PT Raiders (1955) User Reviews (12)

Well worth watching

[robertasmith · 7/10 · 24 January 2013]

Despie my interest in post war films and all things Naval, I have not heard of this film. How I have missed it is beyond me.

George Baker is fantastic as the lead and Bill Owen, known to me as Compo, is a revelation. Richard Attenborough is perfect as always and the roles played by Bernard Lee and Virginia McKenna are small but superb.

I must now read the book to see how the author handled the many strands and ending, which is a little disappointing in the film. Few people in today's Britain understand the stress and strain on on those demobbed at the end of WW2 but I suspect that with growing redundancies of front line troops in Afghanistan, the stories and threads explored in this film will strike a modern chord.

Three Men In A Boat.

[screenman · 7/10 · 3 August 2008]

The other commentator 'ianlouisiana' has summed this movie up pretty well.

It is a morality play with the little ship representing a metaphor of moral's decline.

A little heavy-handed at times, but it's engaging for all of that. There's a surprisingly good cast list for a story with such potentially limited appeal. Richard Attenborough, George Baker, Bill Owen, Vrginia McKenna and Bernard Lee could make even a turkey presentable.

An interesting cat-and-mouse scenario develops between the three smugglers - Attenborough, Baker & Owen - and the customs officer, played by excellent Bernard Lee. He has a confrontation with them in harbour during which he is arrogantly brushed-off by Attenborough, whom he describes as being 'Lah-de-da'. Later, in a near-catch out in the English channel at night and in fog, he hears their boat hurtling away, and immediately recognises the sound of its powerful engines. From that moment on they are marked men.

Things descend from high spirits to sordid crime and ultimately murder. And their spiral of disgrace is reflected in the declining reliability of their vessel and its final loss.

There's plenty of open-air photography with some excellent shots at sea. White-capped waves and bright sunlight contrast with the darkening human motives and claustrophobic interior.

Available on DVD, and well worth a whizz for all the right reasons. Though it's not a happy ending, even so.

".....you're meant to search the ship, not sink it......"

[Brucey_D · 8/10 · 8 December 2018]

This film addresses the hard lot that ex-servicemen had to face in nigh-on bankrupt post-war Britain; many of them felt of as little use as their now redundant equipment, and some sought excitement and ill-gotten gains by whatever means available.

The Ship in question is a Royal Navy Motor Gun Boat and appears to be (I think) a Fairmile type C. These boats were fast, heavily armed and themselves somewhat vulnerable to attack having little or no armour and containing hundreds of gallons of fuel. They were powered by three large engines and sported between ~2000 and 4000hp depending on the specification.

The idea of using a craft of this sort for smuggling is a bit of a stretch; they use several gallons of fuel per mile and are ruinously expensive to operate, so much so that few of this type survive today. Any smuggling operation using one would have to pay out handsomely just to meet the fuel bills.

Anyway the film is a little darker and has less overt sympathies than many of this period. The cinematography and model work is pretty good and the cast is excellent.

This film is well worth watching, almost a forgotten classic.

Good script

[macduff50 · 7/10 · 28 March 2009]

What's noteworthy about this one for me is that similar vintage Hollywood films often spoil their stories by making their villains remorseful or in other ways kow-towing to the official morality of their times. These characters, by contrast, the bad ones and good ones alike, never hesitate for a moment to do the nasty things we know they will do. What's better, they are pictured as intelligent, for the most part, and able to give the authorities a run for their money. It's not that I think criminality is in any way praiseworthy, but rather that the writer gives us real people, making real decisions, and doesn't throw away the credibility of the characters merely to bow down to the official morality of his times. Particularly good is the character played by Attenborough, who isn't a bad man, but who, through not thinking enough about the choices he's making -- which he rationalizes very cleverly and realistically, so that it takes us a while to even see that that is what he's doing -- gets in far too deep, and then can't get himself out. A marvellous job of acting, and an intelligent and tightly woven script. Not a great movie, but a pretty good one, especially since the "actions" of the boat can just as easily be attributed to the hesitations of the characters, that is, there's no real supernatural force necessarily implied by the script.

