| Sink the Bismarck! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Lewis Gilbert |
| Screenplay by | Edmund H. North |
| Based on | The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck 1958 novel byC. S. Forester |
| Produced by | John Brabourne |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Edited by | Peter R. Hunt |
| Music by | Clifton Parker |
| Distributed by | 20th Century-Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,330,000[1] |
| Box office | $3,000,000 (US/Canada rentals)[2][3] |
Sink the Bismarck! is a 1960black-and-whiteCinemaScope Britishwar film based on the 1959 bookThe Last Nine Days of the Bismarck byC. S. Forester. It starsKenneth More andDana Wynter and was directed byLewis Gilbert.[4] To date, it is the only film made that deals directly with the operations, chase and sinking of the battleshipBismarck by theRoyal Navy during the Second World War.[5] Although war films were common in the 1960s,Sink the Bismarck! was seen as something of an anomaly, with much of its time devoted to the "unsung back-room planners as much as on the combatants themselves".[6] Its historical accuracy, in particular, met with much praise despite a number of inconsistencies.[7]
Sink the Bismarck! was the inspiration forJohnny Horton's highly popular 1960 song, "Sink the Bismarck",[8]credited byVariety with boosting the film's American gross alone by an estimated half a million dollars.[9]
The film had its Royal World Premiere in the presence of theDuke of Edinburgh at theOdeon Leicester Square on 11 February 1960.
In February 1939,Nazi Germany's most powerfulbattleship,Bismarck, islaunched, beginning a new era of German sea power. In May 1941, British naval intelligence discoversBismarck and theheavy cruiserPrinz Eugen are sailing into theNorth Atlantic to attack Allied convoys. From an underground war room in London, Captain Jonathan Shepard (Kenneth More), a widower with a son in the Navy, coordinates the hunt forBismarck with the help ofWomen's Royal Naval Service Second Officer (WRNS) Anne Davis (Dana Wynter), who is concerned by Shepard's icy demeanor.
The German warships engageHMS Hood andHMS Prince of Wales in theDenmark Strait, andHood is destroyed with heavy casualties.Prince of Wales fights on and damagesBismarck'sbow, before return fire damages herbridge, forcing a retreat behind a smoke screen.Bismarck andPrinz Eugen withdraw, shadowed by the cruisersHMSSuffolk andHMSNorfolk using radar. On hearing of the loss ofHood, Winston Churchill issues the order to "sink theBismarck".Prinz Eugen breaks off for the port ofBrest, inoccupied France, withBismarck driving off the British cruisers with broadsides asPrinz Eugen escapes. An air attack launched from the carrierHMS Victorious damagesBismarck's fuel tanks.
At operations headquarters in London, Captain Shepard is informed his son's plane is missing. Gambling that Admiral Gunther Lütjens, the Fleet Commander aboardBismarck, has ordered a return to friendly waters where U-boats and air cover will make it impossible to attack, he plans to interceptBismarck before she reaches safety with a disproportionately large force. His wager pays off whenBismarck is located steaming toward the French coast. British forces have a narrow time window in which to destroy or slow their prey before German support and their own diminishing fuel supplies will preclude further attacks.Swordfish torpedo planes fromHMSArk Royal misidentifyHMS Sheffield asBismarck, but their new magnetic torpedo detonators are faulty, and most of them explode as soon as they are launched. Their second attack, after rearming with conventional contact torpedoes, is successful and atorpedo jams the German battleship's rudder. Captain Shepard is told his son has been rescued, and weeps in his office.
Unable to repair her rudder,Bismarck steams in circles and Britishdestroyers launch a night torpedo attack on the crippled battleship.Bismarck returns fire, sinking the destroyer HMSSolent.[Note 1] After sunrise the main British force, including battleshipsHMS Rodney andHMS King George V, engageBismarck. Lütjens insists that German forces will arrive to save them, but is killed with other senior officers when a shell strikesBismarck's bridge and the crew abandons the sinking ship. On boardKing George V,Admiral John Tovey orders the newly joined cruiserHMS Dorsetshire to fire torpedoes on the sinkingBismarck, which causesBismarck to capsize and sink faster than her crew can escape. The captain ofKing George V,Wilfrid Patterson, lowers his head asBismarck disappears beneath the waves. Admiral Tovey ordersDorsetshire to pick up survivors, finally saying, "Well, gentlemen, let's go home." All on the bridge heard his thoughtful yet prosaic philosophical tone of authority to the finality to the Prime Minister's request of the Royal Navy's exact action. Back in London, Captain Shepherd asks Second Officer Davis out to dinner when she says it is nine o'clock, believing it to be nighttime, only to find it is nine in the morning. The two go out to breakfast instead.
