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Corvette K-225
R2 - United Kingdom - Simply Media Review written by and copyright: Matthew Crossman (11th May 2016). |
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The Film
 Commander MacClain (Randolph Scott) is aboard a Canadian Royal Navy Destroyer that has picked him and his surviving crew up during World War II. MacClain's previous ship, a Corvette, has been sunk by a German U-Boat with only 12 men surviving from his 64 man crew. MacClain docks and makes straight for the Admiralty. Despite being congratulated on a good job and being offered shore leave MacClain is eager to get back out into deep water with a new ship and hunt down the U-Boat that scuttled his last one. On the dock six new Corvette's are being made ready for sea and MacClain is offered his choice of one. Whilst MacClain waits for his new Corvette he visits Joyce Cartwright (Ella Raines). Joyce's brother was serving under MacClain and was one of the officers who lost their lives. Joyce reacts badly to the news, blaming MacClain for her Brother's death. The next day Joyce seeks out MacClain at the docks and apologises for her behaviour. The pair take a long walk and end up back at King's College, the place where new recruits are trained. There MacClain is introduced to Joyce's other Brother, Paul (James Brown), who is just about to finish his training. MacClain eagerly awaits the final fitting of his Corvette, named HMCS Donnacona, and is given the final listing of his crew. As well as some familiar faces most of the roster is taken up with new seamen including Joyce's Brother Paul. MacClain starts to fall for Joyce and visa versa but before the pair can do nothing more than a quick kiss MacClain gets his sailing orders. MacClain and his crew are to be the protective part of a convoy leaving the East coast of Canada and sailing for Britain. The convoy is made up mainly of tankers carrying oil, planes and tanks to aide the Allies in the war effort. One of the ships sailing in the convoy is captained by MacClain's old naval captain. Several days into the voyage and the convoy is hit by a vicious storm, a storm that kills one of MacClain's crew. Once the storm is over it is clear that MacClain's ship has lost the convoy. After a day of searching the re-unite with the convoy but one of the tankers is sure they are being shadowed by German U-Boats but before MacClain can do anything about that they are attack from the air by the Luftwaffe. Released in 1943 whilst the Second World War was still in full swing 'Corvette K-225' gave audiences a real feel to what it was like on board a ship of the Canadian Navy. Director Richard Rosson (helped by producer Howard Hawks, uncredited) makes the utmost effort to put authenticity up on the screen. The film is clearly divided into two halves. The first half sees the Corvette ships being built and was actually filmed in the location where they are really built. The name of the place was changed in the finished film because upon the film's release it was still producing Corvettes. The scenes in the Admiralty, especially during the briefing for the convoy mission, are a joy to watch. You almost feel that they were really filmed during an actual briefing. Another plus in the film's favour is that effort has gone into fleshing out nearly all the characters. Here we learn, through clever scripting and well worked exposition, all the quirks of each character making us like them and consequently fear for them when danger is around the corner. Randolph Scott heads the cast with a steely, but fair, performance as Captain MacClain but in truth everyone is on top form and there is even a small part for a young Robert Mitchum. The stock footage used is very good and enhances the feeling of authenticity a great deal. The film makers even took to the seas in real Corvettes and the footage they filmed is truly excellent. Some naval dramas suffer through stagy scenes in studios but 'Corvette K-225' is completely the opposite. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's great that Simply Media have taken the time to find a place for it on their release schedule.
Video
The film is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 Whilst the tones of the monochrome picture are pretty decent they are buried under countless scratches on the print. No effort has been made to restore the picture at all. Normally I would be disappointed by this but in truth I would much rather have this scratchy print available than none at all. Whilst it's true that the print is almost encased in scratches and dirt from the first minute to the last I have to say I did not find it overly distracting such was the fun I was having watching the film.
Audio
The only soundtrack option is a dual mono English language one. There were one or two times when the dialogue came across quite muffled, usually when characters were facing away from the camera but in general the soundtrack was satisfactory, if a little hollow. Given the muffled dialogue it's doubly annoying that, as usual, there are no subtitles available.
Extras
None.
Overall
'Corvette K-225' is a cracking war time drama with an added sense of authenticity which, in my humble opinion, elevates from other such movies. The cast are rich with only the character of Joyce dragging the momentum down. The script is clipped with barely a wasted word and the character development of the crew is another great touch giving the viewer a real feeling that he or she know these people and therefore care for them. I had a whale of time watching Randolph Scott and the rest of the cast and if you have even a small penchant for war movies then you will too.
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