Sink the Bismarck!

Sink the Bismarck! - 1960 | 97 mins | War, Drama | Colour

The Production Team

Director: Lewis Gilbert.
Producer: John Brabourne.
Script: Edmund H. North. (based on the book by C.S. Forester)
Cinematography: Christopher Challis.
Editing: Peter R. Hunt.
Art Direction: Arthur Lawson.
Makeup Department: Ivy Emmerton and W.T. Partleton.
Sound Department: Red Law, Dudley Messenger and Wyn Ryder.
Original Music: Clifton Parker.

The Cast

Kenneth More - Captain Jonathan Shepard
Dana Wynter - 2nd Officer Anne Davis
Carl Möhner - Captain Lindemann
Laurence Naismith - First Sea Lord
Geoffrey Keen - A.C.N.S.
Karel Stepanek - Admiral Lutjens
Michael Hordern - CIC on King George V
Maurice Denham - Commander Richards
Michael Goodliffe - Captain Banister
Mark Dignam - Captain, Ark Royal
Esmond Knight - Captain, Prince of Wales
Jack Gwillim - Captain, King George V
Ernest Clark - Captain, Suffolk
Sydney Tafler - Henry, Civilian Worker on 'Prince of Wales'

Plot Synopsis

Taut stiff-upper-lip World War II drama recounting the Allied campaign to locate, attack and destroy Germany's largest battleship. Combining actual war footage, newsreels, and immaculate miniature scale models, the film’s special effects manage to ably convey the climatic sea battle scenes.

The film chronicles the Bismarck from it’s launch in Hamburg in 1939 to the spring of 1941, that finds the Bismarck at anchorage in Norway. At the Admiralty's underground London HQ, under orders from Winston Churchill, the Sea Lord (Laurence Naismith) and director of operations Captain Jonathan Shepherd (Kenneth More) co-ordinate a plan to track and sink the terror of the seas. Shepherd is also fighting personal demons, having to come to terms with the loss of his wife during an air raid. By his side is the sympathetic assistant WREN Anne Davies (Dana Wynter), who understands his inner turmoil over his wife, a son missing-in-action, and a yearning for a ship command of his own.

After escaping the British naval blockade, the German ship engages the Royal Navy ships shadowing her; HMS Hood, Prince of Wales and Suffolk, in the ensuing battle the Hood is sunk and the Bismarck continues independently with only minor damage. The British launch carrier-based and long-range aircraft against the Bismarck to stop her reaching the occupied French port of Brest, and as a result the ships rudders become jammed. With the Bismarck unable to manoeuvre, the British ships King George V and Rodney finally close in for the concluding naval engagement.