For Those in Peril (1944 film)
| For Those in Peril | |
|---|---|
UK release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Charles Crichton |
| Produced by | Michael Balcon |
| Written by |
T.E.B. Clarke Harry Watt |
| Based on | short story by Richard Hillary |
| Starring |
David Farrar Ralph Michael |
| Music by | Gordon Jacob |
| Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
| Edited by | Sidney Cole |
|
Production
company |
|
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
77 min. (66 min. and 64 min. edited for home media release) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
For Those in Peril is a 1944 British war film produced by Ealing Studios that marked the directorial debut of Charles Crichton. The film was developed from a short story by Richard Hillary, an RAF pilot killed in action in January 1943. The basic and relatively slight storyline of For Those in Peril was an end to produce a film with a documentary feel and an element of wartime propaganda. The film stars Ralph Michael and David Farrar.
Aspiring RAF pilot Pilot Officer Rawlings (Ralph Michael) fails to make the grade in training, and grudgingly accepts the alternative of joining the crew of Launch 183, an air-sea rescue craft skippered by Flight Lieutenant Murray (David Farrar). Rawlings is initially resentful and bored by the apparent mundanity and lack of excitement of the life, until the vessel is called on to rescue the crew of an RAF bomber shot down in mid-Channel.
Having accomplished the rescue, the boat runs into an enemy minefield during its return and is attacked by German air and sea forces. When Murray is killed, Rawlings has to take charge and bring the vessel safely back.
For Those in Peril was designed to publicise a then little-known unit of the British Royal Air Force, the Air Sea Rescue Unit which was set up in 1941 with the aim of saving those in distress at sea, particularly airmen who had been shot down or otherwise forced to ditch their craft in the water. In common with a number of other war-related films made by Ealing at this time the plotline was subservient to the propaganda message, so name actors were generally not used, and genuine sailors featured in the action scenes.
Location filming took place mainly in the area around the port of Newhaven in Sussex, with the English Channel sequences being shot off the Sussex coast. Crichton, on his first directorial assignment, later recalled: "(My) first picture ... was a propaganda picture called For Those in Peril where we rushed around the Channel in high speed motorboats, boats which were used for picking up crashed airmen and so on. It's a horrifying thing to say, but it was very exciting."
...
Wikipedia