Straightforward tale of moral decline

[rmax304823 · 19 December 2002]

Spoilers. The title pretty much says it all. Ship 1087 is the British equivalent of an American MTB, operating in the English channel as a patrol boat, rescue vessel, escort, and what have you. While similar craft occasionally break down or are hard on the wheel, old 1087 is fast and reliable and gets its crew out of bad scrapes, as if it were a sentient and benificent force. The end of the war sees its crew dispersed and a bit disgruntled, and the boat itself winds up in a graveyard. One of the hands, Attenborough, runs into two of the former crew in a pub and persuades them to buy the old 1087, spruce her up, and use her to engage in a bit of minor smuggling, a few crates of choice wine now and then, just to keep the old boat going and its peacetime crew in cash. No harm to anybody, don't you know. But Sir Dickie, now more or less skipper of the boat, is sucked into running stuff rather murkier than Chateau neuf du Pape. He begins working in cahoots with a more dangerous ex-army man, and finds himself now transporting guns and then fugitive child murderers. Challenged by the two other hands, he replies, "I'll take care of business. You take care of the boat." Well, things just go rotten after that. Hunted down by the authorities, the Major plugs the coastguard officer. When the third hand, Raines, who maintains the engines, tries to leave, the Major plugs him as well. The protagonist, Randall, a basically good guy, plugs the Major. Sir Dickie and Randall have it out on the deck of old 1087, now heaving up and down in a heavy sea. Dickie tumbles overboard but manages to catch hold of a stanchion. Randall reaches down to pull him back aboard but old 1087 gives a sudden lurch and yanks Dickie into the sea before apparently dropping its still spinning screws on him. The boat then dies of shame. The boat of course is a symbol of the moral status of its crew. During the war it looks spiffy and performs superbly. Engaged in smuggling, its engines begin to fail more and more often, and it developes other quirks. It's all a bit on the heavy handed side, but it's not an uninteresting movie. Some nice shots of the boat, long and sleek, at sea, and some engaging scenes of combat near the beginning. Overall, this sort of story isn't surprising coming from Nicholas Monseratt, but it isn't the kind of movie we usually associate with Ealing Studios. It's worth catching if it's on, and it's not on TV very often.

Low key smuggling drama

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 29 June 2017]

THE SHIP THAT DIED OF SHAME is something a little different from Ealing Studios: it's a gritty crime drama about a trio of British sailors who find themselves at a loose end after the war and who decide to go into the smuggling business to make ends meet. What follows is low key and grittily realistic, based on a story by CRUEL SEA author Nicholas Monsarrat. The film has a much higher threshold of realism than most from this era and is thus less gung-ho than some, a character study more than an action thriller.

George Baker is the reliable lead, suffering from tragedy and with a mix of drives and emotions to propel him onwards into a life of crime. Richard Attenborough does well in a very oily performance while Bill Owen brings up the rear in an understated turn. Other familiar faces like Virginia McKenna, Bernard Lee, and Roland Culver also appear from time to time. The first half of the film has a light, almost jovial atmosphere at times, but it all gets very dark and very serious for the climax.

Downbeat and illogical adventure story still manages to entertain

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 15 September 2013]

Despite being downbeat and full of illogical ideas not least the title,this film still manages to be entertaining till the rather poor climax.So much of what happens is not properly explained.Why does Attenborough want to go in with Culver,how does Lee know that Attenborough will be at the garage.Why does Cilver shoot Lee,and of course the illogical notion that a boat has a soul.Poor old George Baker doesn't have a happy moment during this film.Everything is gloom.Attenborough plays the sort of role that he must have played dozens of times in the fifties.Incidentally since the craft was a Motor Torpedo Boat shouldn't the title have been The Boat that died of shame?

