1979 Dir: Tony Maylam 102 mins
Erskine Childers’ classic novel hardly needs recommendation to Classic Sailors. This film version was made at the height of the 1970s vogue for elegant, accurate, authentically British adaptations of period literary classics, though it failed to capture the family market in the same way as The Railway Children (with which it shares Jenny Agutter as female lead).
Nevertheless, it does full justice to Childers’ 1903 boys’ adventure for grown-ups. All the essential elements are there: the correlation between the elusive Frisian waters (beautifully filmed on location) and Davies’s vague, intuitive suspicions is established, the sailing and rowing (to Memmert and back in the fog) are expertly realised. The boats are thoroughly authentic – especially Clara’s little lee-boarded sailing dinghy.
And not only does the lute-sterned Dulcibella closely resemble Childers’ own Vixen but Simon MacCorkindale’s Davies, with his spectacles, moustache and pipe, is clearly drawn from Childers himself.
Also admirable are Michael York’s transmission from the initially effete, disdainful Carruthers to the action hero he becomes, and, on a supporting-role scale, Jürgen Andersen as the bluff and oddly semi-sympathetic German naval officer von Bruning. Childers’ elaborate plotting is sensibly compressed and rearranged for cinematic concision, with much confusing to-ing and fro-ing eliminated. More arguable is the decision to introduce the love-interest between Davies and Clara almost before anything else, and the rejigging of the finale – this may horrify purists as much as the loss of the Dulcibella, which is entailed, horrifies Davies, but it is presented as an appropriate price for the survival and love of Clara. For the many lovers of Childers’ masterpiece, though, this is a respectful, atmospheric adaptation that despite minor quibbles can only add another dimension to their pleasure. PW
We did find this film online but had limited success streaming it (and it’s rather low resolution), but the link is: HERE
Reviewed as part of our Great Sailing Films Collection