PT Raiders Reviews

With a highly original premise taken from the Saturday Evening Post story by Monsarrat, this movie starts in an exciting fashion and seldom slows down to take on more fuel. McKenna and Baker are married during WW II. When she dies in an air raid, Baker is heartbroken. He runs one of the fast gunboats that race in and out of German waters doing various bits of sabotage, blowing up airfields and engaging in exciting missions. Baker's ship, His Majesty's Motor Gun Boat 1087, is of little use when the war ends, and he, too, has nothing to do except mourn his late wife. Baker is contacted by Attenborough and Owen, two of his crew members, and they propose to get 1087 back and use it in a surreptitious fashion that won't hurt anyone, just bring some needed goods to the people who will pay for them. The men buy their old, trusty boat and engage in smuggling across the English Channel. At first, it's the usual stuff: nylons, booze, and various other hard-to-get items. The money begins to pour in, and Attenborough becomes avaricious, using the boat to ferry counterfeit money and contraband weapons. Baker is against this new turn of events but is in too deep to get out. Greed takes over and a mutiny takes place aboard the ship. Their enemy, Culver, is killed, and when Attenborough and Baker have a fight, the former falls overboard. The title is derived from the last sequence, when the boat seems to rebel against all the illegal doings aboard her. The engines misfire, the steering becomes difficult and the ship finally aims for the rocks where it commits suicide out of shame rather than be put to any further illicit usage. Baker and Owen swim to safety and vow never to engage in such matters again as 1087 is pounded to shards and splinters in the angry sea. An unusual film from Ealing Studios, which had been known for comedy in that era. The Rank Organization released it in England and it came around in the US released by two different distributors at different times.