Suicide Mission (1954) User Reviews

Lively stiff-upper-lip war movie.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 10 March 2007]

Running guns and other war supplies in fishing boats from Britain to Norway, challenging Nazi airplanes, spies, and above all the North Sea. The print I saw was grainy and poor but the film still gives one the sense of what it's like to be at sea in rough weather and under dangerous conditions.

The acting is perfunctory. The dialog clipped and functional. The moral message a little retro, considering the year of its release. The Germans are uniformly evil minded.

But one can't complain. The action is tense and graphic. And realistic too. Lifeboats don't look as if they're made for a movie. They look as if they're made to survive at sea, clinker built and sturdy as can be.

No character development or complexity but maybe none is necessary to draw a viewer into an unpretentious tale of wartime bravery.

Arms for Bergen

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 1 January 2021]

The English title implies something more like 'The Heroes of Telemark', but it's actually a much more sober affair that one might have taken for a wholly Norwegian production dubbed into English save for a dashing young Michael Aldridge (also obviously post-synced) interacting with the native cast; although he's absent from the atmospheric sea footage and the scenes shot in Bergen itself depicting the activities of the wartime Norwegian resistance.

A true story about a unique Norwegian-British underground group in WW II

[SimonJack · 7/10 · 26 June 2023]

"Suicide Mission" is a Norwegian and British film about an underground group inn World War II that operated between Norway and Scotland. It's a true story based on a book by a former British naval officer and author and historian, David Howarth. The original European release bore the title, "The Shetland Gang," which was similar to the book title, "The Shetland Bus."

The clandestine group of Norwegian sailors used their small fishing boats to ferry refugees from the Nazis across the North Sea to the United Kingdom. On return trips, they smuggled weapons, ammunition and explosives for use by the Norwegian resistance. This film is unique among films about WW II. Several of the members of the actual Shetland Bus play themselves. That includes Leif Larsen, the leader of the group, and 15 others in the cast.

The film may seem slow to those in modern audiences who crave constant action and motion. But, it's a very good look at one of the many civilian underground groups that existed in Europe to thwart Adolph Hitler and the Nazis.

The opening prologue for the film calls the group the Norwegian Naval Independent Unit No 1, and describes the group and its mission. "More than 100 Norwegians and Brits worked together in the Shetland Group. Their job was to keep an open link between occupied Norway and the free world. It can't show every destiny, but we salute them all."

History students, war film buffs, and those who enjoy films of all kinds should find this movie interesting.

Excellent film of unhearalded war

[malcolmgsw · 7/10 · 10 March 2021]

This is a totally unknown film.It deals with Norweigan boats that ran between Norway and The Shetland Islands in world war 2.It was made by Norwegians mainly and dubbed into English.At times it has the feel of Pat Jackson's. Western Approaches.It just shows what films are gathering dust in the archives awaiting a showing.

Will they survive the impossible conditions?

[jsinton-3 · 8/10 · 17 February 2007]

A truly exciting war picture, probably the most realistic picture I've ever seen. Virtually all the main actors are the actual people portrayed in the events, and the settings appear also to be genuine. I don't think you could make such a picture any better. I was on the edge of my seat for the whole movie.

Larsen and his loyal crew make the run on small fishing vessels from Norway. They wish to run guns to fight the resistance against the Nazi occupation of Norway. The stormy and cold North Sea is a bleak and inhospitable place even in peaceful times. The resistance fighters boats, lightly armed, must evade German planes, brave the stormy weather, and dodge collaborators. Will they survive the impossible conditions? It's as exciting as they come. A great watch for the true war movie lover.

A gem

[skwearing · 8/10 · 6 October 2021]

Something rare and authentic about this slightly amateurish (I mean that as a compliment) WW2 naval story.

My father served in the Royal Navy during WW2 (including the Arctic convoys) and I think the film captures something of the spirit and the time which a more modern, bigger budget film would miss.

The Germans take a hell of a beating

[timwestcott · 8/10 · 24 July 2023]

This post-war, low-budget film portrays the 'Shetland Bus' service which transported agents and weapons from the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland to Norway, the other side of a stormy and hazardous sea. Initially, trawlers were used, crewed by Norwegians (the film simply refers to them as 'Vikings').

Leif Larsen, who was involved in the actual service, plays himself, and the events of the film appear to be fairly closely based on fact. While Michael Aldridge, playing the RNVR officer commanding the base, is a familiar face, most of the actors are amateurs, like Larsen.

For me, the amateur cast is less of a problem than the script: Larsen is actually really good, the commanding presence that he was (by all accounts) in real life, and the other Vikings are also excellent - especially the cheerful crewman whose unconventional headgear raises the eyebrows of a visiting Admiral. The dialogue is poor, a mix of exposition of Downton Abbey proportions and tepid banter.

The film's US title was 'Suicide Mission', but the film makers (the director was the little-known Michael Forlong, who wrote the screenplay with Sidney Cole from a novel by David Howarth) opted for a lighthearted tone. The dangers the Vikings faced were considerable: attack from the air German planes, betrayal by Quislings in Norway, and the North Sea itself.

All of these threats are played out in the storyline, and the action sequences of the film - and the shots of trawlers contending with massive waves - are the best part. Larsen completed more than 40 missions and was decorated more times than any other non-British person and any other merchant seaman.

Great war reality drama. So many incredible elements.

[mark.waltz · 10/10 · 28 September 2022]

This deals with the struggles of a Norwegian fishing boat (from an island off of the mainland) which during World War II smuggles Jewish refugees to England with threats of Nazi dangers (and all sorts of natural threats) surrounding them. Done in a semi-documentary style (with some of the actual participants), this is a straight forward story that isn't lavish, but manages to get each of the characters some sensational development that makes it all the more real.

This is the type of film that grabs the audience from the start, especially since this particular voyage deals with the travels of Jewish children to England, one of whom is not physically well. Probably one of the least known post-war movies, yet one deservingly necessary. It's also the type of film that the less you know, the better. I'm glad this was done the way it is because it's more powerful without well-known actors in the cast. Stunning location footage and photography and a glorious musical score. Absolutely sumptuous.