and
C. S. Forester reportedly wrote the story as a screen treatment for 20th Century-Fox before even writing the book.[10]
WriterEdmund H. North worked closely with Forester's story, compressing events and time lines to make the plot taut. Along with the director, he decided to use a documentary-style technique, switching back-and-forth from a fairly insular war room to action taking place on remote battleships.[11] The action is made more realistic when the human element of men in a game of wits and nerves is involved. The use of Edward R. Murrow reprising his wartime broadcasts from London also lends an air of authenticity and near-documentary feel.[12] Lewis Gilbert said it was a "very well written script" one of the few in his career that he barely altered. "It was more like a detective story," said Gilbert.[13]
Gilbert was offered the film by John Brabourne. They decided to shoot the film in black and white in order to intercut it with newsreel footage and to make it seem more authentic.[13]
The filmend-credits identify the actual Director of Operations as Capt.R. A. B. Edwards and "Capt. Shepard" as fictional. Added human interest is given to Shephard with his son's possible loss of life in battle affecting Shephard's emotions.[14] There is an absence of a Shepard-Davis interplay to add gender interrelationships in wartime to the narrative. It is found but only at the very end and when, with the Bismarck dispatched to the seafloor, Shepard asks the youngWren officer for a dinner date and they walk out intoLondon's sunny morning air. In a similar manner, the battle between British and German forces is also recreated as a human drama, with Admiral Lütjens pitted against Captain Shepard in a "psychological chess match".[15]
Lewis Gilbert suggestedKenneth More for the lead, with whom he had worked several times before.Dana Wynter was under contract to 20th Century-Fox.[13]
For the most part, the historical accuracy inSink the Bismarck! was praised by critics, withVariety calling it a "first-rate film re-creation of a thrilling historical event".[7] A contemporaryThe New York Times review byA. H. Weiler, likewise championed its realism in saying "a viewer could not ask for greater authenticity". However, it went on to criticise both the acting and the constant scene changes "from Admiralty plotting rooms to the bridges of the ships at sea", claiming that this lessened the "over-all effectiveness" of both scenes.[4]Film4 praised its cinematography, noting that it "very realistically re-enacted scenes in the War Room of the Admiralty" as well as "excellently filmed episodes using miniature models".[16]
During the postwar period, war films were one staple of the British film industry, withSink the Bismarck! an exemplar, sharing the "common themes, actors ... visual style and ideological messages" of the genre.[17] British magazineRadio Times viewedSink the Bismarck! positively, stating that "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" while also praising More's performance. Attention was drawn to the ways in which it deviated from other war films of the period, specifically commenting on how "there is a respect for the enemy that is missing in many previous flag-wavers". The film was given afour-star rating.[6]
Gilbert's continual forays into events that shaped the British war experience mirrored his own background as a wartime filmmaker. His films merged historical episodes and the role of the individual, withSink the Bismarck! characterised as having an "emotional punch, not least because Gilbert's direction relentlessly focuses on the human dimension amidst the history".[18]
Sink the Bismarck! was well received by the public and, according toKine Weekly, it was the second most popular film released inGreat Britain in 1960 (afterDoctor in Love).[19] The film replicated the success of other British war-themed productions in the decade that also received healthy box office, includingThe Cruel Sea (1953),The Dam Busters (1955) andReach for the Sky (1956).[20] Unlike most British war filmsSink the Bismarck! was a surprise hit inNorth America.[21] Gilbert was surprised by the film's popularity in the US asReach for the Sky had flopped in that country, and that had a strong personal story whichSink the Bismarck! did not. And the battle did not involve the US at all.[13] (This led to Gilbert turning down the offer of a significant percentage of the profits inSink the Bismarck! which he later regretted. In 1996 he said he was still receiving some money from it.[22]) The film was More's most successful picture in the US.[23]
The Johnny Horton song "Sink the Bismarck", which reached No. 3 on both the US pop and country charts, was not an originalmovie tie-in and did not appear in the film, but was instrumental in introducing the film to an American audience.[8] In addition to its airplay and chart success, Horton's song was used in the American promotionaltrailer.Variety estimated half a million of the gross could be attributed to the success of the song.[9]
Sink the Bismarck! was made before 1975, when the British code-breaking atBletchley Park was declassified, so it did not reveal that Shepard's hunches about the movements of theBismarck were supported by intelligence. Direction finding andtraffic analysis showed that on 25 May,Bismarck stopped talking toWilhelmshaven and resumed withParis, and Shepard committed to the belief thatBismarck was headed for the French coast. The radio switch from Wilhelmshaven to Paris might have been caused byBismarck crossing the line between southern Greenland and the northern Hebrides, which placed her under Group West instead of Group North.[24] Nonetheless, Shepard's hunch was proved correct when, by good luck, aLuftwaffeEnigma transmission was intercepted and decoded at Bletchley Park, revealing thatBismarck was headed forBrest to repair an oil leak. The Luftwaffe's Enigma code had been broken early in the war, unlike the German naval Enigma code, which was only broken later and was subject only to traffic analysis during theBismarck pursuit.[25] Damage during her battle with HMSHood and HMSPrince of Wales caused flooding that putBismarck's bow barely above sea level. Oil slicks caused by hits from HMSPrince of Wales were apparent. In the film,Bismarck's bow remains at its normal height above sea level.
