Sons of the Sea (1941)

Emeric Pressburger was one of the scenarists on the big-budget British seafaring saga Atlantic Ferry. The film is a romanticized recounting of the first-ever steamship crossing of the Atlantic in 1837. Michael Redgrave and Griffith Jones star as the MacIver brothers (the film is based on a story by one of the MacIver progeny). The siblings battle both the Atlantic and (whenever a woman is involved) each other, but they achieve their goal, making shipping lanes safe for steam power. Inasmuch as the film was made at the outbreak of World War 2, the filmmakers contrive to rabbet a bit of anti-German propaganda into the proceedings. "Has considerable gusto" was the New York Post's pithy critique of this morale-boosting film. The huge cast includes such British-movie stalwarts as Valerie Hobson, Bessie Love, Frederick Leister and Felix Aylmer. Atlantic Ferry was distributed in the US by Warner Bros. under the title Sons of the Sea. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi