Star rating: **** Dir: David Lean and Noel Coward With: Noel Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles
A season of digitally restored classics by the great British filmmaker David Lean continues with his first directorial effort, a robust slice of wartime propaganda co-directed with star and playwright Noel Coward. It's the tale of a Second World War destroyer and its crew, whose lives we're given snapshots of as they cling to a life-raft after their vessel is sunk.
Less a war film than a film about community spirit, Lean's debut is a wonderfully uplifting and technically accomplished picture. Other painstaking restored titles in the season include Brief Encounter, the Dickens adaptations Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, and Madeleine, the true-life murder drama set in Victorian Glasgow.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh, tomorrow.
