ianlouisiana Review of We Dive at Dawn

We Dive at Dawn (1943)

The film "In which we serve" should have been..................

[8/10 · 5 May 2010]

This is the film "In which we serve" should have been.Unfortunately Mr Coward's starry - eyed love letter to Mountbatten was woodenly directed and totally dominated by "The Master"'s ludicrously mannered performance whereas Puffin Asquith is like David Lean without the pomposity and directs with real flair.This is particularly praiseworthy as he was working completely within the boundaries of propaganda(as was - to be fair,Mr Lean - but Asquith managed to avoid the worst excesses of stereotyping),in particular with his lower deck characters none of whom are the plaster saints so memorably patronised by Mr Coward. The wonderful Mr John Mills is excellent as the submarine commander,posh,yes,they tended to be,but not precious.Never apart from here have I seen a propaganda film where the captain gets shirty with his crew,but you can be sure it happened and it's rather remarkable that in 1942 it should have been shown in cinemas throughout a besieged country. The interior scenes of the submarine in combat have a documentary feel that Asquith's elders and betters failed manifestly to capture. Yes,Mr Portman's northern accent is a bit dodgy at times and his mastery of several languages is never explained,but he typifies what was seen then as typical British "grit",not to say bloody mindedness. "We dive at dawn" deserves to be far better known and is a very good example of a thoughtful,well - made propaganda film.