Although Erskine Childers 1903 book The Riddle of the Sands is now more than a century old, it remains for me the finest espionage novel ever written. This is no doubt partly because I was myself a yachtsman familiar with sailing among the North Sea sandbanks and mudflats, so the descriptions of dramatic battles with falling tides remain very real to me. But apart from this it is a real pleasure to read a genuine spy thriller free of the usual code breaking sequences or a plethora of violent deaths. And it must be remembered that this book is reputed to have drawn attention to an unrecognised threat to the U.K. so effectively that it led to changes in British national defence policies prior to World War I. Few other books have ever been able to point to such a dramatic significance.
SPOILER AHEAD - It is amazing that this book was never filmed until 1979, and remains incredible to me that the film is still so little appreciated it has never been released in the form of a DVD. Even at the level of a travelogue, the muted colours and atmospheric rendering of the yachting scenes in the Fresian Islands make it well worth watching. Beyond this the story of two young yachtsmen who stumble on the plans being prepared for a German invasion of largely undefended stretches of low lying English coastline in East Anglia is a real thriller, and the characterisation in the film does not fall too far behind that which made the original novel so famous. The photography is also almost impeccable. The key chapter of the book "Blindfold to Memmert" describes an incredible feat of navigation with two oarsmen piloting their dinghy about 13 miles across drying sandbanks through a thick fog. A thick fog does not make for a very dramatic picture and transcribing this chapter onto celluloid as a gripping story was a remarkable feat which has not always been appreciated; but I tremble to think about what might have been produced with a less understanding Director and cameramen. Unlike many movies based on espionage novels, this film is reasonably true to the text, and still more true to the spirit, of the original book; even though the final sequences have been spiced up a little to make the film more exciting.
Amazon.com still list this cracker in the form of a videotape, but it is more than time for us to be able to purchase it as a DVD.
SPOILER AHEAD - It is amazing that this book was never filmed until 1979, and remains incredible to me that the film is still so little appreciated it has never been released in the form of a DVD. Even at the level of a travelogue, the muted colours and atmospheric rendering of the yachting scenes in the Fresian Islands make it well worth watching. Beyond this the story of two young yachtsmen who stumble on the plans being prepared for a German invasion of largely undefended stretches of low lying English coastline in East Anglia is a real thriller, and the characterisation in the film does not fall too far behind that which made the original novel so famous. The photography is also almost impeccable. The key chapter of the book "Blindfold to Memmert" describes an incredible feat of navigation with two oarsmen piloting their dinghy about 13 miles across drying sandbanks through a thick fog. A thick fog does not make for a very dramatic picture and transcribing this chapter onto celluloid as a gripping story was a remarkable feat which has not always been appreciated; but I tremble to think about what might have been produced with a less understanding Director and cameramen. Unlike many movies based on espionage novels, this film is reasonably true to the text, and still more true to the spirit, of the original book; even though the final sequences have been spiced up a little to make the film more exciting.
Amazon.com still list this cracker in the form of a videotape, but it is more than time for us to be able to purchase it as a DVD.