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It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It's the middle of the war and there is a gap in mid-Atlantic between North America and England, desperate for supplies. A freighter is torpedoed and half a dozen crew find themselves adrift in a lifeboat with a makeshift sail, heading for the Irish coast which is far, far away. So far that it's doubtful they'll make it.The radio operator (or, pardon me, the wireless operator) has brought along a small, battery-operated transmitter, which he uses to send distress signals in hopes that a friendly vessel will pick them up. One does, another cargo ship, and she heads towards the lifeboat's position. The problem is that a U-boat has also received the calls. The KaEl assumes, correctly, that a British ship is coming to their rescue, so the U-boat bides its time, waiting for juicier fruit.The cargo ship finally comes, just as Sparks has exhausted the batteries of his transmitter, but despite the warnings of the men in the boat, the U-boat manages to put a torpedo into the rescue ship. The submarine is tricked into surfacing and there is a shoot out at sea.It was all filmed at sea and I can understand the pride shown by the director on the audio commentary. Yet, on the whole, it was disappointing. The actors were drawn from the ranks of seamen. They have the proper face but they can't act, and it shows. Two kinds of film were used in the shooting and one, three-strip technicolor, is clearly superior to the other.The Brits made some splendid movies during and after the war but in this instance one misses the faces that were to become so familiar. Where is Denholm Elliot? Shouldn't Dirk Bogarde be in here somewhere? And I longed for Bernard Lee. True, the score was conducted by Muir Matheson but Malcolm Arnold is nowhere in sight.It's a good, taut story but it lacks professionalism.

This was yet another classic British wartime 'documentary', one I was wary of in view of its feature-length (80 minutes) – especially, at this juncture, having been somewhat let down by a few of its contemporaneous ilk – but which would prove a surprisingly positive experience. Like the recently-viewed THE SILENT VILLAGE (1943), the documentary epithet (not to mention its title!) is misleading here, since it is actually a narrative film – albeit a re-enactment of a true WWII episode – that just happens to feature non-professional actors. Indeed, it can be said that such wartime efforts were "neo-realist" before the term was even coined or the style had actually taken off in Italy! Still, it is debatable whether the end result would have been this noteworthy had professional performers been employed rather than real naval servicemen – since it tells a standard (albeit undeniably gripping) tale of a rescue at sea and the ensuing scuttling of a U-Boat!Apart from Clifton Parker's evocative score, two novelty aspects are employed here that make the whole show all the more appealing to the casual viewer: the fact that it was shot in Technicolor (by the great Jack Cardiff, no less); the documentary pedigree itself allowed for (or, I should say, excused) the copious use of language that would otherwise not have been permissible for the era – such as "bastards", "bloody", "damn" and "hell"...not to mention sketches of naked women adorning the walls of the radio operators' quarters! For what it is worth, director Jackson would eventually break into commercial film-making but never again approached the reasonable level of excellence achieved in this case!

Very worthwhile reading Pat Jackson's memoir of his beginnings in film, in "Retake Please - Night Mail to Western Approaches" Conversational style easy to follow, and fascinating to learn how he and his crew achieved what they did, sometime through great hardship. He gives a lot of detail as to how effects were achieved, or not as the case may be. Reading his accounts brings home how ground breaking he was in creating his "documentary" style. Much criticism has been levelled at other war documentarians (EG Frank Hurley, II World war, Antarctic, photographer) for falsifying photos in order to achieve the romance of or horror of what they wanted to convey. It is clear in this memoir that Pat Jackson saw himself as having a "rallying the troops" job to do and he had no qualms using the illusions capable in the film technology of the time to get his message across. The most satisfying aspect of this memoir is his warmth and fondness for the people he met along the way, he often quotes from their first meetings in great detail, particularly the non professional casts he employed in Western Approaches. A wonderful read.

The British film industry created a genre in the documentary-type war movie (San Demetrio London, The Cruel Sea, The Colditz Story, etc., etc.) and many of these are now regarded as classics. I am very surprised to see there are no comments on IMDb for 'Western Approaches' because it's a great little film and unique in several ways.Firstly, it was shot in colour by Jack Cardiff, one of the best cinematographers around (think of the use of colour in 'Black Narcissus' and 'The Red Shoes'). The small red sail of the lifeboat set against the unending grey of the sea makes for some wonderful images.Second, the cast were genuine merchant seaman who had fought in the Battle of the Atlantic. Their performances may not be up to professional standards perhaps, but they are heartfelt - thanks to their understanding of the situation torpedoed seamen faced in the war.The plot builds a good deal of suspense into the dilemma of the sailors who want to be rescued, of course, but know they are being used as a decoy for another U-Boat kill.If you get the chance to see this, don't miss it, it's a fine piece of film-making.