Sailor of the King (1953)
"Single-Handed" (original title)

A British naval officer has a brief affair with a woman in England and never knows that she bears him a son. 20 years later the boy is on a ship under his command when he is tracking a ... See full summary »

Director:

Roy Boulting

Writers:

C.S. Forester (novel), Valentine Davies (screenplay)

Stars:

Jeffrey Hunter, Michael Rennie, Wendy Hiller

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jeffrey Hunter	...	Signalman Andrew 'Canada' Brown
Michael Rennie	...	Lt. Richard Saville
Wendy Hiller	...	Lucinda Bentley
Bernard Lee	...	Petty Officer 'Stokes' Wheatley
Peter van Eyck	...	Kapitan von Falk (as Peter Van Eyck)
Victor Maddern	...	Signalman Willy 'Misery' Earnshaw
John Horsley	...	Cmdr. John Willis
Patrick Barr	...	Capt. Tom Ashley, HMS 'Amesbury'
Robin Bailey	...	Cdr. John Stafford - HMS 'Stratford'
Officers and Men of H.M.S. Manxman
Officers and Men of H.M.S. Cleopatra
Officers and Men of H.M.S. Glasgow

Storyline

A British naval officer has a brief affair with a woman in England and never knows that she bears him a son. 20 years later the boy is on a ship under his command when he is tracking a German Raider. When the boy is captured after his ship is sunk, he finds a way to slow the German's progress while a lethal hunt for him goes on.

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Plot Keywords:

british | british navy | pow escape | galapagos islands | nazi sickbay | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

11 June 1953 (UK)

Also Known As:

C.S. Forester's Sailor of the King

Filming Locations:

Malta

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century-Fox Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The plot of the film is taken from C. S. Foresters 1929 book "Brown on Resolution".

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Goofs

While Brown is firing on the ship, his rifle keeps changing from a German Mauser 98 to a British Enfield. This becomes apparent in the close up views where the rear bridge peep sight is visible. The Mauser rear sight in on the barrel.

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Connections

Version of Born for Glory (1935)

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Soundtracks

"It's a Long Way to Tipperary"
(uncredited)
Written by Jack Judge and Harry Williams

User Reviews

Courage in the face of Overwhelming Odds.

Jeffrey Hunter is very good in this splendid account of a British seaman who pits himself single-handedly in a desperate battle against a huge German warship.

Slow-moving at first, the action builds inexorably into a grand and (at least for me) very satisfactory climax. Who cares about realism when you can have this much fun?

Michael Rennie (one of my favorite actors) is well-cast in his role, and Bernard Lee (you might know him as James Bond's chief) is also very good.

If you see this movie and enjoy it, you might also be interested in Peter O'Toole's "Murphy's War", which is quite similar in many respects.

I rate this good old movie 7.5 out of 10.