The Battle of the River Plate (1956) on Netflix
NR19561h 59mActionAdventureDrama
The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee roams the Atlantic in the early months of World War II, sinking Allied merchant ships. Commodore Henry Harwood leads three cruisers to hunt her.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.6/105,541 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the early months of World War II, Nazi Germany sends merchant raiders into the Atlantic to attack Allied shipping, and the Royal Navy forms hunting groups to stop them. One raider, the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee under Captain Hans Langsdorff, has been sinking merchant ships, and prisoners taken from the crews are held aboard her; among them is Captain Patrick Dove of the Africa Shell. Three British cruisers led by Commodore Henry Harwood find the German ship off South America. Graf Spee's eleven-inch guns outrange the cruisers' six- and eight-inch armament, so the British close the distance and attack from different directions to split her fire.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Battle of the River Plate (1956)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
The film only obliquely hints at what became of Captain Hans Langsdorff after he scuttled the Admiral Graf Spee. In reality he lay atop the ship's battle ensign in a Buenos Aires naval hotel and shot himself, to forestall allegations that he had avoided further battle action through cowardice.- The US Navy would not allow Nazi insignia on the cruiser USS Salem, which played the Admiral Graf Spee, so the German flag being hoisted and flown was filmed on a British ship. The Navy also refused the filmmakers permission to use German helmets, so the crew wear US Navy pattern helmets.
- Location shooting for the Admiral Graf Spee's arrival and departure used the port of Montevideo and thousands of local extras, but the scenes of the ship sailing from Montevideo were shot in the Grand Harbour at Valletta in Malta, and the launch taking Captain McCall out to HMS Ajax was filmed at Mġarr harbor on Gozo.
- For the battle hits and the blowing-up of the Admiral Graf Spee, the producers used a 23 ft model of the American cruiser USS Salem, detailed only on the side being shot, in a 6 ft-deep tank at Pinewood Studios; the explosion was assembled from multiple takes shot from different angles.
- Left out of the film is a piece of the real battle's history: the British Government secretly arranged for French and British merchant ships to leave Montevideo harbor every 24 hours to delay the Admiral Graf Spee's departure.
