Though this true-life Second World War drama hardly rates alongside A Matter of Life and Death and The Red Shoes on the CV of writing/producing/directing duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, it is a tale well told and features some impressive location work - not least at sea in the Mediterranean. Peter Finch pulls off a noble German officer (no mean feat in a British war film, even in the 1950s), captain of pocket battleship Graf Spee, the pursuit of which forms the basis of the action. Despite a surfeit of naval detail and some rather obvious shipboard sets, the climax in Montevideo makes it worthwhile viewing.

In the early years of the World War II, the Royal Navy is fighting a desperate battle to keep the Atlantic convoy routes open to supply the British Isles, facing the great danger posed by the many German warships, such as the Admiral Graf Spee, which are scouring the ocean for cargo ships to sink.