The Cockleshell Heroes

Infobox Film
name = The Cockleshell Heroes
caption =
director = José Ferrer
producer = Phil C. Samuel
writer = Bryan Forbes
Richard Maibaum
George Kent (story)
starring =José Ferrer
Trevor Howard
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Warwick Films / Columbia
released = November 16, 1955 (UK premiere)
runtime = 110 min.
country = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0049083

"The Cockleshell Heroes" is a 1955 Second World War film with Trevor Howard, Anthony Newley, David Lodge and José Ferrer, who also directed. It is a fictionalised version of Operation Frankton, the true story of a commando raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour. It was the first Warwick Film to be filmed in Cinemascope.

Plot

Ferrer plays newly-promoted Major Stringer of the Royal Marines, who comes up with a novel idea for a raid. By using canoes, he believes it is possible for commandos to reach an enemy-held harbour undetected and blow up ships with limpet mines. He is given command of a small group of volunteers.

However, he clashes with his veteran second-in-command, cynical, by-the-book Captain Hugh Thompson (Trevor Howard). The two officers represent the clash of cultures in the Royal Marines in World War II and postwar. Stringer is the enthusiastic promoter of commando operations requiring daring and initiative, but has no experience leading men or operations. Thompson represents the old guard of traditional ship's detachments. Sergeant Craig (Victor Maddern) trains the men following Stringer's directions, but Thompson strongly disapproves of his commander's lax methods. When a test mission ends disastrously, Stringer admits his mistake and turns to Thompson, who soon whips the soldiers into shape.

Ruddock (David Lodge), one of the men, goes AWOL due to marital problems. Thompson gets to Ruddock's wife first and finds her with her civilian lover, but leaves when they both insult him. He goes to the local pub for a drink and finds the missing Marine. Thompson gives Ruddock enough time to beat up his wife's paramour, then drives him back to camp. The raid is launched soon afterwards.

Ten miles off the mouth of the Gironde river, the two-man canoes are dropped off a British submarine. An attack with depth charges from a passing German patrol boat knocks out Ruddock's partner; Thompson, who was not supposed to go on the raid, volunteers to take his place.

The team face seventy miles of paddling upriver in their Cockle Mk II Canoes. After travelling by night and hiding by day, only four men reach the target, where they plant limpet mines on a number of ships.

The raid is successful, but only two men, one of them Stringer, get away. The rest are captured. When Thompson and the other prisoners refuse to divulge what their mission was, they are shot by firing squad, but not before hearing the mines explode.

Cast

*José Ferrer as Major Stringer
*Trevor Howard as Captain Hugh Thompson
*Dora Bryan as Myrtie
*Victor Maddern as Sergeant Craig
*Anthony Newley as Marine Clarke
*David Lodge as Marine Ruddock
*Peter Arne as Marine Stevens
*Percy Herbert as Marine Lomas
*Graham Stewart as Marine Booth
*John Fabian as Marine Cooney
*John Van Eyssen as Marine Bradley
*Robert Desmond as Marine Todd
*Walter Fitzgerald as the Gestapo commandant

Christopher Lee had a small role as the submarine commander.

Production notes

José Ferrer had Bryan Forbes's script rewritten by Richard Maibaum, [ p.249 Forbes, Bryan "Notes For A Life" Collins 1974] but Irving Allen decided Maibaum's script didn't have enough comedy, so he had Forbes rewrite Maibaum's revision and direct some sequences without telling Ferrer. When Ferrer found out, he left the film. [p. 129 Harper, Sue and Porter, Vincent "British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference" Oxford University Press 2003]

The movie was filmed in Portugal and several Royal Marine establishments with the Commandant-General Royal Marines ensuring the actors were trained in proper drill and canoe handling. The training camp scenes in the film were shot at Eastney Barracks in Southsea, Hampshire. Eastney Barracks is now the home of the Royal Marines Museum. A Royal Navy ship, HMS "Flint Castle", was used to portray a German anti-submarine vessel dropping depth charges.

Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Hasler, the leader of the real-life raid, was seconded to Warwick Films as technical advisor. [p.144 Mackenzie, S.P. "British War Films" Continuum International Publishing 2001] Ex-Corporal Bill Sparks, another survivor of the raid, was also an advisor.

References

External links

*tcmdb title|id=71156