1960 - SINK THE BISMARK! - the stiff upper lip of the British Navy film

This is one of those films where navy officers, in this case the British, push little models around a table top map while the audience tries to figure out what is going on and who is doing what to whom.  Sink The Bismark is in the tradition of the British stiff upper lip school, where nobody is allowed to show any emotions and everything is very proper and dignified.

 

Kenneth More is the lead stiff upper lipper, he doesn't dare show any emotion because he thinks it's a sign of weakness.  Of course by the end of the film he is a sobbing crybaby. Dana Wynter is his hot British assistant.  The rest of the case is the usual bunch of British actors found in these types of movies. Laurence Naismith, Michael Horden, Esmond Knight etc.  

 

The film stays fairly close to the facts as the British Navy hunts down the pride of the Nazi navy,  battleship Bismark. The model and miniature work is at a very high caliber.  The director Lewis Gilbert does a good job of moving the story along.  Overall, a fairly decent war film.

 

Written by Edmund H. North, the running time is 97 minutes.