CONVOY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 81, 10 January 1941, Page 14

CONVOY

(A.T.P.)

HAVE an idea that "Convoy" would have been a greater success if it had been wholly documentary or alternatively had cancentrated an t¢+ha eters

ath the? ae ras As it is, it is a little indistinct, and the result is that when you are most gripped

by the really excellent shots of the Navy on convoy, you are suddenly dragged back to the sad affair of John Clements, who once ran away with Clive Brook’s wife, and now, by a Queer Coincidence, is posted to Mr. (Flotilla Captain) Brook’s light cruiser. And just when you are waiting for the girl to turn up (as she is bound to), back we go on convoy duty,

A more particular complaint attaches to the credibility of certain aspects of the story. A not-the-most-modern ’plane from a British light cruiser, for instance, gives a thorough fright to the pocket battleship: Deutschland by diving down within a few feet of her decks and spraying her bridge with machine-gun fire. From the little I know of such matters, I gather it is a safe bet that the Deutschland’s anti-aircraft fire would not have permitted such audacity. And again, one of His Majesty’s light cruisers is represented as battering the Deutschland unmercifully and putting her to flight unaided. I have the impression that it is considered rash in the extreme

for lone light cruisers to engage pocket battleships. Still, there was no saying what a light cruiser would do after the Battle of the River Plate, I hope I do not sound too captious, or maybe such details don’t matter very much after all. It may be the result of playing too much Naval Battle Tactics, my favourite game these days. It is played with a large map, and models of warships; one side is six Italian battleships, and the other is a British cruiser, You toss up, and the winner has first throw of the dice, which means that... However, let us return to our Convoy, which is nearly in port. As I have indicated, there is a certain to-do between John Clements and Clive Brook, and the whole circumstances of the affair suggest that the Admiralty should examine the private lives of young officers before posting them on active service. It stands to reason efficiency must suffer when a young lieutenant has to sit at the same table as the man whose wife he has lately stolen, In this case it ends up happily, The runaway wife, who had also run away

from the lieutenant, sets everything right, and Lieutenant Clements shows that he is True Blue by flooding the magazine in the nick of time. "Convoy" is exciting stuff, and I am particularly glad to see Clive Brook getting such a good part. There is a small but delightfully drawn sketch by Hay Petrie, as the minesweeper captain who is more interested in fishing. "Convoy" is at its best, though, when the cameraman is given a free hand with the sea, the clouds, and the Royal Navy.