The Battle Of The River Plate

[Graham Ritchie]

Who can remember seeing this film at the cinema? I went with friends to see it to the Odeon in Glasgow long ago, but am sure it was not at the time of its release in 1956, but more like around sometime in the early 1960s. Its a film that has always stuck in my mind. Unlike a previous release onto DVD a later one was thankfully was 16:9. One of the highlights of this film was, the film makers getting the use of the "US heavy Cruiser Salem" to portray the German Pocket battleship the "Admiral Graf Spee".

I understand the "Salem" is open to the public as a Museum ship in Quincy Massachusetts for those folks fortunate enough to pay her a visit. Anyway I did take some photos from the DVD of the ship. "The Battle Of The River Plate" I hope one day will get the full blu-ray treatment, it certainly deserves it.

[Alan Paterson]

This film was on the TV at the weekend here in Bonnie Scotland. It looked fantastic and had obviously undergone a full restoration. I also saw a Blu-ray of it for sale on EBay, although a foreign language release which could be changed in the audio menu to English.

[Ed Gordon]

It also goes by the name Pursuit of the Graf Spee. There is a spanish bluray release of the film. Since it was filmed in Technicolor and Vistavision, a restored version would be nice to have. In the meantime, the a full version under the original name is available on Youtube in 720p resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio and stereo sound.

THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE. 1956 - WW2 Full Movie: Royal Navy pursuit of battleship Graf Spee:

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKIZ9qyv35g

PS: it is free to watch

Frame grab:

[Ed Gordon]

Who can remember seeing this film at the cinema? I went with friends to see it to the Odeon in Glasgow long ago, but am sure it was not at the time of its release in 1956, but more like around sometime in the early 1960s. Its a film that has always stuck in my mind. Unlike a previous release onto DVD a later one was thankfully was 16:9. One of the highlights of this film was, the film makers getting the use of the "US heavy Cruiser Salem" to portray the German Pocket battleship the "Admiral Graf Spee".

I understand the "Salem" is open to the public as a Museum ship in Quincy Massachusetts for those folks fortunate enough to pay her a visit. ...

Graham, I watched it last evening. Excellent film that holds your attention for the full two hours. Other films in this genre I would recommend are Sailor of the King and Sink the Bismarck!

I found the website for the museum you mentioned (https://www.uss-salem.org/). They have a few videos there that are interesting. Here is one:

[Graham Ritchie]

Thanks for that above link Ed it was well done. I will have to look out for "Sailor Of The King", a couple of years back I replaced my dvd of ""Sink The Bismarck" with this ERK blu-ray, both picture and sound are very good. One film about the sea I have always thought of highly, is "The Cruel Sea" mostly about the HMS Compass Rose, a small Corvette doing convoy duty mainly across the North Atlantic during WW2. Its a film well worth watching.

[Ed Gordon]

Thanks for that above link Ed it was well done. I will have to look out for "Sailor Of The King", a couple of years back I replaced my dvd of ""Sink The Bismarck" with this ERK blu-ray, both picture and sound are very good. One film about the sea I have always thought of highly, is "The Cruel Sea" mostly about the HMS Compass Rose, a small Corvette doing convoy duty mainly across the North Atlantic during WW2. Its a film well worth watching.

I forgot about The Cruel Sea. That one is probably the best of the bunch!

Sailor of the King is also available to watch free on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnQLdJHi9HA

[Ed Gordon]

See Doug's post at https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/vbb/f...ger#post103190


Rare chance to see this movie on the big screen in New York.

Link to schedule: https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5707

[Graham Ritchie]

Doug is going to have to go to see this one and report back, it would be very fortunate indeed to be able to watch a film print of this title after all those years

[Graham Ritchie]

The film "The Cruel Sea" reminded me of the film on the building of small ships during the war. I watched this one a while back, but cant remember the title. I don't think its a corvette but a sloop not sure on that one. but the film does highlight the work in the yards during that time. I think this yard was in the UK somewhere but not sure where. I had a look through my DVDs the other night but cant find it, I did take some screen shots a while back so here they are. Incidentally regarding "Sink the Bismarck", my old boss during my motor apprenticeship days had served on "HMS Hood" until he was transferred as engineer onto smaller craft operating in the English channel. He had photos of himself as a petty officer taken on HMS Hood hanging on the wall in the office. The shipyard model of the Hood is on display in the Glasgow transport museum, when we visited the museum back in 1992.

Without doubt shipbuilding was hard work .

[Graham Ritchie]

Well surprise surprise, today while looking through some second hand blu-ray titles in town this one caught my eye. Its the German blu-ray release and although its missing two minutes from the full feature, it more than makes up with the better picture quality, better color, more detail. I initially was going to watch just a bit of it tonight using the Panasonic, but the image quality was that good I landed up watching the full 117 minutes, it just grabbed me.

I am more than pleased with the German release and its certainly better to watch than my previous DVD, for me watching it is a real step back in time to when I first saw it at the Odeon long long ago.

[Trevor Adams]

I skipped school and went downtown in Auckland to see the navy boys march up Queen Street..We had a neighbour who was a crew member on the Achilles.