Hell Boats

Hell Boats
Original film poster by Frank McCarthy
Directed by	Paul Wendkos
Produced by	Lewis J. Rachmil
Written by	Derek Ford Donald Ford Anthony Spinner
Starring	James Franciscus, Elizabeth Shepherd, Ronald Allen
Music by	Frank Cordell
Cinematography	Paul Beeson
Edited by	John S. Smith
Production company	Oakmont Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	20 March 1970
Running time	95 minutes
Country	UK
Language	English

Hell Boats is a 1970 Technicolor British war film directed by Paul Wendkos that was filmed in Malta. It stars James Franciscus, Elizabeth Shepherd, and Ronald Allen in a story about British Motor Torpedo Boats in the Mediterranean in World War II. It was the last film made by Oakmont Productions, a branch of Mirisch Films. The film's technical advisor was Lieutenant Commander Ian Nagle Douglas Cox who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order whilst serving in HMS Malcolm in 1940.

In 1941 Lieutenant Commander Jeffords *James Franciscus), an American serving with the Royal Navy is assigned to Valletta, Malta, to command a flotilla of Motor Torpedo Boats for a top secret mission. Jeffords is granted permission to take his friend Chief Petty Officer Yacov (Reuven Bar-Yotam), an Israeli/Palestinian with him.

Through scrounging spare parts from sunken craft, the battered flotilla is able to piece together three seaworthy craft. Jeffords' mission is to destroy a former Italian submarine base in Augusta, Sicily, that now contains the German's Fritz X glide bombs that have been taking a heavy toll of British shipping. As the bombs are stored in former submarine pens tunnelled inside a mountain, an aerial attack is unfeasibile. It is up to Jeffords to determine how he will accomplish his mission.