Battle of the River Plate (film)
| The Battle of the River Plate (Pursuit of the Graf Spee) |
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| Directed by |
Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
| Produced by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
| Written by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
| Starring |
John Gregson Anthony Quayle Peter Finch |
| Narrated by | David Farrar |
| Music by | Brian Easdale |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Edited by | Reginald Mills |
| Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors Ltd. |
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Release date
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Running time
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119 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Author | Michael Powell |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-Fiction |
| Publisher | Hodder and Stoughton,Rinehart (1956), White Lion Publishers (1976) |
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Publication date
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October 1956 (UK), 1957 (US), 1976 (second edition) |
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| ISBN |
The Battle of the River Plate (a.k.a. Pursuit of the Graf Spee in the United States) is a 1956 British war film in Technicolor and VistaVision by the writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The film stars John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, and Peter Finch. It was distributed worldwide by Rank Film Distributors Ltd.
The film's storyline concerns the Battle of the River Plate, an early World War II naval battle in 1939 between a Royal Navy force of three cruisers and the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.
In the early months of the Second World War, Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine sends out merchant raiders to attack Allied shipping. The Royal Navy responds with hunting groups whose mission is to stop them. The group that finds the heavily armed pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee near South America is outgunned: Graf Spee is equipped with long-range 11-inch guns, while the British heavy cruiser Exeter has much lighter 8-inch guns, and the light cruisers Ajax and Achilles have 6-inch guns. Despite this, they go straight to the attack.
The British are led by Commodore Harwood (Anthony Quayle), with Captain Woodhouse (Ian Hunter) commanding flagship Ajax, Captain Bell (John Gregson) Exeter and Captain Parry (Jack Gwillim) Achilles. The British use their superior numbers to "split her fire" by attacking from different directions, but Graf Spee, under Captain Hans Langsdorff (Peter Finch), inflicts much damage on her foes; Exeter is particularly hard hit and is forced to retire.
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