Ships in war movies (1 Viewer)

[binder001]

Sailor of the King was based on the book "Brown on Resolution" by C.S. Forester, creator of Hornblower. In the book Brown dies, although his action causes sufficient delay for the German raider to be intercepted and sunk. This was deemed unacceptable by the producers and the film ends with him surviving and getting the VC.

On the DVD they show that an alternate ending was filmed with Brown being found too late. At the end his mother was to receive his VC and would be meeting Michael Renny's character again. The movie ending is more heart warming

Gary B.

 

[Scott]

That's Great! It was in Newport, RI back then...fitted out as a restaurant and tourist boat. It wasn't successful. I saw it underway (tug boats I think) at the Battle of Rhode Island reenactment in 1979.

 

[Arnhemjim]

In 1960 was serving in the USS Princeton (LPH-5) when it was used in the movie, “The Gallant Hours”, starring James Cagney (as FADM Wlliam F. “Bull” Halsey, Jr.), Dennis Weaver, and directed by Robert Montgomery. It was a semi-documentary of Halsey at the Battle of Midway. Another war movie with the unique appearance of ships was, “The Battle of the River Plate” aka "Pursuit of the Graf Spee". Although transferred to the Indian Navy, the three actual Royal Navy light cruisers that were the main participants in the battle, HMS Achilles, HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter, portrayed themselves in the movie. The Graf Spee was portrayed by the US Navy heavy cruiser, USS Salem.

 

[Rob]

Sailor of the King was based on the book "Brown on Resolution" by C.S. Forester, creator of Hornblower. In the book Brown dies, although his action causes sufficient delay for the German raider to be intercepted and sunk. This was deemed unacceptable by the producers and the film ends with him surviving and getting the VC.

Quite right too,can't have the Hero dying,stiff upper lip and all that!

 

[Scott]

I hope you'll trust me that even though these are close-ups..I was on the HMS Rose.

 

[Spitfrnd]

Certainly you should be trusted but how far up the rigging did you go?

 

[Scott]

Thanks for the tip on Sailor of the King, I just added it my NETFLIX queue.

 

[binder001]

In 1960 was serving in the USS Princeton (LPH-5) when it was used in the movie, “The Gallant Hours”, starring James Cagney (as FADM Wlliam F. “Bull” Halsey, Jr.), Dennis Weaver, and directed by Robert Montgomery. It was a semi-documentary of Halsey at the Battle of Midway. Another war movie with the unique appearance of ships was, “The Battle of the River Plate” aka "Pursuit of the Graf Spee". Although transferred to the Indian Navy, the three actual Royal Navy light cruisers that were the main participants in the battle, HMS Achilles, HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter, portrayed themselves in the movie. The Graf Spee was portrayed by the US Navy heavy cruiser, USS Salem.

Fascinating stuff on the LPH.

By the way, only Achilles played herself in "Pursuit of the Graf Spee". HMS Exeter was sunk by the Japanese in the Java Sea in early 1942. The Ajax was supposed to go to the Indian Navy, but some people wanted it saved as a memorial, unfortunately it was stricken and scrapped.

Gary B

 

[Arnhemjim]

To Gary B,
Mia culpa! Thanks for the correction r.e. status of Ajax, Achilles, and Exeter. I should have remembered the loss of HMS Exeter (have a cap tally). Do I remember correctly that the heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland also portrayed itself? I have photos I took during the filming of "The Gallant Hours", but have to figure out how I can reduce them in both memory and pixel size, in order to import them as thumbnails on to the forum.

 

[Scott]

Sorry ...I shoulda put "trust" in quotes. Who would lie on the internet? I got as far as the main mast fighting top. At the time they used steel cable for the rat-lines and the crew gave me work gloves to go all the up. The photo was posed on the mizzen mast because of the colors in the back ground.

 

[Spitfrnd]

To Gary B,
Mia culpa! Thanks for the correction r.e. status of Ajax, Achilles, and Exeter. I should have remembered the loss of HMS Exeter (have a cap tally). Do I remember correctly that the heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland also portrayed itself? I have photos I took during the filming of "The Gallant Hours", but have to figure out how I can reduce them in both memory and pixel size, in order to import them as thumbnails on to the forum.

Use photobucket. It is easy and free and gives you the ability to post screen size photos as most do here. I can help you with it if you let me know.

 

[Arnhemjim]

With some long and arduous efforts with Photoshop finally got the forum to accept the attached thumbnails from the USS Princeton (LPH-5) in "The Gallant Hours". Am unable to understand why I can't get the photo of Robert Montgomery to the same size.

 

[Scott]

Thank you for the effort. Great photos.

I didn't know that the movie was fairly "new" in 1960. I've only seen it chopped up on the TV with commercials.

 

[Spitfrnd]

Those are nice photos and deserve to be shown in larger size. The forum size limits on photos, while understandable, are way too limiting. I can simply say that an online photo server, like photobucket, is the answer and feel free to PM for help if you decide to go that way. I am not photo wizard but I may be able to help you with the resizing issue as well.

 

[binder001]

Those are nice photos - thanks for sharing

Gary B.