Western Approaches (film)
Western Approaches is a 1944 docufiction film directed by Pat Jackson and was Crown Film Unit's first Technicolor production.
It is the fictional account of 22 British Merchant Navy sailors adrift in a lifeboat. They are able to signal by Morse code their position. A nearby U-boat receives the signal along with a friendly vessel which changes course to go to their rescue. The captain of the U-Boat decides to wait in ambush with its two remaining torpedoes. Before the rescue ship arrives, the U-Boat's periscope is spotted by the lifeboat. The U-Boat fires its torpedoes just as the rescue vessel is alerted to the U-Boat's presence.
Although set in the North Atlantic, much of it was shot in the Irish Sea. Sailors rather than professional actors were used.[1]
Trade papers reported that the film among those "doing well" at the British box office in 1945.[2]
References
- "Pat Jackson". The Times. London. 4 July 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2019. (subscription required)
- "Robert Murphy, ''Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48'', p. 207". Books.google.com.au. Retrieved 15 January 2019.