''Sons of the Sea'' is a 1939 British colour
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by
Maurice Elvey
Maurice Elvey (11 November 1887 – 28 August 1967) was one of the most prolific film directors in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year. He a ...
and starring
Leslie Banks
Leslie James Banks CBE (9 June 1890 – 21 April 1952) was an English stage and screen actor, director and producer, now best remembered for playing gruff, menacing characters in black-and-white films of the 1930s and 1940s, but also the Chor ...
,
Kay Walsh
Kathleen "Kay" Walsh (15 November 1911 – 16 April 2005) was an English actress, dancer, and screenwriter. Her film career prospered after she met her future husband film director David Lean, with whom she worked on prestige productions such a ...
,
Mackenzie Ward
Mackenzie Ward (20 February 1903 – January 1976) was a British stage and film actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or ...
and
Cecil Parker.
Plot
In Britain in 1939, the head of
Dartmouth Naval College
Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), commonly known as Dartmouth, is the naval academy of the United Kingdom and the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy. It is located on a hill overlooking the port of Dartmouth, Devon, En ...
is murdered. His successor, Captain Hyde, believes that he himself was in fact the intended target of the assassination. He soon begins to realise that both British and foreign intelligence agents are at work. He enlists the help of his son, a reluctant sea cadet, to smoke them out.
Cast
*
Leslie Banks
Leslie James Banks CBE (9 June 1890 – 21 April 1952) was an English stage and screen actor, director and producer, now best remembered for playing gruff, menacing characters in black-and-white films of the 1930s and 1940s, but also the Chor ...
as Captain Hyde
*
Kay Walsh
Kathleen "Kay" Walsh (15 November 1911 – 16 April 2005) was an English actress, dancer, and screenwriter. Her film career prospered after she met her future husband film director David Lean, with whom she worked on prestige productions such a ...
as Alison Devar
*
Mackenzie Ward
Mackenzie Ward (20 February 1903 – January 1976) was a British stage and film actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or ...
as Newton Hulls
*
Cecil Parker as Commander Herbert
*
Simon Lack
Simon Lack (19 December 19138 August 1980) was a Scottish actor.
He was born Alexander MacAlpine, in Cleland, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Known locally as Alec, he was the youngest child and only son of his father, Alexander McAlpine (known ...
as Philip Hyde
*
Ellen Pollock
Ellen Pollock (29 June 1902 – 29 March 1997) was a British character actress who mainly appeared on stage in London's West End. She also appeared in several films and TV productions.
A devotee of Bernard Shaw, she was president of the Shaw S ...
as Margaret Hulls
*
Peter Shaw as John Strepte
*
Nigel Stock as Rudd
*
Kynaston Reeves
Philip Arthur Reeves (29 May 18935 December 1971), known professionally as Kynaston Reeves, was an English character actor who appeared in numerous films and many television plays and series.
Early life
Reeves was born in London on 29 May 1893 ...
as Professor Devar
*
Charles Eaton as Commander-in-Chief
Production
''Sons of the Sea'' was filmed during the summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, something explored in the themes of the film.The film's credits claim the film was "Made with full Admiralty co-operation".
It is the only feature film to be shot using the
Dufaycolor
Dufaycolor is an early British additive colour photographic film process, introduced for motion picture use in 1932 and for still photography in 1935. It was derived from Louis Dufay's Dioptichrome plates, a glass-based product for colour sti ...
process, with a limited colour palette. Since restoration, it has been shown on
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
The film premiered in London on 11 March 1940, at the then recently opened Cinephone cinema at 241 Oxford Street, with the attendance of the main star, Leslie Banks.
''Today's Cinemas reviewer commented that "With its topically appealing title, its surge of espionage incident, its stirring angles of filial devotion and its panoramic backgrounds of cadets on parade performing this or that manoeuvre, the development has all the essentials which make for popular success."