Not many people realise what a great dramatic actor Gene Kelly could be when he occasionally hung up his tap dancing shoes and accepted the occasional straight role or two.
Although his 1942 movie debut was in a musical, he none the less spent his first two or three years in Hollywood, alternating between dramatic and musical roles almost with every picture. Who can forget his incarcerated French patriot in The Cross of Lorraine, The murderous and sinister husband in Christmas Holiday, or the vengeful orphan determined to bring down a mafia kingpin in 1950's Black Hand?
Seagulls over Sorrento, a British made film, is yet another example of Kelly's dramatic talents as he plays an American Naval Scientist on loan to the Royal Navy to help perfect a new top secret torpedo weapon. With him on this trip are two American seamen who just happen to be expert torpedo engineers.
Despite the weapon being stripped, checked, reassembled and checked again at least a dozen times over, it has none the less exploded immediately after launch on all it's previous sea trials killing everyone involved on what has become to be regarded as a suicide mission.
John Justin plays Kelly's British counterpart, who disapproves of Kelly butting his Yankee nose in, as he believes national pride is at stake.
There is also trouble between the ratings too, as the brave British Matlows and their brash American cousins rub each other up the wrong way from the start, a major bone of contention being that the Americans are there purely on engineering duties, whereby the British sailors are there for blowing themselves to smithereens on command for Queen and country duties.
This is also not helped by the only weak plot twist in the entire picture. There are only two American sailors and five British ratings, and by pure coincidence one of the yanks seems to be responsible for stealing one of the limey's girlfriends during the war. What were the chances of that? It's a small world you bet ya!
But despite this one criticism, where we the audience were expected to suspend disbelief a little too far I fear, the film is a good one, whereby the culture clashes and personal disputes are soon forgotten as both sides of the pond pull together to get the job done and get their blasted torpedo to work properly.
Bernard Lee, Jeff Richards, Sid James, Fredd Wayne and David Orr, all lend great support to what essentially a very entertaining and thrilling movie. Don't write this one off just because the main body of it involves oil and overalls it really is quite good.
Although his 1942 movie debut was in a musical, he none the less spent his first two or three years in Hollywood, alternating between dramatic and musical roles almost with every picture. Who can forget his incarcerated French patriot in The Cross of Lorraine, The murderous and sinister husband in Christmas Holiday, or the vengeful orphan determined to bring down a mafia kingpin in 1950's Black Hand?
Seagulls over Sorrento, a British made film, is yet another example of Kelly's dramatic talents as he plays an American Naval Scientist on loan to the Royal Navy to help perfect a new top secret torpedo weapon. With him on this trip are two American seamen who just happen to be expert torpedo engineers.
Despite the weapon being stripped, checked, reassembled and checked again at least a dozen times over, it has none the less exploded immediately after launch on all it's previous sea trials killing everyone involved on what has become to be regarded as a suicide mission.
John Justin plays Kelly's British counterpart, who disapproves of Kelly butting his Yankee nose in, as he believes national pride is at stake.
There is also trouble between the ratings too, as the brave British Matlows and their brash American cousins rub each other up the wrong way from the start, a major bone of contention being that the Americans are there purely on engineering duties, whereby the British sailors are there for blowing themselves to smithereens on command for Queen and country duties.
This is also not helped by the only weak plot twist in the entire picture. There are only two American sailors and five British ratings, and by pure coincidence one of the yanks seems to be responsible for stealing one of the limey's girlfriends during the war. What were the chances of that? It's a small world you bet ya!
But despite this one criticism, where we the audience were expected to suspend disbelief a little too far I fear, the film is a good one, whereby the culture clashes and personal disputes are soon forgotten as both sides of the pond pull together to get the job done and get their blasted torpedo to work properly.
Bernard Lee, Jeff Richards, Sid James, Fredd Wayne and David Orr, all lend great support to what essentially a very entertaining and thrilling movie. Don't write this one off just because the main body of it involves oil and overalls it really is quite good.