rightwingisevil when the young Canadian sailor was rescued and captured on the German warship, his p.o.w. status was the first time that i've seen in a war movie that a prisoner of war could be so easily walked around on board of the German warship and not be confined in the holding cabin under 24/7 watch. he seemed to be the only British sailor who's not wounded but still stayed with all the other wounded ones. he was escorted only by a German sailor to walk around having fresh air regularly in the day time. the way that a pow had been treated like a first class cruise ship was a shocking contrast to what we had seen in any WWII movie. then when the young sailor escaped, he chose to sneak off the ship without a shirt, and the shoes he wore were also quite convenient like a ballet dancer's, that's quite weird too. but the flaws i mentioned here are nothing if you've seen the whole movie, a great one!

colin-411 A fine film, with good acting and excellent pacing-it never drags. This film will appeal to a wide audience, as the romantic and heart-breaking portions will appeal to one group, while the great action shots will appeal to a different audience.One thing that is almost unique is that this is one of the few films that shows the crews donning flash suits. Flash suits are made of white fire-resistant material to prevent burns from firing the large guns in such close proximity, and fires caused by enemy action. In most naval movies the crews don't the flash suits. For the main actors, there is an obvious reason- you can't see their faces, but in this film all the British crews don the suits (though they don't wear the hoods that cover the face and neck). This makes this film more accurate than almost all WWI and WWII naval films. Da Worfster, a previous reviewer, made the following comment: "Of course the ships are way to modern to be WWII vintage craft "-This is incorrect. The ships used in the film are HMS Glasgow, HMS Cleopatra, and HMS Manxman, and all three served during WWII, the Glasgow for the entire war, while the other two joined the war in 1941.One last historical note: British and German ships used different optical rangefinder systems. The German system was more accurate, but lost accuracy from the concussion of the gun firing during battle. The British system was not as accurate, but more rugged and better in dim light. The result of this is actually shown during this film, with the German shells straddling the British with the first shots, but then losing accuracy as the battle progressed, while the British shooting got better as they 'got the range'.All-in-all, a fine film, well made, and with better accuracy than most. Recommended.

Worf101 I never heard of this film before I ran across it on Amazon.Com. I was amazed by this as I'm a military historian and I already have an extensive WWII film library. Upon first viewing I found the whole front story stultifying. I love Michael Rennie as an actor but I found his whole "stiff upper lip" "I love you I truly do" performance to be unbelievably stiff. And the mother, were talking early 20th Century morals here, I no more believe her spending a week bonking a stranger than I do her then allowing him to walk away. And her then compounding it by having his love child out of wedlock AND NEVER TELLING HIM??? Puhlease. Eyewash....When we're finally at sea though the movie comes into its own. Of course the ships are way to modern to be WWII vintage craft and the Nazi's are portrayed as "right good fellows" (they are our allies at the time now against those nasty Bolshiviks so be nice to em) and there's nary a swastika in sight. Good ripping yarn if I do say so myself but could'a been much more if the Victorian morals hadn't derailed the film.Da Worfster

laholly I first saw this excellent film on the old Saturday night at the movies more years ago than i care to admit. I will admit that i did NOT see the beginning of it,which is why when i watched it again years later that the scene between Michael Rennie and Wendy Hiller made no sense(I thought I was watching a different movie.) Be that as it may, Sailor of the king remains one of my all time favorites. It is well crafted,and the tension builds to a peak as the Essen pulls out of the grotto where it has gone for repairs, leaving Seaman Brown behind. In his first major film roll, Jeffrey Hunter is excellent. One can see the frustration on his face as the the Essen leaves.(only to be blasted out of the water by the British Navy.). I didn't realize that there were actually two endings filmed for this,one with a far happy ending, but true to the book, Brown on Resolution, on which it is based.According to film trivia both endings were shown to a preview audience and they opted for Brown being rescued. Michael Rennie and Wendy Hiller are pivotal to the story and excellent as always, but the film is all Jeffrey Hunter. I particularly enjoyed the scene at the end when Hunter is talking to Michael Rennie and Rennie tells them they will be putting into port in Brown's home town in Canada. Hunter says that he wants Rennie to meet his mother to which Rennie replies that he would be quite pleased(.....!) Then of course the King comes in and both snap to attention to the tune of God save the King...... goosebump time. I suspect that I should try to track down the alternative ending sometime.. Am not sure how the final scene would play out in it.