock.The influence of the Master of Suspense is apparent several times throughout the film. "The ship that died of shame" is yet another fine British film that has disappeared off the radar.It would indeed be a shame if it was allowed to die.