This is a splendid British film concerning historic deeds during WWII , the naval battle in the South Atlantic between British cruiser squadron of three ships and the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee , Dic 1939 . The main and secondary cast are stunningly incarnated by a magnificent plethora of English actors . The film contains a colorful and glimmer cinematography by Christopher Challis and an atmospheric musical score . The movie is well produced by Archers production and professionally directed by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell . The motion picture will appeal to warlike genre buffs and British classic movie fans . Rating : Better than average .

The film is based on true events , these are the following : Though the British cruisers were no match for the battleship , Admiral Sir Henry Harwood (Anthony Quayle) launched an attack to Graf Spee (with 6 cannons,280 mm) . German fire seriously damaged HMS Exeter (commanded by John Cregson as captain Bell) with cannons 203mm , put half of HMS Ajax (captain Woodhouse played by Ian Hunter)'s guns out of action , and then damaged Achilles (cannons 152 mm) , but the cruisers did sufficient damage to the German ship to make its captain break off and run for shelter in Montevideo , Uruguay . The British followed and waited in international waters outside the neutral port . The Uruguay government ordered the Germans to leave after 72 hours . The British cruisers called Royal and Renown were near from Montevideo and Langsdorff (Peter Finch) didn't wait possibilities to vanquish . Hitler , reluctant to risk the Graf Spee being sunk by heavier British warship which were sailing for the River Plate , ordered the captain to scuttle the vessel . He did so 17 Dec 1939 and three days later shot himself .

If you'd like to see how talk and diplomatic maneuvering in the hands of two masterful filmmakers can turn what could have been a routine action movie into something special, try Powell and Pressburger's The Battle of the River Plate. It's late 1939 and WWII has started. The German pocket battleship Graf Spee is wreaking havoc with British shipping. Three British cruisers led by Commodore Henry Harwood (John Quayle) are in pursuit. Harwood makes an educated guess that Captain Hans Langsdorff (Peter Finch) will head toward South America for one last series of kills before returning home. He's right, and the first part of the movie is a brutal sea battle between the Graf Spee, which has 11-inch guns and hits harder, farther and faster than anything the British have, and HMS Exeter, HMNZS Achilles and HMS Ajax. They are determined to kill the Graf Spee, even though they only have 6-inch and 8- inch guns. The result? Exeter is badly damaged and must try to make it to the Falklands. Achilles and Ajax are damaged, too, but so is the Graf Spee. Langsdorff disengages and heads for neutral Montevideo, trailed by Achilles and Ajax.

And now we get to the heart of the movie. Under the laws of the sea, Langsdorff has two days to make the Graf Spee seaworthy before he must return to sea. He is low on ammunition. If he leaves the harbor with guns blazing he just might be able to take out Ajax and Achilles. After first working to insure Langsdorff is given no more time to affect repairs, the British realize that there is a chance that at least one British ship, a heavy cruiser, could arrive in time for battle. That would change the odds dramatically against Langsdorff. So now the British cleverly set false rumors that British warships are just beyond the horizon and ready for battle. They've placed Langsdorff in a crucial dilemma. If, he thinks, he leaves harbor now he faces a strengthened British force and will probably loose. If he waits for further repairs the situation won't improve. He could make a dash for Buenos Aires, not far away. Although Argentina is neutral it is friendly to Germany. But the channel is narrow and shallow. If the Graf Spee goes aground it will be a sitting target for the reinforced British. Langsdorff has no stomach for the fiery and pointless death of his sailors. All this is played out in meetings, telephone conversations and messages, all swirling around the diplomats of three countries, Britain, Germany and Uruguay. Langsdorff has little time to decide. Thanks to the British setting up false rumors, his choices all seem poor. But perhaps, in Langsdorff's mind, an immediate attempt at escape might be the least unattractive. He realizes there is a further choice, which is unexpected.

Powell and Pressburger have given us a clever film without clichés. No tearful wives, no anxious or two-timing sweethearts, no sailors used as lower-class comedy relief, no noble sacrifices to save others and no slimy Nazis. Powell uses the device of captured British captains held on the Graf Spee as a way to give us matter-of-fact interplay between the British and the Germans. One captured captain is used as a means for Langsdorff to explain to him (and Powell and Pressburger to explain to us) what the Graf Spee does, how strong it is, how it is supplied and the kind of man Langsdorff is. Powell and Pressburger use the discussions between Harwood and his fighting captains to help us understand Harwood's strategy and the battle tactics he's employing. The battle itself, filmed in the Mediterranean using ships from the navies of Britain and other countries, including a heavy cruiser from the U.S. to stand in for the Graf Spee, is dramatically and efficiently filmed. Almost no models were used except at the explosive conclusion.

But it is the "inaction" half of this action movie which is so cleverly worked out. Powell and Pressburger manage to keep us highly involved with the diplomatic to-and-froing. The fact that the people of Montevideo were fascinated with this giant German pocket battleship in their harbor is played to the hilt. The fate of the Graf Spee at the conclusion of the movie is watched from the harbor walls by thousands, all the while an American broadcaster is giving to radio listeners a description of what is occurring. It's quite an effective scene...and it actually happened.

The Battle of the River Plate, if made by anyone other than Powell and Pressburger, might well be seen as a quirky classic of its genre. But the great films of these two were in the past. They would make one more movie the next year, a film Powell called nothing more than a programmer, and they would then go, still friends, their separate ways. The partnership that gave us The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes, I Know Where I'm Going, A Canterbury Tale and Black Narcissus was over. We're left with these great and wonderful films. If The Battle of the River Plate is not one of them, it still is an effective, professional and clever movie, and so typical of the way these two men avoided conventionality.

The Battle of the River Plate is an almost documentary like account of the battle of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee with three allied cruisers and what happened to her subsequently. Heading the small mini fleet was Captain Anthony Quayle and the German captain of the Graf Spee was played by Peter Finch.

December of 1939 was the period known as the 'phony war'. Poland had been overrun by the Nazis and the British and French forces were on the continent safely behind the Maginot line or so they thought at the time. What action there was at this time was on the sea with various naval engagements here and there.

The Graf Spee was doing one number on British commerce in the South Atlantic. It sank nine British merchant vessels, but her captain was no Nazi. He observed the rules of war strictly, picked up sailors from the sunken vessels and all reported good treatment at his hands. When he did reach Montevideo he let all the British sailors go. Sad to say this was not something repeated during World War II.

In any event two British and one New Zealand cruiser, the Ajax, the Achilles and the Exeter took on the Graf Spee and fought it to a bloody standstill. The British were lucky to have facilities at the Falkland Islands for repair. But the Graf Spee headed for Montevideo which was neutral territory at the time.

I'm not quite sure why they did not make for the friendlier shores of Buenos Aires on the River Plate. Even though Juan Peron had not taken charge in Argentina, it was still friendlier to the Germans than Uruguay was. Possibly Finch's character Lansdorff knew the history of Uruguay, a country founded as a neutral buffer state between Argentina and Brazil. In any event the Uruguayans operated correctly under the assumption that they would be at war sooner or later with the Germans as indeed were all the Latin American countries except Argentina after Pearl Harbor. The Graf Spee would have made quite the prize indeed.

As German, British, and Uruguayan diplomats tried to negotiate, Finch took action and blew up the Graf Spee in the middle of the River Plate. The Nazi propaganda machine made him a martyr which in fact he was and the British public was given something to cheer about in those beginning days of World War II.

Finch and Quayle give good performances as a pair of gallant adversaries and The Battle Of The River Plate is a fine war film from the United Kingdom in which even the enemy behaved gallantly.