Some minor errors involve the visual appearance ofBismarck. When a spy inKristiansand, Norway, seesBismarck arrive in Norwegian waters (sailing from the east), the ship is shown sailing from right to left (from the west).Bismarck has no apparent camouflage but in fact, the ship still had striped "Baltic camouflage" along her sides, which was removed shortly before she headed out to sea. Also, the photo-reconnaissance Spitfire that photographsBismarck andPrinz Eugen in a fjord is shown as two different versions, each with differentcanopies.
Sink the Bismarck! simplifies the movements of HMSHood and HMSPrince of Wales in the battle. The film shows an early order to turn to allow the British ships to fire full broadsides. In reality, they sought to close the distance first, presenting smaller targets to the German ships but using only their forward gun turrets which reduced their firepower advantage by eight big guns, whileBismarck andPrinz Eugen werefiring full broadsides of all their main guns. The film does not show that HMSHood mistookheavy cruiserPrinz Eugen forBismarck, at first firing at the wrong ship before correcting her fire. Only in her final moments did HMSHood begin a turn to fire a broadside onBismarck. HMSHood was hit during this turn and she exploded. The turn presentedHood's deck armour at an angle more vulnerable to shell penetration and has been cited as a possible cause for the explosion and her subsequent destruction, an issue the film does not cover. HMSHood is shown firing to port while theBismarck is shown firing to starboard; in fact it was the other way around.[26]
In one scene, Lütjens speculates that afterBismarck has undergone repair in Brest, the two German battleships based there,Gneisenau andScharnhorst, could joinBismarck in raiding Allied shipping. There is no record of such a discussion at that time, although it would have been possible forBismarck to sortie with the two battleships ifBismarck had reached the port.[Note 2]
Another historical deviation was made in depicting the night engagement between British destroyers andBismarck. The film portrayal shows three British hits by torpedoes, while the British destroyer HMSSolent is hit and destroyed byBismarck. There was no destroyer namedSolent and no successful torpedo attack, althoughS-class submarineHMS Solent did exist during the war as a submarine operating in the Eastern Fleet in 1944. On 26 May, a Royal Navy destroyer squadron, led byCaptain (laterAdmiral)Philip Vian inHMS Cossack, did exchange gunfire during unsuccessful torpedo attacks, withBismarck inflicting minor damage to the destroyers.[Note 3] The heroic action of the attached Polish destroyerPiorun (ex N-class HMSNerissa) was not depicted, although she sailed straight forBismarck, signalling "I am a Pole" as she went, but none of her shots found their mark.
