Sink the Bismarck (1960)

This movie shows the short and colorful career of the Bismarck, the largest German battleship of the Second World War. The Bismarck had just a nine-day jaunt in the North Atlantic prior to being sunk by elements of the British Royal Navy.

The movie is generally accurate but has some phony situations and characters added to dramatize it, like Midway did, however I felt Sink the Bismarck went over the top even more than is acceptable, combined as it was with some exceptionally wooden acting from Kenneth More, the protagonist.

Kenneth More plays "Captain Jonathan Shepard," the director of operations at the "War Room" in the Admiralty in London, in a bunker 200 feet below street level. More is newly assigned and lets it be known immediately that everything will be run in strict accordance with naval regulations, revealing himself for a martinet and making himself a bad first impression in the first five minutes. There are subplots about his son, a flier on the aircraft carrier “Ark Royal” and his wife, killed in the blitz, all fictional, including the Captain, himself. The Captain is a plot device to give you access to the action but he is such a dull character that you soon grow weary of him. He never does anything remotely funny, such as make a pass at the delectable Dana Wynter, who, as his assistant, is at his elbow the entire time.

Besides the war room scenes with the obligatory waiting and moving model ships around on a table indicating their relative positions at sea, the action occasionally shifts to the bridge of the Bismarck and the various British warships hunting for her. The most interesting character is Admiral Luetjens (Karel Stepanek), depicted as an ardent Nazi and a scenery chewing one at that. Unlike more realistic war movies, here the Germans speak English with Luetjens regularly uttering “That is gut,” with satisfaction.

The Captain of the Bismark is named Lindemann (Carl Mohner) and he is less enthusiastic than Luetjens about the Bismarck’s chances after she is bloodied in the fight against the HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales. Nevertheless, Luetjens breaks out the champagne and toasts their mutual good luck. The moments like this make the movie enjoyable but they are frankly too few and far between. Soon we are back in the War Room with old stone face and we hear a reasonably good imitation of Churchill's voice coming over the telephone, "We have to sink the Bismarck!" etc., etc.

Michael Hordern (The Spy Who Came In from the Cold) plays the commander in chief of the British Naval base at Scapa Flow. He embarks on the King George V and is in on the kill after the Bismarck has been disabled and must circle off the coast of France with a broken steering gear.

The supporting cast could be a who’s who of British actors with many familiar faces. One I would like to single out is Laurence Naismith who plays the First Sea Lord, also located at the War Room. He is much more humane than Captain Shepard and is more interesting in his exchanges with Dana Wynter.

Directed by Lewis Gilbert (Educating Rita), it is an interesting production, made in black and white yet in 2.35:1 Cinemascope format. The black and white allowed integration of wartime footage with the model scenes and I felt the special effects were well done. It seemed like the Ark Royal was a modern day flattop rather than the rudimentary WWII flattop it was but they only showed brief views so I couldn't be sure.

The Fox DVD contains the 97 minute movie in 2.35:1 theatrical format in black and white. The movie is well preserved and looks almost as good as new. There is a Fox newsreel from the time that the Bismarck was sunk and the theatrical trailer as extras, as well as several more Fox war movie trailers. For those who are a big fan of naval battles, this is a must see but casual viewers should get by with a rental.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV