Sink The Bismarck! Details

The postwar British film industry relied heavily on “now the story can be told” accounts of engagements that helped turn the Second World War in favour of the Allies. Too many were smug action adventures that devalued the true heroism of the exploits they depicted, but this fine film fully captures the tensions, dangers and complexities of battle by concentrating on the unsung back-room planners as much as on the combatants themselves. There are necessarily caricatures on both sides, but at the same time there is a respect for the enemy that is missing in many previous flag-wavers. An unusually restrained Kenneth More is first-rate as director of operations at the Admiralty.

Tight little personal drama which would have been better on a standard screen, as its ships are plainly models and much of the footage stretched-out newsreel. Nevertheless, a good example of the stiff-upper-lip school.