The Cruel Sea

The easiest way to review The Cruel Sea (1953) is to praise Jack Hawkins. A theater protege of John Gielgud, he gained notice alongside lifelong friends Alec Guinness and Anthony Quayle in Gielgud's 1934 Hamlet. A dashing matinee idol in the '30s, Hawkins took longer to establish a screen persona. After World War II service and years of bit parts he finally broke through: in 1954 he was Britain's favorite movie star. A real trooper, Hawkins kept acting even after losing his larynx to cancer in the late '60s.

Though Hawkins could easily play sensitive roles - see his dedicated teacher in Mandy - his rugged features, reserved manner and velvet growl typecast him. He played policemen (The Fallen Idol, Gideon's Day), statesmen (Land of the Pharaohs, Ben-Hur) and businessmen (The Small Back Room), but is most identified with military roles. In movies like Bridge on the River Kwai and The Malta Story he embodied the unassuming, determined British soldier. British film-goers growing up in the '50s "felt like we had fought the entire war with Jack Hawkins," writes Simon Heffer.

The Cruel Sea is Hawkins' most iconic role. Adapting Nicholas Monsarrat's World War II novel, Charles Frend delivers a grim navy saga that's part docudrama, part character study.

Lt. Commander Ericson (Jack Hawkins) and his merchant vessel Compass Rose join the Royal Navy at the outbreak of WWII. Ericson is an experienced seaman but his subordinates are civilian novices. The Compass Rose ends up on convoy duty ferrying supplies across the Atlantic, at the mercy of Nazi wolf packs. Ericson ends up on another ship, but his second-in-command Lockhart (Donald Sinden) notices him an increasingly changed man.

The Cruel Sea pays skillful tribute to the Royal Navy. Convoy life is alternately dull and horrific, long voyages through the North Atlantic with depth charges as only protection from the elements and torpedoes. Frend stages several harrowing scenes where the Compass Rose watches adjacent ships fall prey to U-boats. The film's most famous scenes forces Ericson into an impossible dilemma: rescue waterlogged sailors and risk being torpedoed, or destroy the enemy and kill your own men? Lacking In Which We Serve's flag-waving, it's a brutally honest look at Navy life.

The movie works even better as a character study. Ericson appears the personification of the "stiff upper lip" officer but his command decisions wear him down, driving him to tears and drink. The second half sees the Captain grim and obsessively focus on the job. His subordinates serve as foils: Lockhart grows into a capable officer, while chummy Lt. Morell (Denholm Elliot) never leaves his home life behind. The land bound scenes prove sentimental, with characters launching unlikely love affairs between their long sea voyages. War proves hard on everyone, sailor and civilian.

The Cruel Sea provided an early break for several stars. Denholm Elliot (Raiders of the Lost Ark) gets the standout role as the amiable, ill-fated Morell. Donald Sinden (The Day of the Jackal) provides an excellent foil for Ericson. Virginia McKenna (Carve Her Name With Pride), Stanley Baker (Zulu) and Alec McCowan (Frenzy) appear more briefly. Megs Jenkins makes an agreeable impression as a sailor's sister.

But it's Jack Hawkins who dominates the proceedings. He gives Ericson his usual offhand, assured authority: surely no scene better personifies Hawkins' career than Ericson sipping tea on deck during a gale. But he also provides strong emotion, every lost man and painful decision felt, every sonar blip turning another hair white, slowly breaking him. Hawkins' remarkable performance elevates The Cruel Sea to all-time classic status.