The wreck of the 1087

[ianlouisiana · 9/10 · 15 April 2006]

Ten years after the end of the second world war Dearden and Relph brought to the screen this parable depicting Britain's decline since the victory over Fascism.Half a century further on the determination,courage,refusal to contemplate defeat and the unity that enabled that victory to be won live on only in the memories of people old enough to have lived through it. Today indifference,self-preservation, expedience and diversity are the words we live by. Somewhere between those two extremes the good ship 1087 self-destructed with shame at the way that the promise of the peace that had been brought about at so high a cost had gradually become more and more corrupted. The promise of Attlee's government,the Olympic Games and the Festival of Britain descended into spivvery.From being a defender of everything that was decent and right 1087 gradually turned to smuggling drugs and criminals. "The ship that died of shame" is a remarkable picture.It was made by people who loved films for an audience that was just starting to prefer an evening at home in front of the TV to a visit to the cinema. Mr Richard Attenborough,Miss Virginia Mckenna and Mr George Baker had the drawing power to fill the theatre.War films were very good box-office.It was a major success,helped no end by the fact that the original story was written by Nicholas Monsarrat,author of the hugely popular "The Cruel Sea". Mr Attenborough had a longer career in naval uniform than most real sailors.By 1955 he could stand on a heaving deck like a 20 year man. The following year he would make his naval magnum opus "The baby and the battleship" with long-time oppo Mr John Mills who must have been doing something really important not to have been cast in this. His sudden realisation of what he had become is like Alec Guinness's in "Bridge on the River Kwai". Miss McKenna with her strong English face and striking eyes exhudes honesty and dignity in every film she graces.Despite not being one of her best known performances it is one of my favourites. Mr George Baker had just about everything going for him,good looks, natural athleticism,beautiful speaking voice and an air of authority. He,too,looks at home on a ship,wearing a roll-neck pullover and smoking a "Navy Cut". This is a very taut film.By that I don't mean that it suspenseful - even though it is - but that there is no flab on it. The scene where Mr Roland Culver as "The Major" shoots Mr.Bernard Lee could not have been bettered by Hitchcock.The influence of the Master of Suspense is apparent several times throughout the film. "The ship that died of shame" is yet another fine British film that has disappeared off the radar.It would indeed be a shame if it was allowed to die.

A really good film

[alanbartlett-94671 · 9/10 · 28 April 2019]

I never miss this film whenever it is shown. This mainly down to the fact that my father Haydn Bartlett made the model used in the film. Unfortunately model makers were hardly ever given screen credits (he never got a credit for his model work on "Those magnificent men in their flying machines" either). I have photos of the model at various stages of construction including one it undergoing river tests and also a photo of the real boat. I remember dad saying that Richard Attenborough kept calling him 'darling' when he was on set (much to dads consternation). I always get a lump in my throat when I watch dads model sink under the waves...

Slower than that old boat to China.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 17 November 2022]

This is a story of the reunion of old pals from the British navy, dealing with their last days of the war and then continuing with their reunion and decision to go in the boating business together. Richard Attenborough, George Baker, Virginia McKenna and Roland Culver star in this film with the typical strong British atmosphere, and there are definitely some high points to it but I found it too dull and the characters rather uninteresting, although some twists with who the villain is does result in a big surprise. This definitely gets better as it moves along, but you have to be patient for more than half of the film before it really gets going. Definitely recommended for the performances and the photography, but rather tedious most of the time.

"If we knew the way and set a course for Hell, she'd go!"

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 12 September 2022]

The mood at Ealing had evidently changed in the six years since filling your boots from a shipwreck was treated as a bit of a lark in 'Whisky Galore!' Smuggling was for many years viewed benignly in postwar Britain as a romantic game which provided a bit of an adventure for ex-servicemen disoriented by the peace. But the increasingly sordid reality that has recently embraced people smuggling is here shown in all its bleak reality.

Richard Attenborough plays the biggest skunk he'd played since 'Brighton Rock' and the general lack of glamour is underlined by Roland Culver making a very rare appearance without his toupee.

The Script That Died Of Shame

[joachimokeefe · 3/10 · 2 January 2022]

Shortly post WWII, the ex-crew of a Channel patrol boat decide to re-purpose her to smuggling and worse, but the boat has a noble soul.

Attenborough, Baker, Owen, Balcon - what could go wrong? Unfortunately the script decides that the crew clearly explain every single incidence of the ship misbehaving so that there's no sense on mystery at all. The movie just becomes a mediocre 1950's crime caper with an unreliable boat.

Handsome young George Baker doing a posh Royal navy officer doesn't work, unfortunately - Sean Connery would have nailed it, I think.

UK title "The Ship That Died Of Shame" promises a mystery, suspense, and drama. All this film delivers can be had in hack TV shows anywhere since.