SONS OF THE SEA is a rather dated spy thriller set in and around the naval training college in Dartmouth. The film opens with the murder of an official and sees his replacement investigating the crime, suspecting that he himself may have been the intended target. Meanwhile a visiting secret service agent looks into the murder while the antics of a local astronomer also raise suspicion.
This film is chiefly of note for both the way in which it was made and the way it was filmed. It came out in 1939 just at the outset of WW2 and the enemies are obviously Nazis although they are never mentioned as such by name. The most interesting thing about this though is that it was actually made in colour thanks to a process called Dufaycolor. It was only used for this one film but is pretty decent and a good rival to the more popular Technicolor process.
Otherwise this is pretty heavy going, lacking the lightness of touch of many other thrillers from the era. There's no humour to speak of, just a lot of heavy emoting and back-and-forth conversations. I found the acting of the protagonists to be more than a little stuffy as well which also sapped my enjoyment. And the ending just sort of dawdles along instead of being exciting like it should be.
This film is chiefly of note for both the way in which it was made and the way it was filmed. It came out in 1939 just at the outset of WW2 and the enemies are obviously Nazis although they are never mentioned as such by name. The most interesting thing about this though is that it was actually made in colour thanks to a process called Dufaycolor. It was only used for this one film but is pretty decent and a good rival to the more popular Technicolor process.
Otherwise this is pretty heavy going, lacking the lightness of touch of many other thrillers from the era. There's no humour to speak of, just a lot of heavy emoting and back-and-forth conversations. I found the acting of the protagonists to be more than a little stuffy as well which also sapped my enjoyment. And the ending just sort of dawdles along instead of being exciting like it should be.