Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956)

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Something of a swan song for the legendary Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger partnership, 1956's The Battle of the River Plate is their penultimate film together (the following year's Ill Met By Moonlight was the last). Shot in a semi-documentary style that stands apart from the "magical realism" of much of their previous work--Canterbury Tales, A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes--the film tells the story of the pursuit of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee by three British cruisers off the River Plate in Uruguay during November 1939.

Incorporating actual wartime footage adds to the authentic air, albeit one that sits uneasily with the obviously studio-bound look of the rest. Among the solid cast Peter Finch stands out as the beleaguered Captain Langsdorff of the Graf Spee, while John Gregson is his counterpart, the stalwart British hero type. Things get a bit odd when Christopher Lee pops up in the unlikely role of a Latin-American nightclub boss. It's an atypical Powell and Pressburger picture and not exactly their best, but still a fine World War II picture that documents an important incident in the opening salvos of the war. --Mark Walker

Actors: John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, Ian Hunter, Jack Gwillim, Bernard Lee
Directors: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
Writers: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell
Producers: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell, Earl St. John, Sydney Streeter

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Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956)
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