The aircraft that finally locatedBismarck after she escaped detection by HMSSuffolk and HMSNorfolk is correctly shown as aCatalina, but the fact that it was piloted by an AmericanNaval Reserve officer, Ensign Leonard Smith, could not be revealed until long after the war, since the United States was neutral at the time of the engagement.[30] The attacks by Fleet Air Arm Swordfish show some aircraft being shot down; no Swordfish was lost toBismarck's guns and all were recovered. However, from HMSVictorious's air raid, twoFairey Fulmar escort fighters ran out of fuel and ditched. Three fliers were picked up from a rubber boat.[31]
Sink the Bismarck! also does not show controversial events afterBismarck sank, includingHMS Dorsetshire's quick departure after rescuing only 110 survivors, because the British suspected that a German U-boat was in the area and withdrew.[Note 4]
Perhaps the most significant historical error is that the film places the British naval intelligence operation inthe Admiralty,Whitehall,London. The actual centre of intelligence operations during theBattle of the Atlantic and the pursuit ofBismarck was atDerby House,Liverpool.[33]
The film has been criticised for its portrayal of German AdmiralGünther Lütjens, who is portrayed as a stereotypical committed Nazi, crazed in his undaunted belief thatBismarck is unsinkable. In reality, Lütjens did not agree with Nazi policies; along with two other navy commanders, he had publicly protested against the brutality of antisemitic crimes duringKristallnacht. He is portrayed as saying "Never forget that you are Nazis", but the term "Nazi" was a short form pejorative term used by Germans to refer to the full name "Nationalsozialisten" ("National Socialists") that has become the common name used in English to refer to the ideology and its followers.[34] He was one of the few officers who refused to give the Nazi salute when Hitler visitedBismarck before its first and final mission, deliberately using instead the traditional naval salute.[35][24] He was pessimistic of the chances of success ofBismarck's mission and realised that it would be a daunting task.[36][24]
The film shows Lütjens ordering CaptainErnst Lindemann to open fire on HMSHood and HMSPrince of Wales. In reality, Lütjens ordered Lindemann to avoid engaging HMSHood; Lindemann refused and ordered the ship's guns to open fire.[31]
Sink the Bismarck! was made in 1960, as the last major Second World War fleet units were being retired. ProducerJohn Brabourne was able to use his influence as son-in-law ofLord Mountbatten, thenChief of the Defence Staff, to obtain the full co-operation of theAdmiralty. The soon-to-be-scrapped battleshipHMS Vanguard provided some footage of a capital ship's 15-inch gun turrets in action, and was used for scenes set on board HMSHood,Prince of Wales,King George V, andBismarck herself.[37] The cruiserHMS Belfast, now preserved in London, was used to depict the cruisers involved inBismarck's pursuit, includingHMS Norfolk,Suffolk,Sheffield andDorsetshire. ADido-class cruiser in reserve was used as the set forBismarck's destruction,[38] and one of her tall raked funnels is glimpsed in the final scenes.
The aircraft carrierHMS Victorious is briefly shown as herself, despite the postwar addition of a large angledflight deck and a massiveType 984 "searchlight" radar; the same ship is also used to depict HMSArk Royal sailing from Gibraltar. All flying from both carriers was filmed aboardHMS Centaur – clearly marked with her postwarpennant number R06 – and three survivingFairey Swordfish aircraft were restored, of which two were flown from her flight deck.[38] These three aircraft now form the core of theRoyal Navy Historic Flight.[39] A 2010 article inAeroplane identifies the Swordfish flown in the production:LS326, carrying its true serial, was marked as "5A" of825 Naval Air Squadron, whileNF389 was marked asLS423 / "5B".[40] The same actor plays the leader of the Swordfish attack from HMSVictorious (in reality, Lt CdrEugene Esmonde VC, DSO), and also the pilot from HMSArk Royal who later fired the torpedo which crippledBismarck's steering gear (in realityLt John Moffat RNR).
The destroyers used to depict the torpedo night attacks were theC-classHMS Cavalier, representing the flagship of "Captain (D), of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla" (in reality,Captain Vian inHMS Cossack) and theBattle-class destroyerHMS Hogue, representing the fictitiousHMS Solent whichBismarck destroys in the film. Theirpennant numbers can be made out quite clearly, although they are reversed because of the film's convention that British ships should move from left to right on the screen and German shipsvice versa. These were the last classes of destroyer built during the war, and the last to have the classicWar Emergency Programme destroyers' outline. HMSCavalier remained in service until 1972, the last RN destroyer to have served in the Second World War, and is now preserved atChatham Dockyard to commemorate all these vessels, but the newer and larger HMSHogue was broken up shortly after the film was completed, following a collision off Ceylon with the Indian cruiserINS Mysore (formerlyHMS Nigeria).[38]
The large models of the major warshipsBismarck, HMSHood, HMSPrince of Wales, HMSKing George V, HMSRodney and theCounty-class cruisers, are generally accurate, although HMSHood is depicted in a slightly earlier configuration than that which actually blew up. The use of models in a studio tank was intercut with wartime footage and staged sequences using available full-size warships.[14]Bismarck's anti-aircraft guns, however, are represented bystock footage of BritishQF 2-pounder naval guns.[37]
A revival of interest in theBismarck was reflected in numerous publications that followed the film, as well as a variety of scale models that were produced.[41][Note 5] When the 1989 expedition by Dr. Robert Ballard to locate and photograph the remains of the battleship proved to be successful, further attention was directed to the story of theBismarck.[43] A number of documentaries have also been produced including the Channel 4miniseriesBattle of Hood and Bismarck (2002)[44] andHunt for the Bismarck aired in 2007 on theHistory Channel network worldwide.[45]