The Battle of the River Plate (1956)

The Battle of the River Plate is a 1956 British war film by writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring John Gregson, Anthony Quayle and Peter Finch. In the United States the film was retitled Pursuit of the Graf Spee.

The film is about the Battle of the River Plate, a real naval battle of 1939 between a Royal Navy force of three cruisers and the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.

Synopsis

In the early months of the Second World War, Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine sends out merchant raiders to attack Allied shipping. The Royal Navy responds with hunting groups whose mission is to stop them. The group that finds the heavily armed pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee near South America is outgunned: Graf Spee is equipped with long-range 11-inch guns, while the British heavy cruiser Exeter has much lighter 8-inch guns, and the light cruisers Ajax and Achilles have 6-inch guns. Despite this, they go straight to the attack.

Actors