1958 British war film by Leslie Norman
Dunkirk is a 1958 British war film directed by Leslie Norman that depicts the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II, and starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough, and Bernard Lee.[4][5] The film is based on the novels The Big Pick-Up by Elleston Trevor and Dunkirk co-authored by Lt Col Ewan Butler and Major J. S. Bradford.[6]
Plot
In May 1940, English journalist Charles Foreman strives to warn his complacent readers of the dangers posed by the build-up of German forces in western Europe. He rails against the Ministry of Information for suppressing the truth. Most of his compatriots, including his neighbour John Holden, have been lulled by the lack of significant fighting during the "Phoney War". Holden owns a garage, with a profitable side-line manufacturing belt buckles for the British Army.
Then the Battle of France begins, and the Germans advance rapidly, trapping Allied forces along the Channel coast. Lieutenant Lumpkin, Corporal "Tubby" Binns and a handful of men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) return from blowing up a bridge to find their division has withdrawn. The lieutenant speaks to a driver left behind for them, but both are killed in a German aerial attack before Binns can be apprised of the situation, leaving him in charge of four men (Privates Barlow, Bellman, Fraser and Russell) with no idea where their unit has gone. They abandon a main road blocked by refugees and reach a Royal Artillery battery camp. Fraser is killed when the battery repulses a German tank force. The officer commanding the battery orders Binns to head north with his men and two stragglers, Privates Harper and Miles, and try to find their unit. Just after they leave, they witness the battery being wiped out by Stuka dive bombers.
Meanwhile, the situation has become so desperate that BEF commander General Gort ignores orders to counterattack and instead positions his units for evacuation from Dunkirk. In England, Vice-Admiral Ramsay directs Operation Dynamo; the Admiralty begins commandeering all suitable civilian boats, including those owned by Foreman and Holden, to sail to Dunkirk to help evacuate troops from the beaches. The boats are marshalled at Sheerness. Foreman insists on taking his motorboat Vanity to Dunkirk himself, despite warnings of the danger. Other boat owners follow his example. After initial reluctance, Holden decides to take his boat Heron too, assisted by his teenage apprentice Frankie.
Binns and his men spend the night in an abandoned farmhouse, but at dawn, a German unit arrives; in the ensuing firefight, Bellman is badly wounded. The men escape, but Binns is forced to leave Bellman behind. Later, after slipping past a German camp under cover of darkness, they encounter an RAF lorry, manned by Airmen Froome and Pannet, and go with them to Dunkirk, where Allied troops are being subjected to regular aerial bombing and strafing. In the harbour, Binns and his men manage to board a ship, only for it to be sunk as it departs. Their prospects of rescue are made worse by the Admiralty's decision to withdraw its destroyers. Ramsay argues against the withdrawal, and the Admiralty reluctantly agrees to send them back.
Foreman and Holden ferry many soldiers to the larger vessels, but Foreman's boat is sunk by a bomber. He is picked up by Holden. With harbour operations no longer possible, thousands of Allied troops gather on the beaches. In the next Luftwaffe attack, Barlow is wounded and taken to an aid station. Heron's engine breaks down just off the beach. While Russell, a motor mechanic in civilian life, effects repairs, Foreman and Frankie go ashore to survey the scene. Next day, during church parade, Foreman is mortally wounded in an aerial attack. Russell completes his repairs, and Binns' group and six more soldiers board. Holden sets sail for home. At sea, the engine breaks down again and the boat drifts towards the German-held port of Calais. Fortunately, they are spotted by one of the returning destroyers and taken back to England.
Production
Beach sequences were shot at Camber Sands near Rye, East Sussex, and Dunkirk town centre was recreated using part of Rye Harbour. A canal-type bridge was temporarily constructed over the upper harbour, leading on to the quayside. It was over this bridge that the refugees and troops poured into the "town centre". Several scenes take place at this location, particularly a tracking shot following two British Army officers as they discuss the situation. In the background, the viewer can make out Rye Church and some old warehouses, still extant, albeit in much restored condition. One of the warehouses was used as the interior for the "Barn Scene".[citation needed] The scene where the bridge was blown during the early part of the film was on the River Medway at Teston Bridge, Teston in Kent.[7]
Director Leslie Norman later recalled:[2]
Dunkirk was bloody difficult to make from a logistics point of view. Yet it was made for £400,000 and came in under budget... I was the council school boy who became a major in the war, and that had a lot to do with the way I felt about Dunkirk. I didn't think that Dunkirk was a defeat; I always thought it was a very gallant effort but not a victory.
The musical score is by Malcolm Arnold, which may account for the fact that many of its segments sound very much like his Academy Award-winning theme from The Bridge on the River Kwai, made the previous year (1957).[citation needed]
Reception
The world premiere was at the Empire, Leicester Square, in London on 20 March 1958.[8]
The film was the third most popular production at the British box office in 1958, after Bridge on the River Kwai and The Vikings.[9][10] (Other accounts say it was the second, making $1,750,000.[11])
According to MGM records it earned only $310,000 in the US and Canada but $1,750,000 elsewhere; after distribution costs were deducted MGM earned a profit of $371,000.[1]
