Sailor of the King

Jeffrey Hunter sparkles in this film. I only wish it were on DVD! From the moment he appears on the screen he has the audience in his pocket. Strangely, the film has two endings - one happy, the other sad. Audiences were asked to vote for which one they liked best. I am astonished that this fine actor has fallen out of public favour and so little of his work is available on video. He had real charisma and charm. And he could act. It's about time someone presented a Jeffrey Hunter season on TV.

Jeffrey Hunter is very good in this splendid account of a British seaman who pits himself single-handedly in a desperate battle against a huge German warship. Slow-moving at first, the action builds inexorably into a grand and (at least for me) very satisfactory climax. Who cares about realism when you can have this much fun? Michael Rennie (one of my favorite actors) is well-cast in his role, and Bernard Lee (you might know him as James Bond's chief) is also very good. If you see this movie and enjoy it, you might also be interested in Peter O'Toole's "Murphy's War", which is quite similar in many respects. I rate this good old movie 7.5 out of 10.