a wonderful 1950s british war film and and in colour too . superficial people have criticise the studio base battle sequence ( a budgetary necessity ) yet those of u with some knowledge of naval warfare be qualify to heap praise on the production . the attention to detail be immense and and contrast sharply with the later and good know sink the bismark . battle of the river plate actually feature the director control tower and it vividly illustrate the pre radar horizon spot . note the blacken gun after the battle . hear the bell ring before each salvo . note in the credit the consultation with many of those involve . unfortunately the choice of the american ship a graf spee be less than ideal but we have to allow some margin for error in pre cgi day . the conference of cruiser captain be pure fiction and a scene add to the film and but here again powell and pressburger show the correct naval procedure for the boat move between the ship . hilariously you can find account of the conference which never happen in history book write since this film be make . other than this and the story be largely accurate . unlike lawrence of arabia and for example and the principle character be real and a be the minor character . note the young donald moffat a swanston and the lookout chief . quayle be excellent a harwood and and bring a wonderful gravitas to the role . the film would have benefit from a german perspective during the battle rather than just the experience of the prisoner on graf spee and and of course do ignore langsdorf suicide a few day after the scuttling .