The Fifties were Jose Ferrer's peak years as an actor and he was getting acclaim for all kinds of roles he was trying out. Ferrer has never been thought of as an action hero, but in a film in which he directed himself The Cockleshell Heroes, Ferrer is outstanding in a part that someone like Clint Eastwood would have been more identified with.This was one impossible mission given to the Royal Marines. I'm sure rowing crew at Oxford would have gotten one a starring birth on this squad. The idea here is to demolish German ships in the port of Bordeaux and render the harbor useless. The problem is that Bordeaux ain't on the coast, it's up the Gironde River.In an amphibious operation the idea is for a picked bunch of Royal Marines to row kayak like canoes up the river after having been landed by submarine at the coast under cover of darkness. The canoes are there to insure silence so that no unaccounted for motors are heard on the river. Then the Marines are to attach mines to the various ships and hopefully they will blow up and the Marines would escape inland with the help of the French Resistance.Sounds absolutely impossible, but it really did happen. The film takes us through the training and the mission and most of the Marines are killed. This was typical back in the day, get a known American star for a British production to insure international distribution. In Ferrer's case having one of the great speaking voices ever in film, he could be acceptably British for the audience.Ferrer the director got some great performances out of Ferrer the actor and the rest of his cast, particularly Trevor Howard as his second in command and administrative officer. Howard was the best in the cast, a tough man with a deep secret, he failed under fire just as World War I was ending and has a black mark on him. He gets a second chance 25 years later in another war. Also to be noted is David Lodge the young Royal Marine who goes AWOL to settle some trouble back home with an unfaithful wife in Beatrice Campbell.The film bears some resemblance to The Dirty Dozen and The Devil's Brigade, American productions from the next decade. But these Royal Marines weren't misfits made into a fighting force. They were some of the best of that generation who went on a mission impossible knowing that they most likely would not come back. And it's to them and the rest of the Royal Marines that this American dedicates this review to.

A romanticized and entertaining account of a very daring raid. These piratical exploits seem to suit something in the British psyche.Colonel 'Blondie' Haslar, the leader of the raid, became a well-known sailor after WW2. I was told that after discovering he had incurable cancer, he set sail alone for the Antarctic fully intending to die doing what he loved best. He was never seen again. Perhaps a reader could confirm this.You can read the report online in the Navy News of the December 9, 2002, of the death of Bill Sparks, the last survivor of the raid. There is a walking trail in France named after him, which follows the escape route he took through that country to neutral Spain.

I was ten-years-old, growing up during the war in England, when this, and other raids were being made against the Nazis.In 1955, I had completed a three-year enlistment with the U.S. Marines, and therefore extremely interested in commando-style warfare."Cockleshell Heroes" was entertaining, even though Columbia Pictures capitalized on a suicide mission and glorified it, thus overlooking the rugged training, and horrible cost in lives.Nonetheless, glory aside, the film triumphantly displays loyalty, dedication, that is the trademark of the Royal Marines. But after reading the first person account of the raid, you don't really appreciate what these heroic men did until you read the book.The first misconception given in the film is that this was a commando unit, when in fact, the dozen selected, were regular Marines who volunteered. The hardships endured don't come across as hard in the movie as they do in the book. The loss of food, inability to move for hours at a stretch, not able to relieve themselves, are just a few of the oversights that would have shown the ruggedness of the mission.However, even with some sour notes, I still like the film for showing the Marines as one of the best fighting forces in the world.

This is in fact a true story. It was a raid that was authorised byMountbatten in 1942. The names of the characters are changed. There was such a raid called operation Frankton that was executed in winter months. The movie is no doubt an exaggeration in many parts but certainly creates a lot of suspense. Of all the performances the only strong one is that of Trevor Howard who delivers his character extremely well on screen. His relationship with his commanding officer is in many ways the centre piece of the film. I can understand why people unaware of the raid would find this film implausible. But I can assure this was a real episode brought to the big screen. The raiders in real life did endure extreme hardship.