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Sink the Bismarck / The Enemy Below (Double Pack) [1960]


RRP: £14.99
Our Price: £5.18 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

The Enemy Below and Sink the Bismarck! form a double feature of semi-classic CinemaScope-era WWII naval dramas sailing from the Fox vault onto DVD for the first time.

In The Enemy Below Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens are respectively captains of a US destroyer and a German U-boat whose vessels come into conflict in the South Atlantic. Both are good men with a job to do, the script noting Jurgens' distaste for Hitler and the Nazis and engaging our sympathy with the German sailors almost as much as the Americans. Made at the height of the Cold War of the 1950s, the film delivers a liberal message of cooperation wrapped inside some spectacular action scenes and a story that builds to a tense and exciting, moving finale.

Sink the Bismarck! is a British film dating from three years later and adopts a more documentary style in recounting the race against time to track and destroy what was in 1941 the most powerful battleship then built, the Bismarck. Shot in gleaming black and white so as to make use of genuine WWII archive footage, the film is held together by the introduction of a fictional naval officer in overall command of the operation, played excellently by Kenneth More. To add some human warmth he is given a tentative romantic subplot with a WREN played by the luminous Dana Wynter. Though initially slow to gather steam, Sink the Bismarck! finally delivers an epic, thoroughly horrifying conclusion.

On the DVD: The Enemy Below and Sink the Bismarck! come as a two-disc set with multiple language and subtitle options, including English for Hard of Hearing, but no extras other than the original trailers. These are presented at 16:9 and 2.35:1. Both are rather faded, but are fine examples of an era when watching the previews didn't guarantee a migraine. Both films are anamorphically enhanced in their original 2.35:1 CinemaScope, and, bar a little grain in some shots and the inevitably inferior archive footage, the picture quality is excellent. The Enemy Below boasts sturdy three-channel sound (left, front, right) while Sink the Bismarck! is in very well mixed stereo. --Gary S Dalkin


Two Classic War Films
Review date: 2007-02-10 Rating: 10 out of 10

Two very good war films made within three years of each other. One British, the other American.

First things first, Sink The Bismarck is one of those stiff upper lip films exploring the conflict between the Royal Navy and the German Battleship Bismarck which was at that time one of the largest ships ever built. Kenneth More plays Captain Jonathan Shepherd, the director of operations who is given the uneviable task of trapping and the eventual sinking of this great ship. There is a great tragedy along the way with the terrible loss of HMS Hood which was blown up during an engagement with the Bismarck in the Denmarck Strait, only three survivors being picked up. This tragedy made it imeprative that the Bismarck had to be sunk at all costs. It was eventually sunk by numerous British ships off the French Coast. The final scenes showing its destruction are harrowing to watch. Supplemented with actual archive footage, and Ed Murrow playing himself adding a news commentary during certain scenes give the film an almost documentary feel. Alright, some of the ships are plainly models, but that doesnt distract from the film itself. Filmed in widescreen, black and white, with good print and sound. Worth seeing.

The Enemy Below made earlier in 1957 has remained one of those classic war films which is still enjoyable today. Some critics have pointed out that it may be too Hollywood, and not really a true reflection of war as it was at that time. But I did find this a very human drama, played out between two opposing captains, engaged in a cat and mouse chase between an American destroyer commanded by Robert Mitchum and a German Submarine commanded by Curt Jurgens. There is much tension in this film, with decent pace, and a finale where for a time, war is forgotten, and the opposing captains reconcile whilst trying to survive amidst the wreckage of their various vessals. The ending is quite moving as both sides come together to bury, remember and pay tribute to their fallen comrades.

Filmed in colour, widescreen, with decent sound. A very good buy indeed.

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Reviews


Sink The Bismark
Review date: 2004-09-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

I bought this DVD as it is the story of the Royal Navy's desperate (but successful) attempt to sink the German Pocket Battleship "Bismark". The stories of the various people in the war rooms at the Admiralty - in particular their private lives - merely bring home what was really at stake here.

good films
Review date: 2004-06-24 Rating: 8 out of 10

The British film stands up better by the realism of the story and the action sequences. The American film is too much "Hollywood", it just does not sit right. Apart from the u-boat's luxury(?), the American destroyer seemed bigger than it should be. The acting is good, but the lack of realism spoils it,in my humble opinion! A fairly decent way to spend an evening, for both films. And of course Dana Wynters looks good too!

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Kenneth More
Curd Jürgens
Robert Mitchum
David Hedison
Dana Wynter

Creators:
Robert Mitchum (Primary Contributor)
Kenneth More (Primary Contributor)
Dick Powell (Producer)
John Brabourne (Producer)
C.S. Forester (Writer)
D.A. Rayner (Writer)
Edmund H. North (Writer)
Wendell Mayes (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036012089
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: Box set, Black & White, Colour, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2003-06-02
Number of discs: 2
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 190 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1960-02-11
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: German (Original Language)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: German (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: Italian (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)

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